"The scariest car I've ever driven" - 1935 ERA R4D

Ahead of Revival, Andrew Jordan takes the ERA R4D from 1935 out on the track at Donington Park, and it's not as easy as he thought #GoodwoodRevival

[@gryfandjane]

My goodness, what a gem... and that SOUND! Splendid.

[@catey62]

What a gorgeous car..and I agree..that exhaust note is pure music to the ears.

[@coleorum]

My first experience of motorsport as a child was being taken to the VSCC meetings at Silverstone during the 1950s. The ERAs always left a lasting impression. The crisp sound and appearance of solid engineering made them something special. The smell of methanol always brings them to mind.

[@arriviste2020]

Wilson pre-selector gearbox, one of the best bits of kit ever especially when horsing the vehicle down the road.::)

[@glynluff2595]

I agree but my experience was with a very underpowered Riley Merlin long years ago. The Wilson/Armstrong/ENV pre-selectors were alo fitted to some armoured military vehicles post WWII. The Riley when fitted with a hand throttle, could be set to allow the mechanical automatic clutch to gradually engage and you could step out and watch it de-bog itself from mud. As a party piece you learned to set the thottle and walk away in front of it and at an appropriate moment turn and whistle a moment before the car moved forward to you. All great fun. G. Luff

[@craigpennington1251]

Love this car. I miss driving the old stuff a lot. There's nothing like them in modern cars of any type. In these, you truly feel the speed of how fast you are going and what the car is actually doing while moving by feeling it in your body. Great stuff.

[@poncoolride]

Nice to see these cars where they belong, out on the track! Great video!

[@johncorboy7952]

Wow what a beauty and the sweet sound is music to my ears

[@nzsaltflatsracer8054]

Screwdriver & hammer car when most will plug in their laptop. Interesting to see the vertical SU's on the blower! Somebody needs to do an in depth video of the engineering on these.

[@stevecampin5361]

What a wonderful experience - even for us here at home. It sounds beautiful!

[@driftke70]

awesome to see this footage, my grandpa owned r3a but i never got to see it or him.

[@brunostudley2191]

That car is just so goddam awesome, your a lucky man to drive it, and it sounds sweet!!

[@timcollins1131]

Andrew is doing very well great to this car being punted along, thanks.

[@allensaunders449]

For a modern driver i can see how this would be scary to drive no safety, alot of vibration and high seating position

[@jjmac3561]

Yeah, they are so used to being able to just bang into the other cars and walk away. Drivers in the day took the massive risks, just as the current drivers of those old cars do today. It would have been much more interesting to see its actual driver taking it around.

[@knut-hinrichqwalter2463]

All the current young drivers of modern racing cars should have a quick ride on a race course to give honor and respect to the former pilots of these old racing cars !

[@grahameberry1897]

AND NO AUTO ANYTHING - the driver has to do it ALL

[@maxmaier2595]

Actually that is classic driving without all these modern features

[@senatorjosephmccarthy2720]

@@maxmaier2595 , Agreed. It's More driving. In the older cars the car has to be manually shifted and the hand has to be moved far over to the shifting lever, for one example.

[@michaelwoodsdale460]

It sounds fantastic!

[@bradfordeaton6558]

That thing sounds great!

[@jcgabriel1569]

One very interesting story about one of these ERAs that I've read about is about ERA R14B. That car is owned by a man named Donald Day, who raced the car in historic races for decades until he had a massive accident in it, ultimately resulting in the loss of his whole left arm. But once he recovered, he managed to regain his racing license and continued competing with the now repaired car using ONLY HIS RIGHT HAND to both steer and change gear (he had a small modification made on the gear shifting mechanism I think). He finally parted with his car a few years ago, selling it to an American historic racer who owns some very important historic race cars.

[@ridermak4111]

Fine bit of driving of such a scary weapon and OH THAT MUSICAL ENGINE !!

[@mickkennedy1344]

"I've got this massive 'supercharger' between my legs" -- lucky you.

[@shanehnorman]

Engaging video - and interesting to hear how sweet the gearbox is. I've often read disparaging comments about pre-selectors, but the logic of their use in competition is clear.

[@althejazz]

Those who complain about pre-selector gearboxes probrably haven't ever driven a bus with a 'crash' gearbox in London traffic all day.

