1938 ERA E-Type

I took these photographs in the paddock at the Silverstone Classic Festival meeting in July 2010.

It's the 1938 ERA E-Type of Duncan Ricketts, chassis GP1, here with a 1,988cc supercharged engine but originally with a 1½ litre unit. This and its sister car, chassis GP2 were the only two E-Type ERAs built. Only one other ERA was built later and that was the  G-Type, designed after the Second World War to compete with a Bristol 2 litre engine as a Formula 2 car, but actually competed in the Formula 1 World Championship races in 1952 when they were run under Formula 2 rules. That car later became the basis for the Bristol 450 sports car that competed at Le Mans in 1953, 1954 and 1955.

1938 ERA E-Type

This is a photograph I took in the paddock at the Coys International Historic Festival meeting at Silverstone in July 1998.

It's the 1938 ERA E-Type, chassis GP1, here with a 1,980cc supercharged engine but originally with a 1½ litre unit. This and its sister car, chassis GP2 were the only two E-Type ERAs built. Only one other ERA was built later and that was the  G-Type, designed after the Second World War to compete with a Bristol 2 litre engine as a Formula 2 car, but actually competed in the Formula 1 World Championship races in 1952 when they were run under Formula 2 rules. That car later became the basis for the Bristol 450 sports car that competed at Le Mans in 1953, 1954 and 1955.

 

It was owned by Duncan Ricketts but didn’t take part in this meeting, though Duncan drove Julian Mazjub’s 1938 Alfa Romeo 308C in the HGPCA Pre-1952 Grand Prix Car Race.

ERA E-Type

This car competed in the Historic Seaman Trophy Race at the VSCC's Richard Seaman Memorial Trophy meeting at Donington Park in June 2003.

It's Duncan Ricketts' 1938 ERA E-Type, chassis GP1, here with a 1,980cc supercharged engine but originally with a 1½ litre unit. This and its sister car, chassis GP2 were the only two E-Type ERAs built. Only one other ERA was built later and that was the  G-Type, designed after the Second World War to compete with a Bristol 2 litre engine as a Formula 2 car, but actually competed in the Formula 1 World Championship races in 1952 when they were run under Formula 2 rules. That car later became the basis for the Bristol 450 sports car that competed at Le Mans in 1953, 1954 and 1955.

I featured the ERA E-Type GP1 previously, on 21 June 2016.

ERA R4D

Here's a photograph taken in the paddock at the Richard Seaman Memorial Trophies meeting at Donington Park in June 2003.

The car nearest the camera is Mac Hulbert's 1935 ERA R4D which took part in the Historic Seaman Trophy race, as did the car furthest away, the 1938 ERA E-Type GP1 of Duncan Ricketts. You can read the history of all the ERA cars here. The car in the middle is Chris Podger's 1930 Alvis Silver Eagle which competed in one of the handicap races at this meeting.

ERA

Here's a photograph of a car being made ready to run in the Historic Seaman Race at the VSCC's SeeRed meeting at Donington Park in June 2008.

It's Duncan Ricketts' 1938 ERA E-Type, GP1, and behind it is the ERA R3A that Mark Gillies drove in the same race. You can read about the ERA cars on the ERA Club website.

ERA R3A

I've mentioned before that there's a comprehensive record of all the ERA cars on this website. The car featured today is ERA R3A at the VSCC SeeRed meeting at Donington Park in June 2008.

This is the car in the paddock and behind it you can see another ERA, the ERA E-Type GP1

Here is the car in the pit lane going out for a practice run driven by Mark Gillies - the owner of the car is Mrs M B Smith as can be seen in this list of owners of the car listed on the ERA Club website:

R3A

The Works 1934 to 1936
L G Fontes 1936
A N Black & T H Wisdom 1936 to 1937
C E C Martin 1937 to 1938
J H Bartlett 1938
R Hesketh 1938 to 1944
B Beall 1944 to 1957
G Henderson 1957 to 1965
P R Massey 1965 to 1967
H F Moffatt & N M Arnold-Forster 1967 to 1988
C A Mann 1988 to 1990
T Takahashi 1990 to 1998
R T Skipworth 1998 to 2003
R Smith 2003 to 2007
Mrs M B Smith 2007 to date