ERA-engined Cars - Notes on Chassis Technical History and Specification

CAR BY CAR

Riley 12/6 TT ‘White Riley’ (4/103 - KV 5696 / KV 5929)
(Prototype ERA-engined from 1933 to 1939 and ERA-engined from 1993 to date)
This car was built by the Riley works in 1933 using a 12/6 TT Riley chassis into which Mays, Berthon and Jamieson fitted what proved to be the prototype ERA engine. Raymond Mays then proceeded to beat Hans Stuck’s Shelsley Walsh hill record in September 1933. The car’s ownership between 1935 and 1938 is somewhat uncertain, but it was most likely owned by Kay Petre, after which it was sold to Percy Maclure in 1938. In 1939 Maclure removed the prototype ERA engine from the car, in order to fit it into his Maclure Riley (See separate note below).
An ERA engine was refitted by Barrie Gillies c1993.

Riley 12/6 TT MPH Prototype (4/105 - KV 6079)
(ERA-engined in 1935)
Fitted temporarily with an ERA engine during 1935 at Raymond Mays’ instigation.
The ERA engine was soon removed and the car returned to Riley power.

Riley IFS / Maclure Riley (AVC 18)
(ERA-engined from 1939 to 1948)
This car began life as a 1936 Riley works car, usually referred to as the Type 2 IFS car, which was fitted with Girling Independent Front Suspension.
Unused during 1937, the car was then purchased by Percy Maclure in late in the year, who during 1938/39 developed it into an increasingly potent Riley special.
For 1938 Maclure fitted an adapted version of the body from his previous TT Sprite, and he raced the car in this form during the 1938 season.
In early 1939, he installed the prototype ERA engine from the White Riley (see above). He also fitted parts of the offset body, which he had retained from the 1936 Works Type 2 IFS car, including the tail section and fairing. The car then appeared in this form throughout the 1939 season, with another engine, probably a ‘real’ ERA unit obtained from Reggie Tongue, replacing the ex-White Riley engine at some point.
After Maclure’s death during the war the Maclure Riley was bought by Reg Parnell, who largely rebodied it, renaming it the ERA Riley.
It then appeared in the hands of Leo Davenport, Parnell and the Ashmore Brothers during the second half of 1946.
The car was then sold to Peter Reece, of Blakes of Liverpool, and driven by Sheila Darbishire during the 1947 season.
In 1948 the car was bought by Worcestershire engineer Geoff Richardson, who raced the car during the 1948 season.
During the 1948/49 off-season Richardson replaced the Riley chassis with a self-designed, Rubery Owen built, chassis, creating the RRA. (See separate note below).

Challenger
(ERA-engined in 1939 and from 2018 to date)
The Challenger appeared just once with an ERA engine - at Prescott in July 1939 where Reg Parnell fitted the ‘borrowed’ engine from Mrs Hall-Smith’s ERA R6B.
During its storage during wartime and when the car raced briefly during 1947 it was fitted with a Delage 1500cc engine.
In about 1949 the car was modified by Paul Emery into a sports car, with a Lagonda V12 engine being fitted, which the car still had when it was discovered in the United States by Dean Butler.
In 2018 Duncan Ricketts completed the Challenger’s restoration, with an ERA engine once again fitted.

Brooke Special (Riley 12/4 Imp-based)
(ERA-engined from 1939 to 1947 and from 1993 to date)
Leslie Brooke’s Brooke Special was built in 1936 around a Riley 12/4 Imp chassis, and was fitted, successively, with MG, Riley and Alta engines.
In mid-1939 Brooke fitted an ERA engine (probably the ex-White Riley engine) and the car appeared just once in this form before war intervened - at the last pre-war Crystal Palace meeting in August 1939. After the war, Brooke reappeared with the car in unbodied form, still ERA-engined, at a few hillclimbs and speed trials during 1946.
In late 1947 the car was sold, without its ERA engine, to George Nixon, who rebodied it and fitted a Riley engine, renaming it the Riley Special.
In the mid 1990s an ERA engine was refitted to the car by Barrie Gillies, with the car retaining George Nixon’s 1948 ‘Riley Special’ body.

RRA
(ERA-engined from 1948 to 1955)
In early 1949 Geoff Richardson replaced the Riley chassis in his ERA Riley (See Riley IFS / Maclure Riley note above) with a self-designed frame built by Rubery Owen, into which the ERA engine and independent front suspension from his previous car were installed, christening the car the RRA. During the period up to 1955 the car was progressively developed, and the ERA engine’s capacity was stretched, first to 1750cc, and then, from 1954, to two litres.
At the end of 1955 the RRA’s two litre ERA engine was sold to Jimmy Stuart who fitted it into ERA R14B.
The RRA chassis was also sold, separately, by Richardson.

