1956 Connaught C-Type

Martin Morris drove this car in the Cheshire Building Society's Allcomers race at the Vintage Sports Car Club's Richard Seaman Memorial Trophies meeting at Oulton Park in June 1981.

It's a 1956 Connaught C-Type, the eighth and last chassis built but it never competed in a Formula One race. It has the same 4 cylinder 2,470cc Alta engine that powered the Connaught B-type.

1936 ERA R11B

I took this photograph at the Vintage Sports Car Club's Richard Seaman Trophies meeting at Oulton Park in June 1969.

It's Martin Morris in his 1936 ERA R11B which was named 'Humphrey' by its first owner Reggie Tongue after the ERA founder, Humphrey Cook. It was originally a 1½ litre car in 1936, but was given a 2 litre supercharged engine in the late 1940s. Martin Morris won the Richard Seaman Memorial Historic Trophy Race that day for the first time, and went on to win it with 'Humphrey' nine more times.

1936 ERA R11B

I took this photograph at the Vintage Sports Car Club's Richard Seaman Memorial Trophies meeting at Oulton Park in June 1970.

It's Martin Morris returning to the paddock in his 1936 ERA R11B after winning the Richard Seaman Memorial Historic Trophy Race. R11B was named 'Humphrey' by its first owner Reggie Tongue after the ERA founder, Humphrey Cook. It was originally a 1½ litre car in 1936, but was given a 2 litre supercharged engine in the late 1940s. This car was owned, and driven, by Martin Morris from 1962 until his death in 2006 when it passed to his son David.

Richard Seaman Memorial Historic Trophy Race

I took this photograph just past Old Hall Corner in the early laps of the Richard Seaman Memorial Historic Trophy Race at Oulton Park in June 1973.

Car number 6 is the 1930/23 Bentley Napier (also known as the Napier Bentley) of David Llewellyn with Martin Morris alongside in his 1936 ERA R11B 'Humphrey'. The programme of the event said that the favourites today would be;

'....Neil Corner's ERA R4D, and Martin Morris's 2 litre ERA R11B, with a beam front axle and the engine set back in the chassis for Ken Wharton's sprinting activities with it. An unknown quantity to challenge these cars is David Llewellyn's Bentley Napier, powered by a 12 cylinder 24 litre Napier Lion aero engine. This car proved to be faster than the ERAs at Silverstone in April, but may be less successful on the twists and turns of Oulton Park, though this has yet to be proved.'

The Bentley Napier is here in it's original guise, and on 16 August 2015 I showed how it looked with newer bodywork at Donington Park in May 2001.

ERA

Here are photographs of some of the ERAs that took part in the Richard Seaman Memorial Historic Trophy Race at the Vintage Sports Car Club's meeting at Oulton Park in July 1987.

This is the six-cylinder 1½ litre supercharged engine of the 1935 ERA R1B, then owned by Sue Marsh and driven in the race by Duncan Ricketts. This car was originally owned by Dick Seaman.

This is R11B, named 'Humphrey' by its first owner Reggie Tongue after the ERA founder, Humphrey Cook. It was originally a 1½ litre car in 1936, but was given a 2 litre supercharged engine in the late 1940s. This car was owned, and driven, by Martin Morris from 1962 until his death in 2006 when it passed to his son David.

This is Martin Morris in R11B at Lodge Corner during the race.

This is R5B, a 1936 1½ litre car purchased by Prince Chula for his White Mouse team and driven by his cousin Prince Bira. Prince Chula already owned R2B and the two cars were named 'Romulus' (R2B) and 'Remus' (R5B) after the Roman twins. Driven here at Lodge Corner by Ludovic Lindsay who inherited the car from his late father the Hon. Patrick Lindsay in 1986. The programme of this event shows the engine capacity as 1,986cc supercharged.

This is R12B, a 1936 car with rather a messy history, originally with a 2 litre engine, but here with a 1½ litre supercharged unit. Another car that was once a White Mouse team car driven by Prince Bira and named 'Hanuman', it's here being driven at Lodge Corner by Bill Morris and trying to pass Rodney Felton in a 1934 Alfa Romeo P3.

Lastly, again at Lodge Corner, we have Anthony Mayman in R4D, a 1936 car with 2 litre supercharged engine.

I've shown photographs previously of two other ERAs taking part at this meeting: on 3 May 2015 I featured R4A, and on 30 April 2017 it was R8C.

You can read the history of all the ERAs, including the confusion about the identity of R12B here.

Jaguar D-Type

I took these photographs in the paddock at the VSCC's Richard Seaman Memorial Trophies meeting at Oulton Park in June 1985.

I can't find the programme for this meeting, but this is the 1954 Jaguar D-Type of Martin Morris, seen here in the cockpit.

It's chassis XKC 404 and took part in the 1954 Le Mans 24 Hour race where it was driven by Peter Whitehead and Ken Wharton, but retired after 13 hours with a broken gearbox.

Originally with the 3,442cc straight-6 Jaguar engine, but the DVLA record says that it now has a 3,781cc unit.

OKV 3 was the third of the three D-Types at the 1954 Le Mans 24 Hour Race. OKV 1 (chassis XKC 402) was driven by Duncan Hamilton and Tony Rolt and finished in second place. OKV 2 (chassis XKC 403) was driven by Stirling Moss and Peter Walker, but retired after 12 hours with brake problems.

ERAs

I took this photograph from the inside of Coppice Corner at the VSCC's Richard Seaman Memorial Trophies meeting at Donington Park in May 2001.

The photograph was taken during the Historic Seaman Trophy race and shows David Morris, driving his father Martin's ERA R11B 'Humphrey', passing Ludovic Lindsay in ERA R5B 'Remus' on the inside. Both cars are 1936 models and have the 2 litre supercharged 6-cylinder engine, and you can read the histories of these cars, together with all the other ERAs, on this website.

Maserati 4CL

This car competed in the HGPCA Pre '52 GP Car Race at the Coys International Historic Festival meeting at Silverstone in August 1996.

It's Norbert Schmitz-Koep's 1939 Maserati 4CL, chassis #1566, and sitting in the cockpit is Martin Morris. Norbert Schmitz-Koep is sitting alongside in another of his cars, a 1934 Maserati 4CS. The Maserati 4CL was designed for Voiturette racing, and had a supercharged 1,491cc straight-4 engine. The car had some success in it's first season until racing was curtailed by the Second World War, and dominated racing in the years immediately following the war in the hands of drivers such as Raymond Sommer, Tazio Nuvolari and Luigi Villoresi, until the arrival of the Alfa Romeo 158.

Alfa Romeo P3

This car contested the Richard Seaman Memorial Trophy Race for Historic Racing Cars at Oulton Park in June 1993.

It's Rodney Felton's 1934 Alfa Romeo P3 (chassis #50009) with a 3.2 litre straight eight engine and designed by Vittorio Jano, who 20 years later , in 1954, designed the V8 2½ litre Lancia D50. On 27 April 2016 I showed photographs of an Alfa Romeo P3, probably the same car, at the VSCC's meeting at Oulton Park in 2005. Behind Rodney Felton's car here is the 1936 ERA R11B of Martin Morris.

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