1934 Alfa Romeo P3 and 1938 ERA E-Type GP2

This is a photograph that I took at Foulstons chicane during the Richard Seaman Historic Memorial Trophy Race at the Vintage Sports Car Club’s meeting at Oulton Park in June 1993.

Rodney Felton in his 1934 Alfa Romeo P3 is leading Gordon Chapman’s ERA E-Type GP2, which is being driven by Bill Morris.

1939 Maserati 4CL

This is a photograph I took in the paddock at the Vintage Sports Car Club's Richard Seaman Memorial Trophies race meeting at Oulton Park in June 1984.

It's Rodney Felton’s 1939 Maserati 4CL, chassis 1567, and has a supercharged 4-cylinder inline 1,492cc engine. The 1939 racing season was curtailed by the outbreak of the Second World War but when racing recommenced in 1946 it proved to be the most successful of the cars taking part, and even more so in the 1947 season.

1931 Alfa Romeo 8C Monza

This is a photograph I took at Lodge Corner during the Richard Seaman Memorial Historic Trophy Race at the Vintage Sports Car Club's meeting at Oulton park in June 1981.

It's Rodney Felton in his 1931 Alfa Romeo 8C Monza which has an 8-cylinder inline 2,557cc supercharged engine.

1934 Alfa Romeo P3

This was one of the competitors in the Pre 1952 Grand Prix Cars Race at the Coys International Historic Festival meeting at Silverstone in July 1998.

It's Rodney Felton's 1934 Alfa Romeo P3 and was driven in the race by Sir John Venables-Llewelyn. The P3 was introduced in 1932 with a twin-supercharged 2,654cc straight-8 engine which by 1935 had been enlarged to 3,165cc. By then, with the exception of Tazio Nuvolari's victory in the German Grand Prix that year (with the engine further enlarged to 3,822cc), the car was unable to match the Auto Union and Mercedes-Benz cars. This car is chassis #50009 that was destroyed in an accident in 1949 but the remains were eventually reconstructed by Rodney Felton.

1955 Maserati 250F

I took this photograph at Lodge Corner during the Historic Car Championship race at the Aston Martin Owners Club's meeting at Oulton Park in September 1986.

It’s the 1955 Maserati 250F of Anthony Mayman and has a 6-cylinder inline 2,490cc engine. It is chassis #2516, a car that was mainly campaigned for the works team in 1955 by Jean Behra. At the end of that season it was sold to Australian Reg Hunt who raced it successfully for several years and it then passed through the hands of other Australian drivers before being acquired by Cameron Millar in the 1960s. Subsequently owned by Anthony Mayman who allowed a wide range of friends to race the car, and it was driven at this meeting by Rodney Felton.

1934 Alfa Romeo P3

This was one of the competitors in the Pre 1952 Grand Prix Cars Race at the Coys International Historic Festival meeting at Silverstone in July 2000.

It's Rodney Felton's 1934 Alfa Romeo P3 that was driven in the race by Sir John Venables-Llewelyn. The P3 was introduced in 1932 with a twin-supercharged 2,654cc straight-8 engine which by 1935 had been enlarged to 3,165cc. By then, with the exception of Tazio Nuvolari's victory in the German Grand Prix that year (with the engine further enlarged to 3,822cc), the car was unable to match the Auto Union and Mercedes-Benz cars. This car is chassis #50009 that was destroyed in an accident in 1949 but the remains were eventually reconstructed by Rodney Felton.

1934 Alfa Romeo P3

This car took part in the Richard Seaman Memorial Historic Trophy Race at the VSCC's meeting at Oulton Park in July 1987.

It's the 1934 Alfa Romeo P3 of Rodney Felton, chassis #50009, with a 3,165cc twin-supercharged straight-8 engine designed by Vittorio Jano. The P3 was introduced in 1932, and Tazio Nuvolari won two of the three races in the European Championship that season with his team mate Rudolf Caracciola winning the third race. The Alfa Romeo team was suffering financial problems and missed the early part of the 1933 season, but later in the year the cars were handed over to Scuderia Ferrari and won the last two European Championship races of the season. The first two races of the 1934 season were won by Alfa Romeo but the second race, the French Grand Prix, marked the entry of the Mercedes Benz and Auto Union cars into the fray, and these cars went on to dominate Grand Prix racing until the start of World War 2. The Alfa Romeo P3, however, had its swan song in the 1935 German Grand Prix at the Nürburgring, Tazio Nuvolari beating the 5-car Mercedes Benz and 4-car Auto Union teams.

1934 Alfa Romeo P3

This was one of the competitors in the Richard Seaman Memorial Historic Trophy Race at the VSCC's meeting at Oulton Park in July 1987.

It's Rodney Felton at Lodge Corner during the race in his 1934 Alfa Romeo P3. The P3 was introduced in 1932 with a twin-supercharged 2,654cc straight-8 engine which by 1935 had been enlarged to 3,165cc. By then, with the exception of Tazio Nuvolari's victory in the German Grand Prix that year (with the engine further enlarged to 3,822cc), the car was unable to match the Auto Union and Mercedes-Benz cars

On 14 February 2019 I showed a photograph of this car at Silverstone in 2000.

Alfa Romeo P3

This car took part in the Race for Pre 1952 Grand Prix Cars at the Coys International Historic Festival meeting at Silverstone in July 2000.

It's Rodney Felton's 1934 Alfa Romeo P3 and was driven in the race by Sir John Venables-Llewelyn. The programme of the event said this about the car:

'Alfa Romeo are prominent too, indeed the redoubtable Sir John Venables-Llewelyn will be a contender for outright victory with Rodney Felton's gorgeous P3. The supercharged straight-eight machines were winners in the early '30s, driven by stars like Tazio Nuvolari and Achille Varzi.'

The Alfa Romeo P3 was introduced in 1932 with a twin-supercharged straight-8 engine, initially with a capacity of 2,654cc. In 1933 much of the European racing season was missed due to financial problems at Alfa Romeo, but the cars were eventually handed over to Enzo Ferrari whose Scuderia Ferrari ran the cars for the 1933-1935 seasons. By 1935 the P3s were outclassed by the Mercedes-Benz W25s and Auto Union B Types, but Tazio Nuvolari won a famous victory in the German Grand Prix at the Nürburgring with a P3 bored out to 3,822cc.

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.

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.

Maserati 250F

Stirling Moss has said that that the Maserati 250F was the nicest front-engined F1 car that he ever drove. It was also the car that Juan Manuel Fangio drove to win the last of his World Championships in 1957. Here's a short YouTube film of him driving a 250F round the Modena Autodrome in what the title to the clip says is 1950, but looks to be either 1957 or 1958. Click on the 'full screen' icon and turn the sound up to get the best effect - and just look at the track he's driving on. The surfaces of some of the minor roads maintained by Tameside Council are in better condition than that one!

The photographs below are of a Maserati 250F at an Aston Martin Owners Club meeting at Oulton Park in September 1986. The car was at that time owned by Anthony Mayman.

The car at Lodge Corner being driven by Rodney Felton.

The Maserati 250F chassis numbers are well documented and this excellent site shown the full racing history of each of them. This indicates that the Maserati pictured above is chassis number 2516 and this site gives additional information about this particular car.