English Racing Automobiles (ERA) was a Britishracing car manufacturer active from 1933 to 1954.
ERA was founded by Humphrey Cook,Raymond Mays, and Peter Berthon in November 1933 and established inBourne,Lincolnshire, next to Eastgate House, the family home of Raymond Mays betweenEastgate 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 smallervoiturette—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 includingVauxhall,Bugatti andRiley.[1]A new chassis was conceived by British designerReid Railton (who had also successfully designed theBluebird land speed record cars forMalcolm Campbell) and was constructed by Thomson & Taylor atBrooklands.[1] The engine was based on the well-proven Riley six-cylinder unit, albeit this was modified in a number of significant ways. A stronger forged crankshaft with a large centreHyatt roller bearing was made and an entirely new aluminium cylinder head designed. The engine was supercharged using a bespoke supercharger designed by Murray Jamieson who had worked with Mays and Berthon on theWhite Riley. The ERA engine was designed around three capacities— a base 1488cc for the 1500cc racing class, one of 1088cc for the 1100cc class and also was capable of being expanded up to 1980cc for the 2000cc class.[2] 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.[1]
The panel-beating brothers George and Jack Gray hand-fashioned the new car’s single-seater bodywork, to a design credited to a Mr Piercy who had previously designed the bodywork for Campbell’s '‘Bluebird’' record breaker.[1]
The unveiling of the first ERA—chassis R1A—to the press and public took place at Brooklands on 22 May 1934 following testing atSyston Park. After initial chassis handling problems, which required a number of modifications, soon ERA had a winning formula. By the end of the year ERAs had scored notable victories against many more established marques. In 1935, in a major race at theNürburgring, ERAs took first, third, fourth and fifth places. The car was available in engine sizes running from 1.1 to 2.0 Litres.[3] Four were built, two with 1.1-litre supercharged engines, one 1.5- and one 2-litre.[4]
Through the remainder of the decade, with drivers of the calibre ofDick 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.[3]
TwoSiamese princes, Chula Chakrabongse andBira Birabongse, whose trio of ERAs became famous as "Hanuman","Romulus" and "Remus", ran their own team, operating from The White Mouse Garage, Hammersmith.[5] Prince Chula owned the team, having bought Romulus as a present for his cousin, Prince Bira, who was the team's driver.[6]
13 B-Type ERAs were produced,[4][7] three of which were later modified to subsequent (type C or in one case type D) specifications.
1937 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.[3] Three type B ERAs were modified to type C standard, cars R4B, R8B, and R12B.[4]
The D-Type was the designation for the number R4B ERA after modification in 1938. R4B had previously become R4C before being modified to this standard.[3]
The more modern E-Type ERA appeared just before the Second World War but was not fully developed, with only one car, GP1, actually racing.
The Second World War brought a halt to motor racing in Europe, and the team's Bourne site was sold to the Bus operatorDelaine who occupied adjacent premises. The original building is still in use today by Delaine as an office block. By the time racing resumed in the late 1940s Berthon and Mays had moved on to theBritish Racing Motors (BRM) project.
ERA restarted operations inDunstable under new ownership in 1947 whenLeslie Johnson bought the company, together with ERA E-Type GP2, the second of two built in 1939, which had been raced by Reg Parnell andLeslie Brooke. Refitted with a Zoller supercharger and driven by Johnson, GP2 tied with Parnell'sMaserati 4CLT for fastest lap in the 1948 British Empire Trophy and finished fifth. In the same race GP1, upgraded by the works with Murray Jamieson-designedRoots-type supercharging and driven by Reg Parnell's mechanicWilkie Wilkinson (who had supervised modification of the E-Types), retired with a broken connecting rod.[8]
After posting the fastest time in the opening practice session for the1948 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 atMontlhéry he broke the lap record but retired GP2 from the race with a fractured fuel tank after three laps.[8]
In 1949 atGoodwood GP2 broke a back axle universal joint in practice but Johnson took the car to fifth in the Richmond Trophy and third in the Chichester Cup. In the first day's practice for the Jersey International Road Race, he was second-fastest toLuigi Villoresi's record-breaking lap in a Maserati but on the second day the engine bearings failed and the car did not race. AtSilverstone's 1950 Grand Prix d'Europe the supercharger disintegrated after two laps.[8]
Meanwhile, GP1, driven by Fred Ashmore, failed to finish the 1948 Jersey International Road Race owing to fuel starvation and defective steering.