[@andrewnorgrove6487]

sounds nice how cars should sound, regarding seatbelts your better off being thrown than staying with it ! In short its bloody beautiful

[@msf60khz]

Andrew, thank you for a very professional drive. I think drivers hated independent suspension when it first came out as cars could have understeer for the first time and there were no anti roll bars yet. Drivers still preferred rigid axles and liked power sliding and had not yet developed the four wheel drift.

[@althejazz]

R4D has the very rare Dubonnet independent front suspension. All the E.R.A.s are different in various ways.

[@Kneedragon1962]

I don't know about the ERA, but I have done a bit of looking at the Auto Union type A, from about '33 ~ '35. First, it was very motorcycle like. According to people in the day, even quite good drivers got in it and couldn't get their heads around it at all. The people who could drive it all had experience sliding motorbikes around on dirt, speedway or flat-track. If you knew how to power slide a bike at 60 mph, then you had a fair idea how to drive the Auto Union. It was in many ways, the first modern racing car. It had 4 wheel independent suspension, at a time when most cars not only had a live axle at the back, they had one at the front too. It had a mid-rear engine, just like an F1 car since the '60s. But all those cars came from looking at the Auto Union. Mid engine racing cars and sports cars would have happened anyway. Someone would have thought of it. But that someone was Dr Ferdinand Porsche, and he built a 750 kg car with a supercharged V16 engine, making about 600 hp at no more than 6,ooo rpm. It would spin the rear wheels on clean dry asphalt in 4th gear at 100 mph, simply by using full throttle. Even in a modern car, you try 600 hp in a 750 kg car, and see how that feels for power... It's not slow! Now throw in a top speed well over 200 mph, no seatbelts, a chassis that was 2 x 200mm chrome-molly tubes, and the engine coolant ran to the radiator through them, and suspension design exactly like a VW Beetle. Where do you think the design for the Beetle came from? You think the ERA is scary, you try driving the Auto Union. Imagine you got an old VW beech buggy, weighs about 600 kg, now bolt in a 911 GT2 motor and gearbox and stuff. But keep the original VW suspension... It'll do 200+ mph, and spin the rear wheels at 100, and handles like a headless chook....

[@jcgabriel1569]

The ERA R4D is the full development of the upright "sit-up-and-beg" ERAs. After the War, Raymond Mays(founder of ERA and the BRM f1 constructor) drove it to win the British Hillclimb Championship.

[@thefirstmissinglink]

Had my bone stock 76 T2 up to 100mph for well over 2 minutes. Had to readjust the valves the next morning of course.

[@daleskidmore1685]

Andrew started out in British Rally Cross, at 14 and became British champion before moving into BTCC, so has a bit of experience in sliding a car around at speed. I bet he would have got the ERA flat out before the end of the day.... I wonder if the main issue is that he grew up with all the modern safety precautions and was stepping back to a time when no one even thought about that side of things. I know I feel a bit weird sitting in a car without the seat belt on. I will always be in awe of racing drivers and the people who keep these wonderful machines running today.

[@jcgabriel1569]

A former owner said in a magazine that the 0-120mph time of that car is 12.33 seconds! With relatively narrow crossply tyres!

[@Jonny_Red]

A beautiful machine....Its spiritual home is at Shelsley Walsh :)

[@mikefry6765]

That was an excellent video, thank you

[@thephilpott2194]

Plus they chose the right driver for the job it seems. Tacho jammed at 5k eventually but after the first 3 corners he would have had the music of 5000 to 5500 already programmed into his head!

[@adow77]

Magnificent noise!

[@remkojerphanion4686]

Glorious car!

[@georgeknowles5327]

As a passenger on London buses in the 60s I was fascinated by the preselector gear boxes on them. However, to be able to change from 4th into 1st sounds a bit scary. I did it once on a standard gearbox as a novice driver and thought the engine was going to blow up.

[@althejazz]

You wouldn't change down from top into first until you dropped your speed anyway. It's bad enough if you forget to select a higher gear when going up through the gears. Only did it once and I thought all the passengers were going to join me in the cab.

[@coldvoid]

Amazing car!

[@Davyfb75]

It is not old it is 4 years younger than me. I am sure Raymond would of been amused by your efforts. It is a lovely car. Mind you I always regarded it as out of date when I was young.

[@miurasvlamborghini]

Fully methanol, damn I just wish I could pipe the smell through my phone.

[@Ralphie750]

Trust me, it will make your eyes water for days :')

[@anthony851]

Sounds nice, reminiscent of a TS3 in a Commer truck when under load. Hi from NZ, Anthony

[@ldnwholesale8552]

Now that is insulting the car,, saying it sound like a 2 stroke diesel truck engine! It sounds strong and 300hp is strong and healthy

[@TheMDJ2000]

What a fantastic thing!

