1956/57 Willment Climax

These cars are at Britten's chicane during the 1950s Sports Racing Cars race at the Vintage Sports Car Club's Boulogne and Hawthorn Trophies Race Meeting at Oulton Park in May 2005.

Leading is the 1956/57 Willment Climax of Barry Cannell with a 4-cylinder inline 1,963cc Coventry Climax FPF engine, driven in period by Graham Hill, Jack Brabham and Stuart Lewis-Evans amongst others. The car behind it is the 1959 Sadler MarkIII of E.D.Butler, driven by Martin Walford, then the 1959 Maserati Tipo 61 of  Alan Minshaw. Following that car is (I think) the 1958 Lister Knobbly of Stephen Gibson, then the 1959 Cooper Monaco of Anthony Ditheridge and the 1958 Devin SS of Ron Gammons.

1959 Sadler MkIII

This car took part in the 1950s Sports Racing Cars race at the Vintage Sports Car Club's Boulogne and Hawthorn Trophies Race Meeting at Oulton Park in May 2005.

It's E.D.Butler's 1959 Sadler MkIII and was driven in the race by Martin Walford. The car was one of a small number of cars built by Canadian Bill Sadler, and according to the programme of the event this car has a 5,470cc Chevrolet V8 engine.

Allard JR

The Donington International Historic Grand Prix meeting at Donington Park in May 2004 organised by the Historic Grand Prix Cars Association included a Gentleman Drivers GT and Sports Endurance race lasting 2¼ hours. The car pictured below is one of those taking part in this race.

It's a 1953 Allard JR and the co-drivers in the race were Martin Walford and Michael Windsor Price. Sydney Allard drove an Allard JR at the 1953 Le Mans 24 hour race and actually led on the first lap of the race, but had to retire on lap 4 with a collapsed rear suspension. The JR and J2R were the final evolution of the J2 and a total of 10 models were built. It appears that arrangements were made recently to start manufacturing continuation models.

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.