1929 Bentley Napier

I took this photograph in the paddock at the Vintage Sports Car Club's Richard Seaman Memorial Trophies meeting at Oulton Park in June 1973.

It's the 1929 Bentley Napier which was driven in the Historic Trophy race by David Llewellyn. This is a vehicle that he and Peter Morley created in 1968 using a 24 litre Napier Sea Lion engine which has a 'W' configuration - two banks of four cylinders in a 'V' with a third upright bank between them. The car was originally built on a Sunbeam chassis but after an accident was rebuilt using the chassis of a 1929 8 litre Bentley. The nose of the car was later altered to resemble that of the Napier Railton. On the right the blue car number 7 is the 1936 ERA R5B 'Remus' of the Hon. Patrick Lindsay. This car has the 1,488cc supercharged version of the 6-cylinder ERA engine and it was originally one of the cars in the White Mouse Stable of Siam's Prince Chula and driven by his cousin, Prince Birabongse, known simply as 'Bira'.

1936 ERA R5B

This car competed in the Richard Seaman Memorial Trophies Race at the Vintage Sports Car Club's meeting at Oulton Park in June 1961.

It's the 1936 ERA R5B 'Remus' of the Hon. Patrick Lindsay, but it's actually a darker blue than appears in the photograph which is from an old colour transparency. The car has the 1,488cc supercharged version of the 6-cylinder ERA engine and it was originally one of the cars in the White Mouse Stable of Siam's Prince Chula and driven by his cousin, Prince Birabongse, known simply as 'Bira'.

1936 ERA R5B 'Remus'

I took this photograph in the paddock at Oulton Park at the Vintage Sports Car Club's Richard Seaman Memorial Trophies Meeting in June 1984.

It's the 1936 ERA R5B of the Hon. Pat Lindsay, originally one of Prince Chula's White Mouse Stable cars driven by Bira and given the name 'Remus'. The car took part in two races at this meeting, the Richard Seaman Memorial Historic Trophy Race and the Cheshire Building Society Allcomers Race. The engine was based on the 6-cylinder inline Riley 12/6 engine, three different versions of which were produced to allow the cars to compete in 1100cc, 1500cc and 2000cc classes of racing and this car has the larger of those engines, officially 1980cc, although for some reason the programme of this event shows the capacity in its first race to be 1983cc and in the second race 1984cc.

1936 ERA R12B

This car, together with seven other ERAs competed in the Richard Seaman Memorial Historic Trophy Race at the Vintage Sports Car Club's meeting at Oulton Park in June 1981.

It's the 1936 ERA R12B of Bill Morris, previously one of the White Mouse stable's trio of ERAs driven by Prince Bira, where it was given the name 'Hanuman'. It was originally built with a 2 litre engine as a B-type car, but in 1937 it was rebuilt to C-type specifications, thus becoming R12C, and given a 1½ litre engine. In 1939 the car was badly damaged in a crash during practice at Reims and was rebuilt with a B-type frame, reverting to being R12B and the name changing to 'Hanuman II'. After passing through various hands after the Second World War it came to Bill Morris. Bill Morris had managed to acquire the rest of the wreckage left over from the 1939 crash and using the damaged chassis frame rebuilt the car to its 1939 C-type specifications by 1982. That car was now R12C, as if the 1939 accident had never happened, and was given the original car's name of 'Hanuman'.

The blue car with a number 5 behind 'Hanuman II' is the ERA R5B ('Remus', another ex-White Mouse stable car) driven that day by the Hon.Patrick Lindsay.

ERA R5B

This car took part in the Historic Seaman Trophy race at the VSCC's meeting at Donington Park in May 2001.

It's the 1936 ERA R5B of Ludovic Lindsay, one of the ERAs originally owned by Prince Chula of Siam and his White Mouse stable and driven by his cousin Prince Bira. Prince Chula owned another ERA, R2B, which was also campaigned by Prince Bira, and R2B and R5B were respectively given the names 'Romulus' and 'Remus'. Prince Chula later acquired another ERA, R12B, which was named 'Hanuman'. ERAs competed with engines of 1.1 litres, 1.5 litres and 2 litres, and according to the programme of this event R5B had a 1,987cc supercharged unit. The photograph above was taken during the race at the inside of Coppice Corner.

I've shown photographs of ERA R5B on previous occasions, most recently on 23 January 2019.

ERA R5B 'Remus'

I took the photograph of this car rounding Lodge Corner during the Richard Seaman Memorial Historic Trophy Race at the VSCC's meeting at Oulton Park in June 1981.

It's the Hon. Patrick Lindsay in his 1936 ERA R5B 'Remus', which was originally in HRH Prince Chula of Siam's White Mouse stable and driven by his cousin HRH Prince Birabongse, who raced under the name of B. Bira. The car has the supercharged 6-cylinder ERA 1,980cc engine derived from the Riley 9 unit.