[@paxwallacejazz]

Fitipaldi said those guy's Fangio etc. Had to be insanely brave.

[@roberthiggins6401]

What a beautiful car and to have them still race is fantastic. I presume parts are hand made to keep them running?

[@joshh150]

From what I know, lots of new parts do have to be hand made because they're not made any more and all of the surviving parts are obviously in pretty bad condition

[@youknoweverything7643]

Man my first dirt modified had a brim trans and same principle you push clutch in car starts rolling and engages and once you get going you don't use clutch when you gotta sgift at the start it's tricky if your not use to that style trans and clutch

[@mrhearse777]

I had a Pre-Selector gearbox in a Daimler Conquest when I was 18 years old . Cost me £32/10/0! a very old amount for a very old car . Wonderful fun . Where are you now TRB444 ?

[@ArthurZakaryan23]

Just the sheer amount of vibration from the camera is enough to scare the most seasoned race car drivers and the car isn't even up to full speed yet. These old pre vintage Formula cars are closer to driving a 4 wheeled motorcycle than a car.

[@storck08]

Well put. And the lack of ANY safety features woul make think constanly what will happen if I catch that bit of grass at the corner exit...

[@lukepalmer2126]

about 3 years ago in the goodwood trophy some guy got chucked out the car when he span out at madwick corner.

[@Blafard666]

More like a 4 wheeled casket !

[@15DEAN1995]

Wow you really have to respect the people who would cain these things around in their day. I mean the tracks of their time were really bumpy that were often part normal roads that had no run off zones or absorbant barriers etc. They also did this with next to no car safety equipment. Then theres the cars themselves which were like rocket engines attached to axles.

[@jjmac3561]

My Uncle Ron Flockhart used to own that and he broke a lot of records with it on Hillclimbs as well as on racing circuits.

[@nurunde]

Awesome vehicle! I guess you need to be very brave to pilot one of these!

[@pmp1337]

It's fast! Imagine that speed back when most people rode donkeys to the market! When most roads were unpaved or cobblestone! 🧐

[@johnkoury1116]

That looks so fun!! I

[@skyrunner37]

Wondefull car!

[@craigpennington1251]

Watched this again and towards the last part of the run, it appears that he's fighting the car a bit. He needs to relax a bit. When he moves that steering wheel, you can see the car darting. I didn't pick that up when I first watched this. I'd love to drive this beauty.

[@hueylong8046]

Let the car drive itself

[@jcgabriel1569]

Thing is, even ERA drivers themselves found the R4D a trickier car to drive. Ludovic Lindsay (former ERA owner/racer) described R4D's handling as "neurotic", Nick Topliss (who owns an ERA and currently looks after, and sometimes races R4D) also said it is trickier to drive, and with less steering lock. He went so far as to say that he had never spun his own ERA, but had already spun R4D once...

[@fatdad64able]

I have a feeling like it is very unpredictable to where the front of the car is going. Scary indeed.

[@Spac8]

Good old pre selectors!

[@lordstephen7813]

Sweet !

[@bikesqump]

bet those hydraulic dampers were pretty advanced, no friction pads there!

[@andyday4535]

I remember seing the ex Prince Bira ERA "Hanuman" driven at Silverstone in the late '60s. It seemed to me you drove from the back on the throttle (hang the back end out and steer with your right foot!), and as Jordan says he didn't have the confidence to keep his clog down. Maybe a oval racer, F2 stocks maybe, would have done better.

[@patrickporter6536]

Does anyone know anything about an ERA that was in South Africa in the '50s and was later fitted with a Chev V8? I saw it at Grand Central in '57 - '58 -'59 or thereabouts.

[@jcgabriel1569]

That is ERA R4A, as far as I know. It had been repatriated back to the UK and had been fitted with a 2 litre version of the ERA supercharged 6-cylinder engine. There were some onboards of that car here in KZbin.

[@patrickporter6536]

@@jcgabriel1569 ERAs had Riley engines

[@jcgabriel1569]

@@patrickporter6536 Technically, yes, but it's hard to really call them as such. They are derived from the Riley units, but there were a good number of modifications carried out to them. And it says "ERA" on the camboxes as well...

