Hawker Restorations Limited Restoration of Hurricane G-ROBT

ERA Race Car

Hawker Restorations whilst primarily restoring / manufacturing WW1 WW2 Aircraft have the ability to utilise this vast range of expertise on the manufacture or restoration of any finely engineered item. 1936 ERA R9B was one of the 14 ERA's manufactured and originally supplied to stock broker Dennis Scribbans. It has been successfully raced continually up to the present day. This car was fitted with a 1486cc supercharged engine running on pure methanol. This car whilst competing at Imola in 1999 suffered a severe accident which extensively damaged the car including the chassis, front axle, brakes, steering components, brakes and numerous magnesium castings including steering box, sump, oil filter, water pump and bellhousing. Hawker Restorations rebuilt the engine and supercharger for ERA R4A in 1998, and we also worked on the supercharger and rebuilt the blower drive gear for R9B in 2001.

Since its major rebuild carried out by Hawker Restorations throughout the winter of 1999/2000, ERA R9B has won Monaco '52 GP car race 2000, Goodwood Trophy race 2001, Hawthorne trophy race 2001 and 2002 at Silverstone, Nuffield Trophy 2001 at Cadwell Park, Patrick Lindsay Race 2002 (Silverstone), British Empire trophy Race 2002 at Donnington, and Spa Class winner 2001 and pre war lap record, all driven by John Ure.

John has kind words to say about the restoration of the ERA and the quality of its rebuild.

"The build standard and focus on quality carried out by Hawker Restorations on R9B was superb. The attention to fine detail clearly required by the discipline of aircraft restoration was evident in the care extended to the car, with constant reference to original drawings and material specifications. Subsequently the car has handled better and stopped straighter than ever before. Indeed I don't believe the car had been as straight since it left the ERA factory in 1936!"

Whilst our core business is not historic GP cars we are always interested in technical engineering challenges utilising the expertise we have gained over the years in the demanding world of vintage aviation. We have the following capabilities in house. Metallurgy, material science, stress analysis, CNC machining, CAA approved Welding, aircraft electrician capable of rewiring Hurricanes and Spitfires and obviously historic cars. A fully fitted carpentry shop with aircraft woodworkers who have experience in cabinet making, ash body frame building, detail sheet metal workers plus all the other skill required to manufacture or sympathetically restore valuable vintage historic items. Our wide range of skills ranging from a 1908 Bleriot to a 1941 P51 can be seen on this web site.