Brands Hatch: F1's beloved countryside amphitheatre
On this day in 1964, the roar of F1 engines echoed through the Kent countryside for the first time, as Brands Hatch made its debut on the world stage
As a young boy Corrado Lopresto played among some of the finest cars owned and collected in Italy. His family, related to some of the country’s biggest landowners, stored every car they had owned. This set off a lifetime of motoring passion.
Buying his first car at the age of 18 (a “Balilla”) he begun to enjoy the restoration process and searched for more cars to work on. One of these, a Fiat 1100, turned out to be a rare ministerial car, which led to a passion for hunting down unique cars and prototypes. Corrado would make efforts to return these cars to their initial configurations. This included keeping original parts in the cars rather than replacing them with modern versions in order to keep the initial philosophy of the cars’ designers.
Among the gems of his collection are a Cisitalia D46/48 which was raced by Tazio Nuvolari at the 1948 Monaco Grand Prix – his last laps of the circuit – before retiring due to sickness on lap 16, and an Alfa Romeo 6C 2500 driven in the 1950 Carrera Panamerica by Felice Bonetto and Bruno Bonini, finishing in 8th place, just 51 seconds off the lead.
The video below is of Corrado in conversation with Credit Suisse, describing and showing off his wonderful collection of cars which have won over 200 awards. There is also further information on the Lopresto Collection.
To find further classic content from Credit Suisse click here.
On this day in 1964, the roar of F1 engines echoed through the Kent countryside for the first time, as Brands Hatch made its debut on the world stage
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