Maseratis and ERA

I took this photograph at Luffield corner during the Chopard HGPCA 100 Mile Grand Prix Car Race at the Coys International Historic Festival meeting at Silverstone in July 1994.

Leading is Thomas Bscher's 1957 Maserati 250F V12, a car built with a 2,491cc V12 engine instead of the 250F's usual 6-cylinder inline 2,490 unit. It's chassis #2531 and is one of only 2 cars specifically built to take the V12 engine. The car at the rear is Jeffrey Pattinson's 1954 Maserati 250F, chassis #2508, originally owned and raced by Stirling Moss. The blue car appears to have a number 33 which was an ERA  driven by Duncan Ricketts, and although the programme of the event doesn't identify the four ERAs that appeared in this race, it appears to be R12B. The green car in the background is David Baldock's 1938/39 Alta which was driven by Paul Jaye.

1948 Alta

I photographed this car on a visit to the Donington Park Museum in May 1989. The museum sadly closed in November 2018, cars on loan going back to the owners and as far as I'm aware the rest were put up for auction.

It's a 1948 Alta which was raced by George Abecassis in 1948 and 1949. I've recently come across the book that I bought at the museum on one of my visits there, and this is what it has to say about the Alta:

'The Alta

Geoffrey Taylor's 'Special'

Geoffrey Taylor was an arch motoring enthusiast. He built his first Alta car in a small workshop behind his home in Kingstone-upon-Thames between 1928 and 30, painstakingly fashioning vital engine parts out of the solid. This was followed by a line of sports and independently-suspended racing cars until he outbreak of the war.

He outlined a design for a 1½ litre supercharged Grand Prix car towards the end of the war, and announced his plans with a flourish in November 1945. But post-war shortages delayed the car's debut until 1948, when 'GP No. 1' appeared in the British Empire Trophy race in Douglas, Isle of Man.

The new Alta used an updated version of Taylor's well-proven twin overhead-camshaft four-cylinder engine, supercharged by a Roots-Alta blower driven from the crankshaft nose. He used a special four-speed all-synchromesh gearbox of his own construction with a low drive-line, allowing the driver's seat to be very low-mounted within a rakish and sleek bodyshell, reminiscent of the pre-war Mercedes also copied by ERA in their unsuccessful E-Type.

George Abecassis raced the car throughout 1948 and 1949, while his HW Motors partner John Heath also drove on occasions. Its best performance was in the 1949 British GP, when Abecassis ran fifth before a broken float chamber forced him to stop. He then fought his way back through the field to finish seventh.

For 1950 this duo concentrated on their own Alta-engined HWMs, while the same engine became standard in 2½ litre form in Connaught cars. Tony Brooks won the 1955 Syracuse Grand Prix in one of these Connaughts to score the first all-British Continental GP victory since 1924!

Three of the rubber-block suspended GP Altas were built; the others went to Geoffrey Crossle and Joe Kelly, and the Collection's car includes parts from all three.

Engine:4-Cyls IL; 2VPC; 2OHC; 78mm x 78mm. 1490cc; 230bhp/7000rpm; (S).

Chassis: Round tube ladder frame

Suspension: IRS/IFS by wishbones and rubber blocks.

Brakes: Drums, hydraulically-operated.'

Silverstone Pit Lane

This is a photograph I took from the pit wall at the Coys International Historic Festival meeting at Silverstone in July 1994. It shows the competitors for the Chopard HGPCA 100-Mile GP car race going out for a practice session.

Leading the pack are three red Maserati 250Fs, from left to right Jeffrey Pattinson (no. 8) Burkhard von Schenk (no. 10) and Nigel Corner (no. 5). Number 23 just poking out of the pit garage on the left is the Cooper Bristol of Oliver Robinson  and the light green car in front of him is also a Cooper Bristol, that of Graham Burrows (no. 22). Coming out of the next pit garage is the Cooper T41 of Alan Miles (no. 14) and beyond that Paul Jaye's Alta (no. 18) has just left the garage. In front of Peter Jaye's car is another Alta, that of Ian Nuthall (no. 26), and behind that the Cooper Bristol of Paul Alexander (no. 19). The red car behind that Cooper is another Maserati 250F and it appears to have a number 7 which is shown in the programme as Robin Lodge's car, but he actually drove his Maserati 4CM in the  race (also number 7) and that is the red car at the end of the pit garages. The green car behind the three Maserati 250Fs is the Vanwall of John Harper (no. 1), and on the right behind that is another Maserati 250F which I can't identify as there were another five of these cars in the race. In the far distance is what appears to be ERA R1A or R3A, but there were three ERAs in the race, driven by Tony Merrick, Duncan Ricketts and Tony Stephens and the programme doesn't identify which ERAs those were.