On 3 July 2013 I showed a photograph of R5B at Donington Park in 2001 and provided links to sites giving the history and previous ownership of all the ERA cars.

Lotus, ERA, Cooper Bristol

The VSCC's Richard Seaman Trophies Meeting at Oulton Park in June 1982 was run on the short circuit which leaves the main circuit just after the Cascades corner, and rejoins it just before Knickerbrook. This photograph was taken during the Cheshire Building Society Allcomers Race at Fosters corner which is between Cascades and Knickerbrook.

In the lead here is Bruce Halford in a 1959 Lotus 16 with a 2,495cc straight-4 Coventry Climax FPF engine. Bruce Halford raced in Formula One from 1956 to 1960, firstly with a Maserati 250F, then a Lotus 16 in 1959 and with Cooper T45 and T51 in 1960. In the mid-1970s he bought this Lotus 16 and competed at Historic meetings for several years. Behind the Lotus is the 1936 ERA R5B 'Remus' of the Hon. Patrick Lindsay with the Straight-6 1,982cc supercharged version of the ERA engine. I showed a photograph of this car, and other ERAs competing at this meeting, on 29 October 2012. Bringing up the rear is Roddy MacPherson in a 1,971cc straight-6 Bristol engined Cooper MkII (or T23). On 30 April 2014 I showed photographs that I had taken at this meeting of three Cooper Bristols, including one of this car.

ERAs at Silverstone

The Coys International Historic Festival meeting at Silverstone in July 1998 included a race billed as the HGPCA Pre-1952 Grand Prix Car Race which included amongst the entry list eight ERAs. Here are three photographs showing four of those cars.

This is the 1936 ERA B Type of Ludovic Lindsay who drove the car in the race. The car is R5B 'Remus' and is one of those formerly driven by Prince Bira of Siam - you can see the Siamese colours on the rear of the car.

This is the 1937 C Type of Bill Morris and was driven by him in the race. It is designated R12C and is known as 'Hanuman', but has a confusing history and I've somewhat condensed the story of the car(s) told  in members.madasafish.com to produce the following:

ERA R12B 'Hanuman / Hanuman II'

R12B was a 1936 works car with a 2 litre engine and in the works black colour scheme. Raymond Mays successfully hill climbed R12B at Shelsley Walsh and raced at Brooklands.

1937 The works rebuilt R12B to C-type specification with a 1.5 litre engine and a long-range fuel tank. 1938 The works sold R12B/C to Prince Chula for Bira to drive. R12B/C was painted with a light blue body and yellow chassis and wheels of the 'White Mouse' stable and made the national racing colours of Siam (Thailand). In the tradition of 'White Mouse' cars, following R2B 'Romulus' and R5B 'Remus' R12C was named 'Hanuman'

1939 saw Bira race R12B/C to win the Nuffield Trophy at Donington Park. Somewhat less successfully Bira crashed R12B/C at in practice for the Coupe de la Commission Sportive at Rheims, France. Bira suffered only minor injuries but the car was badly damaged. NOW THIS IS WHERE THINGS GET A BIT TRICKY! As happens with many well raced cars repair and modification keeps cars on the track but complicates their history. R12B had been modified to C-type spec. and was now repaired with the only available chassis frame (a B-type, probably from R8B left over from its rebuild up to C-type spec.) so that the cars code letter reverted to 'R12B' and its name was moved on to 'Hanuman II'. The spare parts from sorting out the mess were set aside – see R12C 'Hanuman', below, for what happened to them.

ERA R12C 'Hanuman'

1982 - Respected car restorer and ERA expert W.R.G. 'Bill' Morris rebuilt the wreckage left over from the R12B/C 'Hanuman' crash and rebuild (see R12B Hanuman / Hanuman II', above). The project used the original mangled chassis frame from R12B/C, other R12B/C parts and other period parts with any gaps filled by remanufactured parts.

The result was 'R12C – Hanuman' a C-type ERA as if the 1939 Rheims accident had not happened.  As at the time Bill Morris owned both 'R12B – Hanuman II' and 'R12C – Hanuman' the question of whether one or the other or both or neither was 'genuine' was a matter he would have had to fight out with himself !

Here are three of the ERAs at Luffield Corner during the race. Number 44 on the outside is R12C 'Hanuman' driven by Bill Morris, number 16 at the front is the 1937 B Type R14B of Donald Day driven by Goff Tidball and the light green car bringing up the rear is the 1934 A Type R1A of E Dean Butler driven by Martin Walford.

A full list of all the ERA cars and their various owners is shown on the ERA Club website.