2017 Goodwood Festival of Speed

[DeusExMackia]

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Erin and its affiliated groups have made their annual appearance at the show, bringing a cavalcade of performance vehicles both old and new.

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At the tent, Erin’s 4 main performance cars at the moment are on display, namely a Scarlet X and a Nardella X, both have which have made appearances at the show before. The other two cars were the recently introduced Merna 200X-AllDrive and the Tauga 330X in sedan form.

The Merna 200X-AllDrive is the first all wheel drive hot-hatch from Erin since the 1990s, sporting a 291 hp 2.0l Turbo i4 and dual LSDs. It’s the fastest road-going Merna ever, and competes with the towards the midfield of the currently huge hot-hatch market.

The Tauga 330X was launched last year after an almost three year wait for a new version of the performance sedan. While not the fastest in its class, it banks on being lighter and more agile than its rivals.

The Erin Heritage Association is the company’s official branch dedicated to supporting owners of classic Erin models, including an extensive old parts service and support for the various owners club related to these vehicles.

This year, they have brought along two fine classic Erin’s, the first being former ErinSport engineer and esteemed car collector Joseph Goodman’s 1972 Erin Lira 200SL. It’s been kept in immaculate condition, and recently undergone major engine work to keep its sonorous 2.0l V4 running.

Next to it stands a gorgeous example of a 1987 Erin Nasaro, this being an entry level S 2.0l model. It was last seen at a car dealership in Worcester, aka CSR 3, before being bought by Nancy Dalton who, with the assistance of her car loving family, have fully restored this car over the past year, right down to the felt in the glovebox. It won a vote run by the EHA to appear on the stand.

Both cars will be driving up the hill climb in one of the classic car parades over the weekend.

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ErinSport have never missed an oppurtunity to drive some classic race cars up the climb, and this year is no exception.

First up is a 1974 ErinSport Civera Silhouette Gr. 4 S-2A. This chassis ran in the European GT Championship that year under the ErinSport factory team. It also acted as a backup car for the sister European team running the European Touring Car Championship, and did have to make the odd-cross continent trip to be at the right race at the right time. It was also one of the cars that Erin entered at the Le Mans 24 hours of that year, but did not finish due to a radiator failure 17 hours in.

Powered by the same 3.0l V8 found in most of the Group 4 versions of the Civera, it knocked out around 335 hp, making it noticeably less powered than some its rivals. However, due to the use of aluminum panels and a fibreglass body kit, it was much lighter than its main rivals and could make the use of wider wheels than the standard car, allowing it to be highly competitive. It took victory in its class at the 6 Hours of Monza.

Alek Rodcheski was chosen to drive the car up the hill climb. The Polish driver joined ErinSport in the late 1990s via their juniors program and has since gone on to race for the team in WTCC and later WEC.

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It’s become a bit of a tradition for one of ErinSport’s Group C cars to make an appearance each year, and the tradition continues with this 1990 ErinSport CRP-4D. This was one of the last cars from the company’s Group C Development Program, as after this year, no new cars were developed and instead current cars were simply tuned and improved.

The CRP-4 platform was notable for ditching the turbo V6 and V8s used on previous car and introducing the V10 to Erin’s racing cars, namely a natrually aspirated 6.0l V10 which in this car was tuned to produce 730 hp. It was good for 0-60 in under 3 seconds - depending on how well you could handle the 5 speed manual gearbox and the mountain of torque this car possessed - and on to a top speed of 230+ mph. However, it’s believed that one of the three CRP-4D’s at Le Mans that year reached 240+ on the Mulsanne straight, though this is not officially recorded.

1990 saw an end to the iconic two-tone blue livery ErinSport’s factory ran with in the World Sports Car championship and was replaced with the Britannia livery, who were a British package holiday company and airline. This car, #32, was present at all 9 races that season and helped ErinSport to win the teams championship that year.

Today, it’s being driven by one of the three men who drove back in that season, David Raker, who has since become one of ErinSport’s longest serving and most succesful drivers.