English Racing Automobiles: История британских гоночных автомобилей ERA

Automobile manufacturer

English Racing Automobiles (ERA) was a British racing car manufacturer active from 1933 to 1954.

ERA was founded by Humphrey Cook, Raymond Mays, and Peter Berthon in November 1933 and established in Bourne, Lincolnshire, next to Eastgate House, the family home of Raymond Mays between Eastgate road and Spalding road. Their ambition was to manufacture and campaign a team of single seater racing cars capable of upholding British prestige in Continental European racing. With the cost of full Grand Prix racing prohibitive, they instead aimed ERA's efforts at the smaller voiturette—1500cc supercharged—class of motor racing, the Formula 2 equivalent of the day. Humphrey Cook financed the operation—using the wealth from the family drapery business, Cook, Son & Co., of St Paul's Churchyard, London. Berthon was responsible for the overall design of the cars, while Mays became its principal driver—having already successfully raced several other makes including Vauxhall, Bugatti and Riley. A new chassis was conceived by British designer Reid Railton (who had also successfully designed the Bluebird land speed record cars for Malcolm Campbell) and was constructed by Thomson & Taylor at Brooklands. It ran on methanol and in its 1500cc form was capable of producing around 180–200 bhp and in excess of 250–275 bhp in 2000cc form. Through the remainder of the decade, with drivers of the calibre of Dick Seaman in the team, ERA dominated voiturette racing.

In 1935, production of the B Type began (minimally changed). The A and B models were offered with three engine sizes. Two Siamese princes, Chula Chakrabongse and Bira Birabongse, whose trio of ERAs became famous as "Hanuman", "Romulus" and "Remus", ran their own team, operating from The White Mouse Garage, Hammersmith. Prince Chula owned the team, having bought Romulus as a present for his cousin, Prince Bira, who was the team's driver. 13 B Type ERAs were produced, three of which were later modified to subsequent (type C or in one case type D) specifications.

1936 saw the emergence of the C Type. The same ladder frame chassis and aluminum panel bodywork were kept on from the A and B models. However, the C model had a slightly different range of engines. None of the C stage cars had the smallest engine option, having instead 1.5 or 2.0 liter, with an added 1.75 liter intermediate engine option. Changes were also made in the suspension and control arms. Hydraulic dampers were installed on the rear suspension while a completely new front suspension appeared, replacing the elliptic leaf springs and friction dampers with a trailing arm with transverse torsion bars and hydraulic dampers. After posting the fastest time in the opening practice session for the 1948 British Grand Prix, Johnson retired GP2 from third place on the first lap when a driveshaft universal joint failed. In practice for the Coupe du Salon at Montlhéry he broke the lap record but retired GP2 from the race with a fractured fuel tank after three laps. The frame was constructed of two longitudinal magnesium tubes with four crossmembers. Suspension was by double wishbone with coil springs at the front and de Dion tube at the rear. The car was powered by a Bristol engine with modifications to Hodkin's specifications. Stirling Moss drove, but the engine was unreliable and the race results were disappointing. Moss said: "It was, above all, a project which made an awful lot of fuss about doing very little. By this time I was very disillusioned by the Clever Professor approach to racing car design. I would eventually learn that even the most brilliant concept could fail if the team concerned lacks the manpower and organization and money to develop the inevitable bugs out of it." Johnson sold the project to Bristol—who used the car as the basis for an assault on Le Mans that would bring them several class wins in the mid 1950s—and focused the company on research and development (R&D) engineering. He eventually sold it to Zenith Carburettor Ltd, which was then purchased by Solex, another carburettor firm.

In 1949 von Eberhorst, working for ERA, designed the space frame chassis for the Jowett Jupiter.

Although renamed Engineering Research and Application Ltd, and still primarily an R&D operation, ERA still did a small amount of race preparation. In the 1980s it put its name to the ERA Mini Turbo, a turbocharged version of the Mini.

The vast majority of prewar ERAs are still in existence, and they have continuous and verifiable provenance. They still compete in historic events despite the youngest being nearly seventy years old. The cars are particularly associated with the Shelsley Walsh hillclimb thanks in large part to Mays, who won the first two British Hill Climb Championships in 1947 and 1948; indeed an ERA has for many years held the hill record for a prewar car.

There is a permanent exhibition about Raymond Mays' contribution to motor racing, including his ERA days, at Bourne Civic Society's heritage centre in Bourne. It is open on weekend and bank holiday afternoons.