1952 Connaught A-Type

This car took part in an Allcomers Scratch Race for Historic Racing Cars at the VSCC's Richard Seaman Memorial Trophies meeting at Oulton Park in June 1971.

It's the 1952 Connaught A Type of Gerry Walton, and is chassis A8. The Connaught A-Type was designed and built by Connaught Engineering's Rodney Clarke and Mike Oliver with a 1,960cc engine based on the Lea Francis 4-cylinder 1,767cc unit. Gerry Walton's car was part of the Connaught works team in 1953, and the team competed in World Championship races with drivers including Stirling Moss, Prince Bira and Roy Salvadori. 

Connaught A-Type and ERA R12B

Here are two of David Wenman's cars which both took part in the Hawthorn Memorial Trophy race at the VSCC's meeting at Oulton Park in June 2006.

The yellow car is a 1952 Connaught A Type which has a 1,960cc 4-cylinder inline engine based on the 1,767cc Lea Francis unit. It was chassis A4 and one of Connaught's works team cars in 1952, when it was usually driven by Dennis Poore, then in 1953 it went to the Écurie Belge team where the drivers were Johnny Claes and André Pilette. The blue car is the 1936 ERA R12B, named Hanuman II, with the 6-cylinder inline 1,488cc supercharged ERA engine. Before the Second World War this was one of Siamese Prince Chula's White Mouse Racing stable cars and was driven by his cousin Prince Bira. There's quite an involved story about this car and ERA R12C which you can read about in this history of all the ERA cars. David Wenman drove the Connaught in the Hawthorn Memorial Trophy race,and the ERA was driven by Tony Stephens.

Craner Curves, Donington Park

This is a photograph taken at the Craner Curves during the first lap of the Ron Flockhart Memorial Trophy Race at the VSCC's SeeRed meeting at Donington Park in September 2004.

Leading is Andrew Smith in his 2 litre 1957 Cooper T43 followed by two more Coopers, the 2 litre 1958 T45 of Anthony Ditheridge and the 2 litre 1957 T43 of Tania Pilkington. The two cars behind them are the 3.8 litre 1958 Lister Jaguar Monza of Rod Jolley and Alexander Boswell's 3 litre 1952 Ferrari 625A. Following them is a group consisting of B Type and A Type Connaughts, a Cooper Bristol and another Cooper T45. Bringing up the rear are the 4.2 litre 1957 Kurtis Offenhauser KK500G of Stuart Harper and the 2 litre 1953 Cooper Bristol T23 of David White.

Connaught A-Type

This car took part in the Cheshire Building Society's Allcomers Race at the VSCC's Richard Seaman Memorial Trophies Meeting at Oulton Park in June 1984.

It's the 1952 Connaught A-Type, Chassis A8, of Gerry Walton and was part of the Connaught Works team in 1953, being mainly driven by John Coombes, Stirling Moss and Prince Bira.

The Connaught 1,960cc straight-4 engine developed from the Lea Francis 1,767cc unit.

Connaught A Type

This car took part in the Cheshire Building Society Allcomers Race at the VSCC's Richard Seaman Memorial Trophies Meeting at Oulton Park in June 1982.

It's the 1952 Connaught A Type of Gerry Walton, chassis A8, and is pictured here at Knickerbrook Corner during the race. The car was designed and built by Connaught Engineering's Rodney Clarke and Mike Oliver with a 1,960cc engine based on the Lea Francis 4-cylinder 1,767cc unit, and competed in 1952 and 1953 Grand Prix races which were run under the 2-litre capacity formula. 

On 30 May 2016 I showed a photograph of the car in the paddock at this meeting.

Connaught A Type

This car competed in the Flockhart Trophy Race at the VSCC's SeeRed meeting at Donington Park in September 2006.

It's David Wenman's 1952 Connaught A type, with a 4-cylinder inline engine based on the 1,767cc Lea Francis engine with the capacity increased to 1,960cc in line with the then current Formula 2 regulations. It's chassis number A4, and was at one time campaigned by the Ecurie Belge team.

On 7 March 2017 I showed photographs of this car taken at Oulton Park in 2005.

Connaught A-Type

These two Connaughts competed in the HGPCA Pre-61 Front Engine Grand Prix Cars race at the Silverstone Classic meeting in July 2010.

This is Adrian van der Kroft's 1952 Connaught A-Type, chassis A3. Originally owned by Ken Downing it was acquired by Rob Walker in 1953 and subsequently driven by Tony Rolt, Peter Collins and Tony Brooks, amongst others.

This is another Connaught A-Type, the 1952 car of Wil Arif, and is chassis A6. This car was driven in the 1952 season by Eric Thompson, and in the Italian Grand Prix by Stirling Moss, but was acquired by Ecurie Ecosse at the end of the season and was campaigned by them in the 1953 season.

Here's Wil Arif in A6 preparing to go out on a practice session.

The A-Type Connaught was designed in 1950 to compete in 2 litre Formula 2 races and the 1,960cc engine was developed from the Lea Francis engines that powered their L-Type sports cars. In 1952 and 1953 the World Drivers Championship was contested by Formula 2 cars and Connaughts took part in several of those races.

Connaught A Type

This car competed for the Hawthorn Memorial Trophy in the Hawthorn Memorial and Spanish Trophies Race at the VSCC's meeting at Oulton Park in May 2005.

It's the 1960cc 1952 Connaught A Type of David Wenman, chassis number A4, that was raced by Dennis Poore in the 1952 season before being sold to the Ecurie Belge to be raced by Johnny Claes and André Pillette the following season.

Here's David Wenman approaching Druids Corner during the race.

Connaught A Type

This car competed in the Cheshire Building Society Allcomer Race at the Richard Seaman Memorial Trophies Meeting at Oulton Park in June 1982.

It's Gerry Walton's Connaught A Type, chassis number A8, and you can read the history of the car in this description of the car issued by H&H Auctions when it was entered for auction in May 2002.

Connaught A Type

I showed two photographs a couple of days ago of David Wenman's ERA R12B at the Gold Cup meeting at Oulton Park in August 2002 and said that although the ERA wasn't listed in the programme of the event, he had entered two Connaught A Types in the HGPCA Pre-1961 Grand Prix Cars race. Here are photographs of one of those cars.

You can see ERA R12B alongside the Connaught, which was driven in the race by Barrie Williams.