Vanwall, BRM, Cooper and Lotus. These are the names that usually get the credit when it comes to the early days of British motorsport success. They certainly all played their part in Formula 1 in the 1950s, but two decades earlier a different firm had hinted at what was possible for a UK operation.
When English Racing Automobiles started building voiturettes – effectively a pre-Second World War Formula 2 – in 1934, it had been a decade since Britain’s last significant single-seater success in Europe. After Henry Segrave’s victory in the 1924 San Sebastian Grand Prix for Sunbeam, UK efforts were directed at sportscars or Britain’s first permanent race circuit, Brooklands.