Mays Sprint Special
(ERA-engined from 1949 to 1950)
This car was built by Raymond Mays during 1949/50 with the intention of creating a special car for hillclimbs and sprints. It was fitted with a two litre ERA engine.
Although it was tested, the car never ran in competition, and was, reportedly, dismantled in 1950 at the insistence of the British Motor Racing Research Trust (BRM).

Walker Sprint Special
(ERA-engined from 1950 to 1952)
This car was built for Peter Walker by HW Motors and Leacroft of Egham, using the chassis and some components from Walker’s crashed ERA GP1, into which was fitted the two litre ERA engine from R10B, which Walker had used in hillclimbs and sprints during 1949.
‘Motor Sport’ reported seeing the car at Leacroft’s in November 1951, but, for unknown reasons, the car remained unraced.
The two litre ERA engine was eventually removed and fitted into a lengthened Cooper T20 chassis to form the Cooper-ERA (See separate note below).

ERA Delage (WMG 102)
(ERA-engined from 1951 to date)
In early 1951, aided by Freddie Dixon, Rob Walker fitted the ERA E Type engine from ERA GP1 into his Delage, the second Chula-built chassis. The car was entered by Walker in this form from 1951 to 1953, for himself, Tony Rolt and Eric Thompson to drive. It was then sold to Alan Burnard before passing to various subsequent owners.
Since 1951 the car has always retained an ERA engine, although the engine was changed from a 1500cc unit to one of 2.1 litres during Hon. Patrick Lindsay's ownership, which it retains to this day.

Cooper-ERA (T20 CB/8/52)
(ERA-engined from 1952 to 1954)
This car was assembled for Peter Walker in 1952, with the help of Geoff Richardson, of RRA fame, on a lengthened Cooper T20 chassis, with the aim of fitting Peter Whitehead's two litre ERA engine (used in ERA R10B in 1949) to create a competitive hillclimb and sprint car.
After a few appearances in 1952 and 1953 the car was sold to Derek Wilkinson.
Wilkinson used it in a hillclimb and sprint campaign during 1954, after which the ERA engine was removed, and the engineless chassis was sold separately.
The car has not had an ERA engine since 1954.

ERA Special (formerly Woden)
(ERA-engined from 1953 to 1958)
In 1953/54 Rochdale builder Jim Berry purchased Bertie Bradnack’s unraced Woden Formula 2 car, which Bradnack had built around an HAR chassis with the intention of fitting a Bristol engine.
Berry modified the car - fitting at first a 1500cc, ex-Cuth Harrison, ERA engine, then, in 1955, a two litre ERA engine, christening the car the ERA Special. Berry then competed in it in a variety of sprints and hillclimbs between 1954 and 1958, after which he removed the ERA engine and fitted it into a Cooper T23 (See note below).
In late 1961 the former ERA Special was advertised for sale by Berry, fitted with a Jaguar engine.
From 1970 the car was Australian-owned until it was sold in 2019.

Cooper-ERA (T23 CB/4/53)
(ERA-engined from 1958 to 1960)
For a period, from 1958 to 1960, Jim Berry fitted the two litre ERA engine, which had previously been fitted in his ERA Special (See note above) into his ex-Bob Gerard Cooper Bristol.
Before the Cooper was sold the ERA engine was removed, thus ending the brief life of this car as a second Cooper-ERA.

OTHER LATER ERA-ENGINED CARS

Riley 12/6 MPH (44T 2258 - BLN 39)
(ERA-engined in about 1961)
In about 1961 John Horton briefly fitted an ex-Horace Richards Riley engine, fitted with an ERA crank, into his Riley MPH.

Riley 12/4 TT Sprite (44T 118 - 377 YUE)
(ERA-engined from 198x to date)
A resurrection / reconstruction (Styles) of the Percy Maclure Riley Sprite, with its TT Sprite chassis and TT Sprite bodywork, in the form in which Maclure raced it in 1936 and 1937.
The car is fitted with a 1500cc ERA engine.

Riley 12/6 TT MPH Prototype (4/101 - KV 5694)
(ERA-engined from 1992 to date)
Fitted with an ERA engine in 1993, in the incorrect belief that this was the car which had been temporarily fitted with an ERA engine in 1935 (it was actually 4/105 - KV 6079).