ERA E-type 1938

[Pete05]

In the mid 1930's, English Racing Automobiles or ERA managed to put Great Britain back at the forefront of Grand Prix racing. The six cylinder engined A through D-type were raced with great success throughout Europe in the popular 'Voiturette' (French for 'small car') class against the likes of Maserati. With the German Auto Union and Mercedes-Benz teams completely dominating the top class of Grand Prix racing, various other manufacturers took an interest in the 1.5 litre Voiturettes. To take on the renewed competition work was started in 1938 to build a completely new ERA that could potentially also be used against the 3-litre Grand Prix cars.
Reid Railton, the talented designer of the original ERA had long since left the company to work in the United States. The responsibility of drafting up the 'E-type' Grand Prix racer was bestowed on one of his assistants; Peter Berthon. This was an overwhelming task for the young engineer and it only got worse when the British press got wind of ERA's intentions of building a full fledge Grand Prix car. Berthon's resources were also extremely limited as most of the company's backers were preoccupied with preparing for War, which became a bigger threat every day.
At first glance it is immediately obvious that Berthon was greatly inspired by the dominant Mercedes-Benz Grand Prix cars. The E-type looks just like a mini W154. Under the aluminium panels there is evidence that Berthon borrowed some designs from the Germans. In fact the DeDion rear axle is a blatant copy of the rear end of the W125 right up to the locating ball with corresponding slot in the final drive unit. Slightly lower than previous ERAs, the chassis was conventional with two tubular side members. Front suspension was by trailing links and transverse torsion bars.
One of the biggest problems Berthon faced was unavailablity of an engine that suited the contemporary Grand Prix regulation, which allowed for a 3-litre with forced induction or a 4.5-litre for normally aspirated engines. Smaller engined machines could run at a lower minimum weight, but all successful cars were equipped with the largest possible engine. As a stop gap, Berthon developed the Riley derived six cylinder engine to it's largest possible displacement, which ERA claimed was 2.2-litre. It is more likely that the largest engine used was a 2-litre, similar to the one fitted in the D-type. For the E-type power was increased by 20 bhp to 260 bhp.
After lengthly delays, the E-type with the ambitious chassis number GP1, first took to the track during the 1939 International Trophy at Brooklands. It was fitted with a 1.5-litre version of the straight six, so it could be raced in the Voiturette class. Even in this form the E-type was highly uncompetitive against the German and Italian competition and was withdrawn after practice. Thanks to it's very small frontal area, the car did proce to be very fast in a straightline, but the handling let it down. One of the biggest culprits was the overly complex steering through a large number of gears, which made the steering remote and at times completely unpredictable.
After it's disappointing debut, the car was shipped to France for the Grand Prix at Reims. Although being clocked at 275 km/h on the tracks long straights, it was again withdrawn before the race with technical problems. In the hands of Arthur Dobson, the E-type finally made it's racing debut at Albi. Dobson led the race when he crashed out and was forced to retire.

ENGINE

Configuration
Straight 6

Location
Front, longitudinally mounted

Construction
Cast-iron block, aluminium head

Displacement
1980 cc / 120.8 cu in

Bore / Stroke
62.8 mm (2.5") x 107 mm (4.2")

Valvetrain
2 valves per cylinder, OHV

Fuel feed
2 x SU carburettors

Aspiration
Supercharger

Power
260 bhp / 194 kW

DRIVETRAIN

Chassis
Aluminium body on steel tubular frame

Front suspension
Trailing links, torsion bars, friction dampers

Rear suspension
DeDion axle, trailing arms

Steering
Rack and pinion

Brakes
Hydraulic drums, all-round

Gearbox
4 speed manual

http://www.eraclub.co.uk/section405354.html

http://f1.wikia.com/wiki/English_Racing_Automobiles

http://www.kolumbus.fi/leif.snellman/c7.htm

http://members.madasafish.com/~d_hodgkinson/ERAcars.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_Racing_Automobiles