1937 ERA R12C

I took this photograph on the approach to Lodge Corner during the Richard Seaman Memorial Historic Trophy Race at the Vintage Sports Car Club's meeting at Oulton Park in June 1984.

It's the 1937 ERA R12C of Bill Morris which has a supercharged 6-cylinder inline1,488cc engine and was driven in the race by Tony Stephens.  Bill Morris owned two ERAs, R12B and R12C and the two cars have a strange history, R12B being a works car that was originally built in 1936 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 1938 it was sold to Prince Chula to become one of his White Mouse stable's trio of ERAs driven by Prince Bira, where it was given the name 'Hanuman'. 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'.

Connaught A-Type and ERA R12B

Here are two of David Wenman's cars which both took part in the Hawthorn Memorial Trophy race at the VSCC's meeting at Oulton Park in June 2006.

The yellow car is a 1952 Connaught A Type which has a 1,960cc 4-cylinder inline engine based on the 1,767cc Lea Francis unit. It was chassis A4 and one of Connaught's works team cars in 1952, when it was usually driven by Dennis Poore, then in 1953 it went to the Écurie Belge team where the drivers were Johnny Claes and André Pilette. The blue car is the 1936 ERA R12B, named Hanuman II, with the 6-cylinder inline 1,488cc supercharged ERA engine. Before the Second World War this was one of Siamese Prince Chula's White Mouse Racing stable cars and was driven by his cousin Prince Bira. There's quite an involved story about this car and ERA R12C which you can read about in this history of all the ERA cars. David Wenman drove the Connaught in the Hawthorn Memorial Trophy race,and the ERA was driven by Tony Stephens.

Jaguar

These cars took part in the Italy v Rest of the World Race for Pre 1959 Drum Brake Sports Cars at the Silverstone Historic Festival meeting in August 2001.

On the left is the 1952 Jaguar C-Type of David Wenman that was driven in the race by Tony Stephens. It's chassis XKC008 and has the 6-cylinder inline 3,442cc Jaguar XK6 engine that powered all the C-Types, and was originally owned by Leslie Johnson who drove it in the 1953 Mille Miglia but failed to finish the race. The car on the right is the 1954 Jaguar XK120 of George Holt, again with the 3,442cc XK6 engine.

Maserati 250F

Three Maserati 250Fs took part in the Flockhart Trophy race at the VSCC's SeeRed meeting at Donington Park in June 2008 and here is David Wenman's 1957 model being prepared in the paddock prior to the race.

I've been through the list of Maserati 250F serial numbers in the barchetta.cc website but I can't see which of the cars this one is.

Here's the car, driven by Tony Stephens, in the pit lane going on a practice run

During the race here's Tony Stephens following Brandon Smith-Hilliard's 250F, also a 1957 model, at McLean's corner.