ERA R12B

This is one of nine ERAs that competed in the Richard Seaman Memorial Historic Trophy Race at the VSCC's Richard Seaman Memorial Trophies Meeting at Oulton Park in June 1971.

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. 

Some years after the photograph above was taken Bill Morris had also acquired 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. That car was now R12C, as if the 1939 accident had never happened, and was given the original car's name of 'Hanuman'.