The Graham Hill Collection
After doing his national service, in the Royal Navy, Graham didn’t know what career path he wanted to choose. Racing cars was something he had a go at and enjoyed, but racing driver isn’t a job that comes up in the job centre window.
Graham had to find another route into the sport so he started to prepare cars for other drivers. By chance he landed a job with Colin Chapman at Lotus. In his early days working for Lotus Graham kept pestering for a chance to drive but it took some time to persuade Colin Chapman to give him a go. Once in the cars he proved himself more than able and won many events for lotus in sports cars, and later in F1.
Sports and Endurance cars
1958 Lotus 7
1/24th scale Tamiya conversion.
This early Lotus seven, converted from the Tamiya kit, is the car with which Graham won the 1958 boxing day sports car race at Brands Hatch. In the process seeing off many of the newer Lotus 11s.
The nose has been re-profiled and cycle wings added. Wheels came from a Herb Deeks kit. Other body work amendments were the rounding off of the rear wings and the fairing in front of the steering wheel. The tonneau cover was made from masking tape.
1961 Maserati T61 ‘Birdcage’
1/24th scale Aardvark resin kit.
This car was a shared drive between Graham and Stirling Moss at the Sebring 12hrs race in 1961.
All the frame is the original resin parts I was impressed with how well they fitted. I had expected to replace them with wire or plastic rod.
For more information and pictures click on the picture.
1957 Lotus 11
1/43rd scale renovated Dinky car.
A Renovated a 1/43rd scale Dinky car for this model. All the glass was missing and the body was very pitted as it was dug up out of my back garden! it needed a lot of filling and sanding to bring back to shape.
One day I’ll come across a Merit 1/24th version.
Racing in the 1957 Auto-Sport championship Graham had 4 wins and 6 podiums during the season.
Graham proved to be a versatile driver and won with all sorts of vehicles. He remains the only driver to win the formula one world championship, Indy 500 and le Mans 24hrs.
1956 Lotus "Eleven"
1/24th scale Merit kit restoration
DEC 494 chassis #173 and #211
Two Lotus Eleven chassis have carried the registration number DEC 494 and their stories are linked by more than just being Lotus Elevens.
On 29th of April 1956 Graham Hill drove this car to 1st place in the 12 lap Brands Hatch National sports (1.2L class) car race, his winning speed being 69.750kph. On the same day Hill also drove the car in the sports (1.5L class) car race and finished 2nd to Reg Bicknell's larger engined Lotus 11.
1964 Ferrari 250LM
1/24th scale Academy kit.
The Riems 12hrs winner, Graham & Jo Bonnier co-drove together many times for Porsche and were team mates at BRM for a while, always good friends…
Ian intended to make this model into a competition winning model so a large amount of super detailing was undertaken. Then the paint finish was ruined and just before throwing it in the bin the car became a barn find being picked up for restoration.
1972 Matra 760
1/24th scale resin kit by Fisher.
Fisher of the U.S.A. produced a fine resin kit of the 1972 le Mans winning Matra which Graham drove with Henri Pescarolo.
Interestingly Pescarolo was not happy at being paired with Hill whom he considered to be old and over the hill. By the time qualifying was completed Henri Pescarolo saw Graham in a very different light and was delighted with their performance. Winning the Endurance Grand Prix just confirmed that Hill could drive fast and sensibly to bring home a car inline with Jackie Stewart's philosophy of "winning at the slowest possible speed".
Pescorolo and Hill remained friends until Graham's untimely death.
To see the build of this car, and others, visit our articles and projects page.
Formula one career cars
1962 B.R.M. P57 ‘Stackpipe’
1/24th scale slot car conversion.
Grahams first world championship came at the wheel of a B.R.M. in 1962.
This model is presented as at the Dutch G.P. at Zandvort, Grahams first F1 win. (except it still has all it's exhaust pipes!) wins also came in Germany, Italy and South Africa.
Built from an Autohobbies GRP slot car body with a few additional parts from the spares box most of the model is scratch built or cast from moulds taken off other kits parts and our own masters..
1964 BRM P261
1/24th scale Cox slot car conversion.
This model was produced from a 1960's Cox kit. Cox of the U.S.A. are better known for their slot cars and this static kit was very much in the chunky strong mould of a slot car.
After a fair amount of new scratch built parts the model fits in well with the museum. All of the front suspension has been scratch built as has half of the rear end too.
1964 saw B.R.M. produce monocoque bodies and Graham used this P261 to win the Monaco G.P. something he did five times. The only others who have come close to this are, Senna (6wins), Schumacher (5wins) and Prost (4wins), quite an exclusive club.
I have tried to maintain some of the character of the original kit so as many of the original kit parts were used as possible, even if this meant having to modify them. the kit steering wheel and dash board have been given extra detail and the fuel tank sides and gear selector are scratch built.
To see the detailed restoration of this car visit the articles and projects page.
1967 Lotus 33 BRM
1/24th scale S.E.F. kit.
