Welcome to Steve Welsh Photos automotive collection. My first foray into car event photography was with rallying in the early 1980s. A friend who was a Vintage Sports-Car Club member introduced me to historic motoring and competition that opened up an engaging opportunity to photograph fabulous and fascinating machinery and the people who preserve and use these historic vehicles.
History is all about connections, the past with the present and into the future. Those threads through time are a mesmeric part of the attraction of historic motor racing to me. This has also inspired the curation of my archive to use connections, accidental or otherwise as the basis to showcase my work in an editorial style.
The SWP team have plans to continue creating new galleries and editorial features exploring automotive connections that may entertain and stimulate. I hope you find things of interest that will foster a conversation with us. There will also be the first opportunity to view historic period images acquired from other photographers identified as Steve Welsh Collection.
I hope you enjoy viewing this site, you have a choice, check out the images only, or delve deeper and read some of the stories that accompany them.
Please get in touch if you would like to buy a print, for publishing and illustration for books and magzines or to commission event coverage.
P.S. Look out for more information and expanded connections on our AND ANOTHER THING! blog. Just follow the finger.
RALLY
The opening rally section features the career of Colin McRae upon the 30th anniversary of the Scot becoming the UK’s first World Champion. Images begin with a fresh-faced McRae and co-driver Derek Ringer heading into scrutineering for the 1988 RAC rally and ends with a tail shot of his works Ford Focus in 2002.
A postscript image shows McRae’s protégé Kris Meeke watching Sebastian Loab, Citröen successor and the most successful WRC driver of all time, play the Colin McRae rally video game in 2009.
Next year 2026 will be 40 years since the end of the Group B era. The team look forward to presenting a gallery that reflects the drama and the gloriously mad machinery that raced through UK stages.
The Steve Welsh Photos archive contains images from Group B, Group A, World Rally cars and historic rallying.
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Three RAC wins in '94, '95 and '97 with the championship winning year in 1995.
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Special Rally Feature
Group B Celebration
It may seem like only last week that rear-engined 500 horse power four wheel drive rally cars were hurling through the UK forests watched by close to a million spectators on the stages. However 40 years have elapsed since the somewhat infamous Group B category completed its final stage; continued interest in cars such as the MG Metre 6R4, Audi Quattro, Lancia Delta S4, Ford RS200 and Peugeot T16 has not diminished in the meantime. Although the World Rally Championship returns to the UK in 2027 after a substantial break and at the time of writing British driver Elfyn Evans leads the series in a Toyota Yaris, rallying in this country has languished out of the public’s perception for many years despite a buoyant historic scene. Steve Welsh Photos wanted to celebrate and recall those heady days of the early 1980s with a dedicated gallery. Remembering not only the cars, but weeks on the road living in the car, spectator camaraderie, cooking breakfast in Kielder Forrest with the temperature well below freezing after a long night on the stages and sharing that final pack of chocolate biscuits with someone on the last stage. The reward was to witness rallying’s greatest era.
This gallery is curated from our photo library of world and national championship rally images from 1983 to 2002. Please get in touch for print or publishing enquiries.
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RACE
To open the race section, we have a selection of general track action, pit and paddock scenes from a wide range of historic events, including Edwardian up to more recent historic machinery. These are some examples of the photographic coverage we can produce. However, it would be remiss not to reflect the 75th anniversary of Formula 1, so we have curated two Special Feature Galleries dedicated to F1 as well.
ACTION FROM TRACK, PIT AND PADDOCK
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Race Special Feature
F1
Steve Welsh Photos has responded to F1’s 75th anniversary in 2025 with two galleries. Choices are entirely biased to memorable encounters with the people and cars that have appeared at historic events over the last 30 plus years.
Gallery 1 celebrates six of our UK F1 champions, within that we also acknowledge Sir Stirling Moss, regarded by many as the greatest race driver not to win the world championship. The image shows a meeting between Moss and then rising star Lewis Hamilton a few weeks before the latter won his home grand prix for the first time and went on to be the UK’s most successful F1 driver to date.
Gallery 2 is a celebration of some iconic cars and people that played their part during the 75 years of F1 that have appeared at historic events. We begin the gallery with the mighty Alfa Romeo 158/9 that dominated the championships first years, to a Mercedes AMG from 2021. The choices are totally arbitrary being cars I particularly like!