[@freddiebuckner912]

My uncle mark Gillies races one of those at goodwood

[@trampslikeus3575]

Is the transmission something like what they had in the 1936 -37 Cord 810 & 812?

[@jedgarsquink]

Not really. It's a 4-speed planetary, rather than a conventional 3-speed box electronically shifted. So it's more like a Lenco, with pre-select.

[@coldark9972]

Fuck sounds good what a machine

[@boobayloo]

It looks really scary from the camera's view... no seat belt, and skinny tires, it can go off the road very easily

[@KimCJorgensen]

Fantastic sound and why on earth have we not got preselector transmissions anymore, sounds like a really good idea.

[@jcgabriel1569]

From what I had read, they're very delicate (I've read somewhere about the starting and warm-up procedure that car undergoes, and it's quite long). Plus, they're quite heavy, and, if you break them, which you will if you didn't do the aforementioned warm-up procedures, repair is quite hard and expensive.

[@6rimR3ap3r]

At about 4:30 it looks like the rev counter got stuck. Must be very weird for a racing driver to select gears way before shifting. The tighter the track the messier that must feel :-D

[@psk1w1]

The pre-selector box was developed to make it easier to drive fast in difficult / bumpy conditions. You moved the lever to the ratio you wanted next, gave a quick dip on the selector pedal, and instantly have the next ratio. No need to double de-clutch like all the crash boxes of the day. Much faster, and safer

[@arriviste2020]

Paul Standeven. The Wilson pre-selector gearbox and Daimler fluid flywheel were originally fitted to buses,limo's and military vehicles. They went racing to enable circuit times to be shortened, especially circuits with a lot of bends / curves. and of course on hill climbs.The faster the selector pedal was depressed the quicker the gear selection.They were banned at one time because they gave an unfair advantage.

[@yelsmlaugh]

Sounds like a conversation between Eccles and Bluebottle.

[@guysmalley]

300 hp back then wow what a rocket

[@phatlaz1974]

When cars were art 👍

[@gerardmontgomery280]

it's gorgeous though.

[@pointlessgimmickyusername9196]

So it's a crank-driven supercharger on the back of the engine? On a RWD? So the driveshaft passes through the blower?

[@wrenchg3954]

KINDA SORTA. I THINK IT HAS LIKE A SMALL PTO SHAFT OR GEAR DRIVE COMING OFF THE TRANSMISSION HOUSING. I'M THINKING IT'S MOUNTED RIGHT ABOVE THE NOSE CONE ON THE TRANS

[@jcgabriel1569]

I think it may be driven by a ring gear on the flywheel. The superchargers rather weird location makes for some pretty interesting scenarios. I think I have read elsewhere about one of the original drivers of this car (Raymond Mays) relating his story when he once suffered a supercharger failure on this car, remember, the said supercharger is a massive thing located between your legs!

[@jjmac3561]

Great to see but it would have been much more interesting to have had it's current owner/driver at the wheel really giving R4D it's head. Also to be able to hear the engine working hard without that inane 'music'.

[@Archie3150]

R4D on pole at Goodwood Revival kzbin.info/www/bejne/opqucpxmoMmCi7s

[@carpenter284]

When I win the lottery......

[@stevegilbert8486]

The steering wheel is all over the place. It seems like you could lose control easily.

[@althejazz]

it's NOT a clutch, it's a gearchange pedal. There is no clutch. Been to many V.S.C.C. meeting downs the years and seen many different E.R.A.s in action. Beautiful cars.

[@Bashirbros]

it sounds glorious. very similar to a 240z

[@karloarsch1579]

Great video, but who forced you to underlay it with music? The engine sound is music enough ;)

[@SultanS01]

😍

[@webtoedman]

I burned my knuckles on the exhaust of an ERA when I was a child in 1968.

[@proscriptus]

Get that man an MG TC to drive on the weekends and he'll soon get used to that high and vulnerable sensation.

[@ldnwholesale8552]

Naaah, Pittawaqys Fiat

[@randallfrank5682]

In 1935 the drivers did not wear helmets either. The wore leather hats with little to no padding.

[@robertlee9935]

no seatbelts probably safer than be strapped in if it goes wrong

[@Bostonterrier97]

Beautiful Car. Drivers were more skilled in the past without things like Traction Control, ABS. Today drivers are heavily reliant on computer management of different systems. There is an advantage to these systems they allow a driver to enter and exit turns faster and safer. However the downside is a decrease in the skill of the driver. Ditto for motorcycles. You can hear the fear in the Driver's voice, he is really talking himself through everything: No Seat Belt...so if he crashes he gets ejected. Too bad he didn't have the experience of wearing a Leather Skull cap with Goggles and Leathers instead of a Flame Resistant Racing suit: that would have given him a more accurate experience of what the old racers back in the day experienced. Of course he was surrounded (and being passed) by more modern race cars...so he didn't have to worry about other drivers losing control and crashing into him as much as the old timers did.

