1938 Multi-Union

This car, seen in a very wet Oulton Park paddock at the Vintage Sports Car Club's meeting in June 1971, was one of the competitors in the Richard Seaman Memorial Historic Trophy Race.

It's the 1938 Multi-Union of The Hon. Patrick Lindsay which was based on a 1934 Alfa Romeo P3. The programme of the event had this note about this car, and the Mercedes mentioned was Colin Crabbe's 1937 Mercedes Benz W125 which also competed in this race:

 

'The Hon. Patrick Lindsay's Multi-Union was developed just before the war from Chris Staniland's 1934 Alfa Romeo, such as Peter Waller is driving today, by motor-cycle tuner J.S.Worters with backing from High Duty Alloys and Lockheeds. Not only was the engine redesigned but also the chassis, with coil spring rear suspension and Tecnauto i.f.s., whilst a single-seater body on Mercedes lines was fitted. The car was extremely fast both on road and track and its resurrection and entry today is almost on a par with that of the Mercedes for interest.'

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 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.

1933 Napier Railton

The VSCC's Richard Seaman Memorial Trophies meeting at Donington Park in May 2011 featured demonstration runs by Brooklands Museum's 24 litre Napier Railton.

The car was created by Reid Railton, Chief Engineer at Thompson & Taylors Racing car works at Brooklands and intended for racing at the Brooklands banked circuit and also for world speed record attempts. A note in the programme of the event tells the story of the car:

'Commissioned by John Cobb, this car had to be equally suited to also tackle the coveted hour and 24 hour world speed records, usually on foreign soil. Named the Napier-Railton, it was a bespoke special powered by a 24 litre Napier Lion aeroplane engine whose twelve cylinders were arranged in three banks of four and drove via a three speed gearbox to a 1.66 to 1 rear axle. Railton designed all this specially and fitted it into a massive chassis frame with deep side rails passing underneath both front and rear axles. Suspension was by double cantilever springs at the rear with an identical system to the Sunbeam Tiger and Tigress he had designed earlier using semi elliptical units at the front. The only part he had derived from another car was the steering box and column from a Speed Six Bentley. The racing bodywork, similar to the Sunbeam's was made by Gurney Nutting.'

The car was successful from the start, winning races at Brooklands and setting the lap record at 143.44 mph which was still standing when the track finally closed in 1939. Between 1933 and 1936 the car took several world speed records at Montlhéry and Bonneville Salt Flats, the fastest being 100 miles at 168.59 mph. After the Second World War the car was used for a time by Sir Geoffrey Quilter for testing parachutes and later was acquired by the Hon. Patrick Lindsay who used it in VSCC races. After having several other owners it was acquired by the Brooklands Museum in 1997. 

Here's the car just leaving McLeans corner during one of the demonstration runs.

This last photograph is one I took of the car with my trusty Kodak Brownie 127 camera at a Richard Seaman Memorial Trophy meeting at Oulton Park in the late 1950s when it was in the ownership of Patrick Lindsay.

Maserati 250F

I took this photograph in the paddock at Oulton Park at the Richard Seaman Memorial Trophies Meeting in June 1975.

Both 1957 Maserati 250Fs, number 3 being that of Patrick Lindsay, chassis #2527 and number 1 being the car of Neil Corner, chassis #2528. The Maserati 250F has a 6-cylinder inline 2,490cc engine and was developed from the earlier A6GCM car to run in Formula 1 World Championship races when the regulations allowed an engine capacity of 2½ litres from 1954. The Maserati 250F competed in every year of that 2½ litre Championship from the first race of 1954 to the last race of 1960 and Juan Fangio became World Champion in 1957 driving for the Maserati team.

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.

ERA (or English Racing Automobiles)

ERA was a racing car manufacturer founded in 1933 by Humphrey Cook, Raymond Mays and Peter Berthon. Because of the prohibitive cost of building Grand Prix cars, at a time when it started to be dominated by the German Mercedes Benz and Auto Union cars, they opted instead for the smaller voiturette class. Most of the cars built still exist and regularly compete in historic events and you can read the history of each car on this excellent website.

Below are photographs of five of the cars at the Richard Seaman Memorial Historic Trophies meeting at Oulton Park in June 1982.

ERA R5B ("Remus") driven by the Hon. Patrick Lindsay

ERA R11B ("Humphrey") driven by Martin Morris

ERA R12B ("Hanuman II") driven by Bill Morris leading R2A driven by Brian Classic

ERA R9B driven by Peter Mann leading a Cooper Bristol