All of images from these galleries come from historic racing festivals and events such as Goodwood Revival and Festival of Speed, Monaco Historic, Silverstone - Christies, Coys, the Classic and Festival, as well as VSCC and HSCC events.
F1 BRITISH CHAMPIONS
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F1 AT 75
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Race Special Feature
Aston Martin
What is in a name? For one of the UK’s premier manufacturers, it involves a heritage that stretches back more than 112 years and began with connections to a sporting venue from the early days of motoring and competition.
In 2025, a celebration recalled the end of hill climbing at Buckinghamshire’s Aston Clinton hill; an incident at the Kop Hill involving spectator injures forced the government’s hand with regard to speed-trialling on public roads. Robert Bamford and Lional Martin of Bamford and Martin had been competitors and winners at the venue since the company began dealing and maintaining Singer cars in 1912. Initially entering a 10hp Singer and subsequently from 1913 cars of their own design and construction, this led to a re-brand as Aston Martin to make use of the hill climb success in marketing the cars.
These galleries are dedicated to Aston Martin, cars and people, with a broad selection of images from Steve Welsh Photos that illustrate almost 100 years of sporting production. Beginning with the oldest known marque survivor, a 1921 A3, to second generation Vantage GT4s from 2018, images are curated from contemporary historic motor racing events, such as Silverstone Classic and Festival, Goodwood Revival and Festival, Vintage Sports Car Club and Aston Martin Owners Club meetings.
ASTON CLINTON
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1920's ASTON
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1930's - 1940's
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DBR4 GRAND PRIX
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1950's - 1960's
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VANTAGE, DB7, DB9, GT2, GT3 & GT4
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Aston Martin Heros
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Special Competition Cars
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RACE SPECIAL FEATURE
Italy meets USA in 1965
Whilst continuing to build the Steve Welsh Photos editorial theme of connections, this sports car feature also introduces period images acquired by Steve Welsh Collection. The Story starts with a one-off encounter at Castle Coomb in July 1965 between representatives of two marques that dominated the 1960s World Sports Car Championship. Both cars had active careers with well-known drivers eventually competing in the contemporary historic racing scene. Steve Welsh Photos would like to thank photojournalist Peter Collins for his support with this feature.
To find out more and see more images you, follow the finger!
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TRIALS
Classic trialing remains one of the most popular and affordable motor sports on the calendar. It is possible to enter a classic trial with very little mechanical or fiscal investment and enjoy 24 hours of competition. Some competitors may consider the latter to be an understatement to the reality and rigours of the Motor Cycling Club (MCC) Exeter, Lands End and Edinburgh trials! These galleries show the breadth of cars entered for classic and Vintage Sports Car Club (VSCC) pre-war trials and the type of terrain tackled while illustrating the coverage we produce.
Our feature gallery focuses on MG, a major player in trials since 1925.
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2025 saw an important anniversary of Moss Garages works’ involvement with trials. It is 100 years since MG’s Cecil Kimber, who recognised the commercial benefit brought by competition success, entered the Motor Cycling Club (MCC) Lands End Trial at Easter that year. This one-off car, the first designed by Kimber, used an adapted Morris Cowley chassis along with other Morris components. The car was powered by a Hotchkiss overhead valve engine delivering around 12hp that was built up by Charlie Martin. Kimber achieved his goal and scored the top MCC gold award. 1925 saw MG sales take off.
In 2005, Steve Welsh recorded the Kimber Special’s return to Blue Hills Mine on the MCC Lands End to celebrate its 80th anniversary. In 2025, the car ran up Blue Hills Old Road once more almost exactly 100 years to the day Cecil Kimber first made the climb.
As a special feature Steve Welsh looks back at the MG PA midget ‘Cream Cracker’ team. Only 10 years after Kimber’s successful attack on the Lands End, the famous ‘Cream Cracker’ team of MG PA midgets were in action on the same event led by Maurice Toulmin again achieving gold awards. In 1995, Steve Welsh covered the 60th anniversary of the 1935 Cracker team as they returned to the Lands End Trial. A few weeks later, the cars and drivers gathered again, this time in Gloucestershire for an event that saw other trials teams from the period join in for a weekend celebration on the Kimber Trial including an assault on the infamous 1930s trials section Nailsworth Ladder.