In the 1949BRDC/Daily Express International Trophy,Peter Walker took GP1 to within 1.2 seconds ofGiuseppe Farina's Maserati in practice and finished fifth in the race, despite gearbox and steering problems, a leaking radiator, and the exhaust burning the driver's foot. Walker was fastest in practice for Ireland's Wakefield Trophy road race, but a snatching brake forced him down the escape road at the first corner. Here GP1's race ended when it was hit by an Alta that had already collided withSalvadori's Maserati 4CL.[8]
Finally in 1950, GP1 was gutted by fire in a crash at the British Empire Trophy race on the Isle of Man, caused by driveshaft failure when the car was at high speed with Walker at the wheel.[8]
The 2-litre G-Type raced in the 1952 World Championship, the first season to be run under Formula Two rules. The fundamental design was laid down byRobert Eberan-Eberhorst, one of the world's leading theorists of racing car design, who had replacedFerdinand Porsche atAuto Union and designed theAuto Union Type D Grand Prix car. His protégé and successor David Hodkin completed the G-Type design.[9] The frame was constructed of two longitudinalmagnesium tubes with four crossmembers. Suspension was bydouble wishbone with coil springs at the front andde Dion tube at the rear. The car was powered by aBristol 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 onLe Mans that would bring them several class wins in the mid-1950s—and focused the company onresearch and development (R&D) engineering.[10] He eventually sold it toZenith Carburettor Ltd, which was then purchased bySolex, anothercarburettor firm.
In 1949 von Eberhorst, working for ERA, designed thespace-framechassis for theJowett Jupiter.
Although renamedEngineering 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 theERA Mini Turbo, aturbocharged version of theMini.
The vast majority of prewar ERAs are still in existence, and they have continuous and verifiableprovenance. They still compete in historic events despite the youngest being nearly seventy years old. The cars are particularly associated with theShelsley Walsh hillclimb thanks in large part to Mays, who won the first twoBritish Hill Climb Championships in 1947 and 1948; indeed an ERA has for many years held the hill record for a prewar car.[11][12][13][14]
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.
The ERA trademark is currently owned by Tiger Racing[15]
| Year | Chassis | Engine | Tyres | Driver | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1950 | GBR | MON | 500 | SUI | BEL | FRA | ITA | |||||
| ERA E-Type | ERA 1.5L6s | D |  Leslie Johnson | Ret | ||||||||
| ERA E-Type | ERA 1.5L6s | D | Peter Walker | Ret* | ||||||||
| ERA E-Type | ERA 1.5L6s | D | Tony Rolt | Ret* | ||||||||
| ERA B-Type ERA C-Type | ERA 1.5L6s | D | Cuth Harrison | 7 | Ret | Ret | ||||||
| ERA C-Type ERA A-Type | ERA 1.5L6s | D | Bob Gerard | 6 | 6 | |||||||
| 1951 | SUI | 500 | BEL | FRA | GBR | GER | ITA | ESP | ||||
| ERA B-Type | ERA 1.5L6s | D | Bob Gerard | 11 | ||||||||
| ERA B-Type | ERA 1.5L6s | D | Brian Shawe-Taylor | 8 | ||||||||
| 1952 | SUI | 500 | BEL | FRA | GBR | GER | NED | ITA | ||||
| ERA G-Type | Bristol BS1 2.0L6 | D | Stirling Moss | Ret | Ret | Ret | ||||||
