Gallery: Vintage Race Cars Brandish Beauty and Speed at Silverstone
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The Silverstone Classic bills itself as "the world’s biggest classic racing festival." With more than 7,000 cars spanning the history of motorsports, we're not about to argue. Anything and everything worth seeing or driving descended on Britain's storied Silverstone circuit on July 22 for a glorious weekend of racing. These cars aren't trailer queens. They're driven, and often driven hard. More than 1,000 competed in the weekend's racing as everything from Bugattis to McLarens lapped the famous track. British photographer [Rowan Horncastle](http://www.twitter.com/motormorph) filled a few SD cards with photos of what our good friends at [Jalopnik called a "retrogasm."](http://jalopnik.com/5825576/all-the-sexy-retro-cars-from-this-years-silverstone-classic/gallery/) We've picked 12 of our favorites. You can see [225 photos from the Silverstone Classic 2011](http://www.flickr.com/photos/motormorph/sets/72157627163472541/) on Horncastle's Flickr page. __Above__: A Jaguar E-Type pokes its gorgeous nose out of the garage. Jag was especially well-represented at Silverstone, with more than 1,000 on hand to celebrate the [E-Type's 50th anniversary](http://stag-komodo.wired.com/autopia/2010/09/jaguar-75th-anniversary/?pid=189).
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Is there anything on wheels so beautiful as a [Ferrari](http://stag-komodo.wired.com/autopia/tag/ferrari/) GTO at speed? No, there isn't. This is a 330 GTO, one of three built with a 4.0-liter engine.
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The Fiat Abarth 600 — the original hot hatch? We're eagerly awaiting the arrival of the [new Abarth 500](http://stag-komodo.wired.com/autopia/2010/01/fiat-500-abarth-ss/), though it isn't quite so awesome.
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This slick bit of kit is a Ferrari 250 GTO Series II, also known as the Type 64. The Series II featured distinctive bodywork designed by Pininfarina to improve aerodynamics. Ferrari built three of them, making them harder to find than civility in Washington. Update, 4:50 p.m. Eastern Aug. 2: Or maybe not. Reader Davke G says this is a Drogo-bodied Ferrari 250 GTE. We aren't nearly familiar enough with 60s-era Ferraris to be sure, so if anyone's got more info or confirmation, let us know in the comments. Thanks!
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This is a very rare ride. It is an Aston Martin DB4 GT, one of 75 stripped-down, souped-up versions of the DB4 introduced in 1959. The gorgeous bodywork features thinner aluminum to cut weight, and the wheelbase is shorter than the DB4. It's just as beautiful under the skin, with a 3.7-liter (or 3.8, depending upon the car) engine sporting two spark plugs per cylinder, a pair of distributors and a trio of Weber carbs. The engine was good for 302 horsepower from the factory and the car topped out at 153 mph. Sixty mph arrives in 6.1 seconds. It looks that fast sitting still. *Updated 5:10 p.m. Eastern: We misidentified this car as a DB5; thanks to reader Mario Carneiro Neto for correcting our error.*
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A [Ford](http://stag-komodo.wired.com/autopia/tag/ford/) Escort MkII in rally trim, doing what it does best — making quick work of a dirt road. The Escort was a formidable racer, pretty much dominating the RAC Rally series in the late 1970s and bringing Björn Waldegård the [WRC driver's championship](http://stag-komodo.wired.com/autopia/tag/wrc/) in 1979.
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We get giddy thinking of the trouble we could get into with this Ford Galaxie. We're not sure, but it looks to us like a second-gen model.
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The [Porsche 911](http://stag-komodo.wired.com/autopia/tag/porsche/) may well be the Baskin-Robbins of sports cars — available in 31 flavors — but the RSR is among the tastiest. It was essentially a factory race car sold to privateers, and a force to be reckoned with on the track. The car was introduced in 1972 and grew steadily more potent through the mid-1970s. Forty-years on, it still looks hot in Martini livery.
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What's better than one Mini Cooper S? Two, of course. It could do everything, from commuting to conquering Rally Monte Carlo. What's not to like?
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We're not sure about this, and neither was Rowan, but we think this is a [Maserati](http://stag-komodo.wired.com/autopia/2011/04/maserati-granturismo-mc-stradale/) 6CM. The Italian automaker built 29 of the *monoposto* racers between 1936 and 1940. The 1.5-liter supercharged straight six was good for 155 horsepower, and the cars could hit 140 mph or so. If we're wrong, please politely inform us of that in comments. Thank you.
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Guy Ligier was a race car driver and rugby player who decided to start a car company in 1968. The eponymously named automaker's first car was a doozy — the JS2, a sleek mid-engined sports car with a Maserati V6 engine good for 180 horsepower. The car weighed just 970 kilos and did zero to 60 in 7.1 seconds. This is one of 150 built, and it kinda makes the Ferrari 312PB behind it a bit... ordinary.
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Jaguar all but stopped racing at the end of the 1950s, leaving competition to privateers. It returned to the fold in the 1980s to help two teams compete on either side of the Atlantic. The partnerships spawned the XJR series of race cars, including the XJR-9 that British team TWR raced in the U.S. and Europe during the 1988 season. The sleek prototype racer won six of 11 races in the World Sportscar Championship series. It also won the 24 Hours of Le Mans, bringing Jaguar its first victory there since 1957.
