1956 Mille Miglia

Few races in the world were as difficult and dangerous as the Mille Miglia.

The race took place on public roads through Italy, starting in the northern town of Brescia, where it weaved it’s way down the western coast to Rome, crossed over to and up the eastern coast to finish again in Brescia.

It ran non-stop over the length of the day, and for 1956, totalled 992.332 miles (1597 kms) in full distance.

Historically, other than a few exceptions, the race was mostly won in Alfa Romeo’s. Alfa Romeo’s rein on the race changed in 1948 when Ferrari finally won.

By 1956, there were no less than 5 Scuderia Ferraris in the race, and not surprisingly, they took the top 5 positions!


Pen & Ink, watercolour pencils and acrylic pens on 18"x 12" watercolour paper.  © Paul Chenard 2016

The winning Ferrari 290 MM Scaglietti was driven “sans” navigator by Italian driver Eugenio Castellotti (1930-1957) in a time of 11hr 37:10.

It was a quite an accomplishment in an extremely miserable, wet and rainy race, with a number of fatal accidents.

Painting at the Silverstone Classic 2014

With the Silverstone Classic being one of the world’s top historic racing events, I thought it was worthwhile to attend.



I’m represented in the UK by the Historic Car Art gallery, and they had a stand set up in the Art Kiosque, showing some of my art.




To make things rather more interesting, I thought I would work on an acrylic on canvas painting there over the weekend.



I chose to paint Sir Stirling Moss racing his Maserati 250F to win the 1956 Grand Prix de Monaco.

Painting in front of the crowds is never boring, and though I didn’t move very far ahead in my painting, I had a great time chatting with onlookers and making great contacts. Many friends dropped by to say "Hello" which I always love, and I also chatted with fellow artists in the kiosque. I even generated a few sales!

I did miss the great racing and featured events, but I still had fun!

Jaguar’s Return to Le Mans

At the end of the 1940's, Jaguar the car company decided to enter the world of racing, fielding their successful XK 120 sports car. And they went after one of the biggest motor sports, the 1950 24 Heures du Mans. Unfortunately, clutch failure ended their quest.

For 1951, they created a lightened, rebodied version labeled the C-Type, and succeeded. Their C-type won again the prestigious race for 1953.

They followed up with a totally new racer christened the D-Type, and won the 1955, 1956, and 1957 Le Mans races.


The Office – Jaguar D-Type CockpitPen&ink and watercolour pencils on white archival stock
© Paul Chenard 2009

The company continued with the development of other racers, but with little success.

In the early 1980's, Tom Walkingshaw Racing (TWR) took a Jaguar XJS to a win of the 1984 European Touring Car. With this success, Jaguar decided to get officially back to racing.

With company support, TWR developed the Jaguar XJR-6 for the 1987 season, and it finished 5th at Le Mans. With their other successes in the season, Jaguar won the World Sports Car Championship.


Silk Cut Jaguar XJR-9LMPen&ink, paint markers and markers on purple archival stock
© Paul Chenard 2012
For the 1988, TWR built the all-new XJR-9LM. For their assault of the famous French endurance classic, Jaguar had Jan Lammers, Johnny Dumfries and Andy Wallace driving their beautiful racer.

Thirty-one years after their previous Le Mans victory, Jaguar was finally in the winner’s circle again.

The 1956 Italian Grand Prix

For the 1956 Formula 1 season, Scuderia Ferrari was fielding the Lancia-Ferrari D50’s that that they inherited from Lancia when they folded their racing efforts.

They had a strong driver line-up of Juan Manual Fangio, Peter Collins, Luigi Musso and Eugenio Castellotti.

Pen& ink, paint markers and markers on red archival stock 12"x 11'5" (30.5cm x 29cm) © Paul Chenard 2012
Private collection – limited editions are available.

Before the Italian Grand Prix, the last race of the season, Fangio had 2.5 wins, Sir Stirling Moss had 1 win, Collins had 2 wins, Pat Flaherty had 1 win, and Musso shared a win with Fangio.

Points-wise, it was a very close match-up between Fangio, Collins and Moss, with all 3 having a good chance at winning the World Championship into that last race at Monza.

During the race, the Monza track, with it’s steep banked section, took it’s toll on the Ferraris, with the D50s of Castellotti, Fangio and Musso dropping out.

Pen& ink and colour pencils on gray archival stock © Paul Chenard 2010
Detail from "Peter Collins – Targa Florio 1955" limited edition.

When the remaining D50 of Collins came in for a pitstop, he spotted Fangio there, and immediately hopped out of his car to hand it over to Juan Manual so he could get back into the race. Fangio came in second place behind Moss, giving him enough points to take the Championship.

When he was asked why he so unselfishly gave up his car, thus his Championship chances, Collins said that he thought that Fangio deserved it more.

Spoken like a true gentleman!

Creative moments ...

We are into the New Year, which can be a time for spiritual renovations. In our house, it’s time for basement renovations.

We are repainting our basement, along with replacing old furniture and old carpets.

I’ve spent over a week painting, so I’ve not had time to do any of my racing history art. To keep my creativity flowing, I decided to do a quick painting with the 2-inch brush I was using on a wall we were repainting before the roller-paint was put down.

It shows Peter Collins driving a Ferrari-Lancia D50 in 1956.

The painting is gone now, but it was worth the creative moment!

The Office Series – 1955 Jaguar D-Type

Not long after the Second World War, the Jaguar car company decided that they needed to promote themselves with an attention-getting product.

Pen & ink, watercolour pencil on white archival stock
© Paul Chenard 2009

Needless to say, they shook the automotive world by introducing the powerful and sleek XK-120 sports car. Powered by a straight-6 and clothed in a stunning sleek and low body, its performance matched its looks and orders flooded in.

A clocked speed of at least 120 mph suggested that it had potential as racing car, so Jaguar created a lighter, more streamlined of the car, calling it an XK-120-C, or C-Type.The racer won the prestigious 24 hours of Le Mans for 1951 and 1953.

To build on their success, Jaguar created an all-new racer for 1954, and christened it the D-Type. As a factory-built racer, it introduced the strong yet lightweight monocoque chassis. Designed by Malcolm Sayer, it sported a gorgeous aerodynamic body, producing minimal drag. It was powered by a modified XK straight-six engine, and sported disk brakes all around.

The first of it's 3 Le Mans wins came in 1955, under very sad circumstances, when Pierre Levegh’s Mercerdes SLR lost control and crashed, killing him and 80 spectators. Mike Hawthorn was the winning D-type’s driver, along with Ivor Bueb.



Pen & ink, watercolour pencil and Prismacolor on white archival stock
© Paul Chenard 2009

The D-type won again in 1956, under Écurie-Écosse Team management, with Ron Flockhart and Ninian Sanderson driving, and again in 1957, with again Flockhart, this time teamed up with Ivor Bueb.

By 1958, the D-type was no longer competitive, so the remaining cars were converted to road-specification as the XKSS.

1956 MGA

Prismacolour pencils on paper © Paul Chenard 2006
Brian Woods Collection

With my 50th fast approaching, I remembered that I did this up for a friend's half century.