Providing a historical connection to the 1935 MG team, Maurice Toulmin’s son Jonathan entered the 2025 Lands End Class R still with an MG, this time with an F Type, climbing Blue Hills Old Road 90 years after his father took the ‘Cracker’ to the top.
Trials Special Feature
KIMBER SPECIAL
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Trials Special Feature
MG CREAM CRACKER
Kimber Trial 1995
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Trials Special Feature
LANDS END TRIAL 1995
60th anniversary
MG 'Cream Cracker' team
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HILLCLIMB
The beginning of the hillclimb and sprint scene were integral with early motorcar development providing challenging events over often un-metalled roads that could attract thousands of spectators. This was a major proving ground for automotive reliability. Constructors soon saw the benefit of these demonstrations of speed and handling as ideal promotional activities while the public enjoyed the garden party atmosphere as well as the chance to see man and occasionally women, and machine perform. Notionally, the UK did not allow open road speed competition, however, the eyes of the law were often blinded, possibly by dust from un-metalled roads. Minimal legal intervention meant events such as Kop, Aston Clinton (see Aston Martin feature), Rising Hill and Sutton Bank popped up all over the country. Promenade sprints at Bexhill and Brighton offered the best surfaces for out-and-out straight-line speed, while the opening of Shelsley Walsh in 1905 gave hill climbing some security of tenure, setting precedent for private drives and roads to be used in the future. Vital to the sport as due to inevitable accidents involving sometimes large and unruly crowds enforcement of the law saw the end of many venues by 1925.
The current scene enjoys multiple competitions around the country with the flagship British Championship entertaining some of the fastest machinery and most skillful drivers found in any motor racing genre. Grass root competitors are encouraged and supported with handicap-based championships, that means the money does not always win! The main gallery chosen from Steve Welsh Photos library are examples of the coverage with vintage, classic and modern available from the late 1980s on for editorial, illustration and features. A number of hill climb events are covered each year. Please get in touch if you would like coverage or require images for publication or prints.
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HILLCLIMB SPECIAL FEATURE
Nic Mann
One of the technical characteristics of the hill climb scene is the development of innovative one-offs or limited production cars aimed at winning and breaking records. From the outset simply grafting a bigger engine into a chassis made the car a ‘special’; more ambitious constructors sourced parts from a diverse range of vehicles to fulfill a creative ambition for speed. Some gifted engineers made their own components and montaged these with proprietary bits and pieces. This series of features will take images from our stock library to highlight these personal visions beginning with Nic Mann’s Mannic Beattie.
Auteur and ex. aerospace engineer Nic Mann first made news with a Morris Minor appropriated from his mum. Although that may sound far-fetched, he applied modifications, including squeezing a Rover/Buick V8 into the poor old Moggy’s engine bay. Mann proceeded to extract up to 500 horse power from the unit with a blower and some nitrous. Multiple sprint, drag and hill climb wins followed. After a period off the hills Mann returned in the early 2000s with an innovative and devastatingly quick race car, the radical design that is the Mannic/Beattie. Designed in his garage with a home built chassis and powered by a highly developed Ford BDT engine with 4-wheel drive. So far so good, the Mann tweak was to use a helicopter turbine running separately to the engine with its own fuel supply. Hey presto, constant forced induction with no lag! The car looked space age and certainly went like a rocket with over 500BHP on tap, with more than a nod to airplane design evident with its enveloping lightweight bodywork.
The mechanical confection was very effective, bumping the 20-year-old Shelsley Walsh Shelsley Specials record for unlimited sports cars on it’s first visit! Despite a damaging accident in 2016 at the venues Kennel Bend, Mann has continued to lower records around the hills, finally leaving the Shelsley mark at 25.83, an average miles per hour just a shade under 80! The Mannic/Beattie was up for sale in early 2025. Let’s hope this was to fund a new project from Mann’s imaginative engineering mind.
If you have enjoyed this feature and would like to know more, follow the finger to a story about the Shelsley Special that set the hillclimb scene on-fire 100 years ago.
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