Maserati 8CTF

This car was on display at the Coys International Historic Festival meeting at Silverstone in August 1996 in what looks like the Maserati Club's marquee.

It's the 2,991cc straight-8 supercharged 1938 Maserati 8CTF of E Dean Butler, one of three cars built to challenge the all-conquering German Mercedes-Benz and Auto Union cars. The car proved capable of matching the German cars for speed, but lacked the reliability of its rivals. This car, chassis #3030, is one of two cars which were sold in 1939 to Lucy O'Reilly Schell (her name is on the side of this car), the other car being sold to American Mike Boyle and which as the Boyle Special went on to win the Indianapolis 500 mile race in 1939 and 1940.

On 29 September 2015 I showed a photograph of this car at Donington Park in 2003.

Bugatti Type 51

I photographed this car in the pit garage at the Coys International Historic Festival meeting at Silverstone in July 1998.

It's E Dean Butler's 2,262cc supercharged straight-8 1931 Bugatti Type 51 and it appears to be chassis 51146, the car with which Louis Chiron won the 1931 Monaco Grand Prix. The Type 51 was the successor to the more well-known Type 35 of the 1920s. At this Silverstone meeting the car competed in the HGPCA Pre-1952 Grand Prix Car Race.

Maserati 8CTF

This is one of the cars that took part in the Historic Seaman Trophy Race at the VSCC meeting at Donington Park in June 2003.

It's E Dean Butler's 1938 Maserati 8CTF, which was driven in the Historic Seaman Trophy race by Stephen Hyett. Three of the 8CTF models were built by Maserati in 1938 with the chassis numbers 3030, 3031 and 3032. The cars were campaigned by the works in the 1938 racing season with little success, the best result being a third place for 3031 in the German Grand Prix at the Nürburgring in the hands of Paul Pietsche. Early in 1939 3032 was sold to American Mike Boyle and as the 'Boyle Special' it went on to win the Indianapolis 500 race in 1939 and 1940. The other two cars were sold later in 1939 to French racing driver Laury Schell and his French-Irish-American wife Lucy O'Reilly Schell, who was also a well-known competitor. After Laury Schell's death soon after that in a road accident his wife returned to America taking the two Maseratis with her and they were entered in the Indianapolis 500 race in 1940. Car 3031 in the hands of René Dreyfus didn't qualify for the race, but he shared the driving of 3030 in the race with René Le Bègue, finishing in tenth place. The car pictured here is that car, chassis number 3030.

NB: Harry Schell, who competed in the 1950s with Maserati, Vanwall, BRM and other cars, was the son of Laury and Lucy O'Brien Schell.

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.