For 1967 returned to Lotus but Lotus were in a sticky situation. There were new engine regulations for 1967 but the new Ford-Cosworth engine was not quite ready, neither was the new car. So Graham found himself driving an old Lotus 33 with an under sized BRM engine as a stopgap for the Monaco G.P. in 1967.
Graham and the car acquited themselves well under the circumstances and the combination finished in second place behind Denny Hulme who was winning his first F1 GP.
1968 Lotus 49b
1/24th scale Heller kit.
Graham was the main test driver for the new Lotus 49, Jim Clark being a tax exile..
In 1968 he took his second world title. Winning the final race of the season in Mexico in this car.
The Heller 1/24th scale kit is now very rare. It is a very nice kit and a great base for detailing. The poor quality tyres show the age of the kit most. Having been built in the late 1990’s, and having travelled many miles to model shows the model is also showing it’s age now.
Even in the 1960's duct tape had an important role to play in formula one!
1974 EmbassyHill Lola T370
1/43rd scale S.R.C. kit.
At the end of his career Graham set up his own F1 team, Embassy-Hill. Racing cars from Shadow and Lola in the two seasons the team existed.
The chassis was extensively reworked by the teams designer, Andy Smallman, eventually becoming the GH1.
This 1/43rd scale kit from scale racing cars builds nicely into the 1974 Embassy Hill Lola.
1968 Lotus 56 Turbine Indycar
1/24th scale MPC kit.
Saloon, rally, touring & GT cars
1961 Jaguar 'E' type
1/32nd scale Airfix kit.
Graham gave to ‘E’ type a win on its debut at Oulton park driving for T.O.M. Sopwith’s team Ecurie Endeavour.
He went on to have rather a good record with the 'E' Type, although unable to run a complete season due to F1 commitments he tended to be on the podium whenever he raced and usually the top step of it.
1960 Austin Se7en "Team Speedwell" Mini
1/24th scale Tamiya kit.
Today the Cooper branded Minis are well remembered by the general populace, so well-known that BMWs MINI cars are still marketed with Cooper branding in the range despite having no real links to the historic Cooper Garages of Surbiton.
While Cooper undoubtedly has the collective memory under its belt, Speedwell probably has the greater racing pedigree in actual racing. Speedwell performance Conversions Ltd. emerged from the regular lunch meetings of John Sprinzel, Len Adams and George Hulbert. They set up Speedwell performance to prepare and race Sprinnzel's cars and there upgrades proved to be very successful.
The team was enhanced by the joining of the rising F1 star Graham Hill. Alongside Sprinzel and others Hill helped raise the Speedwell firm to arguably the greatest tuners in Britain at the time.
1962 Jaguar MkII
1/24th scale Tamiya kit.
Adhering to Sir William Lyons' maxim of "grace, pace and space", the mark 2 was a beautiful, fast and capable saloon. It came with a 120bhp 2.4Ltr, 210bhp 3.4Ltr or 220bhp 3.8Ltr Jaguar XK engine. The 3.8 is similar to the unit used in the 3.8 "E"-type (or XKE in the U.S.A.), having the same block, crank, connecting rods and pistons but different inlet manifold and carburation (two SUs versus three on the "E" type in Europe) and therefore 30bhp less.
The MKII Jaguar dominated saloon car racing. At a time when F1 drivers often ran in a saloon car race on the same day as a Grand Prix, the MKII was regularly seen driven by Graham Hill, he took several wins too!
1963 Ford Galaxie 500 Rcode 'lightweight'.
1/25th scale AMT kit conversion.
Twickenham Ford dealer John Willment was thinking of setting up a racing team, something good for the business profile and possibly some fun too, when he was approached by the Ford Motor Company of America to run one of their Galaxies in Britain. Not just any Galaxie but a full on “Holman & Moody ‘R-Code’ Lightweight NASCAR Ford Galaxie”.
Although Ford commissioned approximately 210 ‘Lightweight’ ‘R-Code’ 427 Galaxy 500s from Holman & Moody, of Charlotte, North Carolina, USA, only three cars were destined for the BSCC. The first chassis being no. 3N66R143030 for the Willment racing team; the other two went to Sir Gawaine Baillie and the private entry Alan Brown racing team. All the cars were Corinthian White with red vinyl interior.
Our model is presented as it raced in the 1963 Oulton Park BSCC event driven by the then reigning F1 world champion, Graham Hill, points which helped him secure the Class D BSCC driver’s championship. Hill finished 2nd in this particular race, and in 1964 at the same event put the same car on the podium again!
1967 Lotus Ford Cortina
1/24thscale resin Scalekraft transkit.
When Hill returned to Lotus in 1967 he inevitably became part of the Lotus Cortina set up, alongside Jim Clark, and he won in these cars too! This model is Graham’s class winning, 2nd overall, car from the 1967 Lombank trophy race at Brands Hatch.
1963 Ferrari 250 GTO
1/24th scale Airfix ‘Hi-tech’ kit.
Rally, sports, saloon, GT he drove in almost all classes of motorsports. For Maranello Concessionaires Hill drove this 250GTO to victory in the 1963 Tourist Trophy race at Goodwood