[@ChristianArreguin]

That really sounds like an awesome old bmw straight six

[@jjmac3561]

It's engine is based on an old Riley straight 6, long before BMW

[@Ralphie750]

1.5l supercharged running on methanol pushing roughly 300bhp...

[@psk1w1]

This one is a 2 litre. The engine has two cams in the upper crank case, long pushrods to inclined valves via rockers. Functionally it gives similar results to a dohc layout.. Every '30s Riley got this arrangement. FWIW, Edward Turner of Triumph motorcycle fame had a Riley, liked the valve gear layout, and copied it for the Triumph Speed Twin. All Triumph twins up to the end of Les Harris production in 1988 had this layout....

[@dano4572]

That put a BiG smile on me, I imagine you had a bigger smile than me! That was fun! just sayin

[@Hot80s]

Andrew should have tried it without faster traffic, would have enjoyed it more

[@jcgabriel1569]

I read a story once that that same car went at Donington to do some testing, and the driver managed to hold up some British F3 drivers doing their own testing. The F3 drivers found themselves unable to keep up with R4D on the straights!!!

[@zoesdada8923]

She's beautiful

[@garychilds1130]

I would of expect a proper driver of that sort of car would keep up with the other cars

[@ephjay6t87]

I feel sorry for the next generations. They will never know operating a machine without a computer interface. 😊

[@rayisland23]

Back when a driver drove the racecar and not a engineer from the pits

[@cheesenoodles8316]

No seatbelts....I agree with the other comments....more like a 4 wheel motorcycle.

[@tomstrutt6754]

Do we have to have the annoying "music" competing with the commentary?

[@JeromeProductions]

Tom Strutt 😂

[@martinrudow9649]

I'm with you Tom. Who did this dreadful mix?

[@christophermay4366]

This was definitely real....definitely takes a bit of courage and skill to drive a completely raw car....no safety aids at all....get in a hang on to anything you can find....lol

[@senatorjosephmccarthy2720]

The background music is Interfering with hearing you. It's Distracting. iRiTaTiNg.

[@craigpennington1251]

This guy was a bit nervous. He was rocking the wheel back and forth too much. If it had wider tires on, it would be more stable at higher speeds.

[@paulscott1091]

hes got a red bull helmet he sould be going faster

[@terryharding7476]

This scares you?r u kidding?go park it.

[@Rileymanification]

So basically: "I don't have the stones to really wring it all out of a car like this."

[@KB4QAA]

Which is a reasonable decision, given the age, technology and lack of safety gear.

[@Rileymanification]

@@KB4QAA Which is understandable, although it does make me feel romance for the time when these cars were driven by drivers with "ample stones"

[@craigpennington1251]

Wish you guys would lose that damn music. It takes away from the voice audio. Plus it's the wrong era.

[@michaelguerin56]

So … a preselector gearbox. Why not just say that in the intro😊 instead of waffling?

[@martywise]

Andrew has now gone back to his roost to lay six fresh eggs,

[@teop7887]

That car represents an era when race cars were driven by men, instead of today's soy-boy racers.

[@FYMASMD]

And way more of those "men" died driving way back then, than today. Would it be correct to say you don't know what your talking about?😕

[@allensaunders449]

To bad they are not as tough as you of course. Safety is a good thing in modern cars

[@teop7887]

@@FYMASMD It's not only about safety. It's about overly intrusive technology, making the sport more reliant on data analysts than the actual drivers.

[@teop7887]

@@allensaunders449 Spare me the sarcasm. I'm focused on the drivers, not the safety measures. Back then even when they were often aristocrats or underdogs, the pilots had a personal and special relationship with the vehicle and the mechanics and engineers. Today, they're beta-male boys who rely more on what a data analyst tells them on the radio.

[@terryharding7476]

They had men in those days, not boys.

[@saintmartins6729]

PLEASE can you tone down or remove the intrusive, distracting unnecessary MUZAK? THUMBS DOWN

[@thefirstmissinglink]

Hmmm, mommas boy. Stop thinking, just do.