The Connaught Type B was a racing car made by

Connaught Engineering Connaught Engineering, often referred to simply as Connaught, was a Formula One, Formula Two and sports car constructor from the United Kingdom. Their cars participated in 18 Grands Prix, entering a total of 52 races with their A, B, and C Type ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

used in

Formula One Formula One (also known as Formula 1 or F1) is the highest class of international racing for open-wheel single-seater formula racing cars sanctioned by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA). The World Drivers' Championship, ...

racing between 1955 and 1958. Although not a success in the Formula One World Championship, it became the first British car since 1924 to win a Continental European motor race when Tony Brooks won the non-championship 1955 Syracuse Grand Prix.

Development history

Connaught had intended to build a streamlined Grand Prix car based around the 2.5 litre

Coventry Climax Coventry Climax was a British forklift truck, fire pump, racing, and other specialty engine manufacturer. History Pre WW1 The company was started in 1903 as Lee Stroyer, but two years later, following the departure of Stroyer, it was relocat ...

FPE 'Godiva' engine. When that project was abandoned, Connaught instead switched to using the Alta straight 4 engine. The streamliner design was rejected as impractical, the drivers complaining of similar problems to that of the

Mercedes-Benz W196 The Mercedes-Benz W196 was a Formula One racing car produced by Mercedes-Benz for the and F1 seasons. Successor to the W194, in the hands of Juan Manuel Fangio and Stirling Moss it won 9 of 12 races entered and captured the only two wor ...

streamliner, in that they were unable to place the car accurately at the apex of bends. It was replaced by more conventional bodywork, close-fitting and streamlined. Seven Type B chassis were built between 1954 and 1958. All had a conventional space frame body on a tubular chassis independent suspension with wishbones and torsion bars at the front and a de Dion axle at the rear. Disk brakes were fitted all round. The cars were powered by Alta 2.5 litre four-cylinder engines that delivered 250 bhp through a four-speed preselector gearbox.

Race history

The Type B made its debut at the 1955 Glover Trophy, where

Tony Rolt Major Anthony Peter Roylance Rolt, MC & Bar, (16 October 1918 – 6 February 2008) was a British racing driver, soldier and engineer. A war hero, Rolt maintained a long connection with the sport, albeit behind the scenes. The Ferguson 4WD p ...

qualified fifth but retired after eight laps with a faulty fuel pump. Thereafter the new car struggled to compete against the

Maserati 250F The Maserati 250F was a racing car made by Maserati of Italy used in '2.5 litre' Formula One racing between January 1954 and November 1960. Twenty-six examples were made. Mechanical details The 250F principally used the SSG 220 bhp (@ 7400 rpm) 2 ...

and

Vanwall Vanwall was a motor racing team and racing car constructor that was active in Formula One during the 1950s. Founded by Tony Vandervell, the Vanwall name was derived by combining the name of the team owner with that of his Thinwall bearings ...

competition. In its debut World Championship appearance at the

1955 British Grand Prix The 1955 British Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held at Aintree Motor Racing Circuit, Aintree on 16 July 1955. It was race 6 of 7 in the 1955 World Championship of Drivers. British driver Stirling Moss led a Mercedes 1–2–3–4 domina ...

all five entries failed to finish the race. Disheartened, owner Kenneth McAlpine considered winding up the team, but the lure of substantial starting money from the organisers of the 1955 Syracuse Grand Prix led to two cars being entered, to be driven by Tony Brooks and

Les Leston Alfred Lazarus Fingleston (16 December 1920 – 13 May 2012), better known as Les Leston, or in full Leslie Leston, was a British racing driver, born in Bulwell, Nottinghamshire. Early life In his early life Leston was a successful drummer f ...

. Against all expectations Brooks won the race by 50 seconds from the works

Luigi Musso Luigi Musso (28 July 1924 – 6 July 1958) was an Italian racing driver. In 1955 he joined the Ferrari team, entering into a fierce rivalry with Mike Hawthorn and Peter Collins, which boosted the performance of the team, but also encouraged ...

. It was the first victory on a Continental European race track since

Henry Segrave Sir Henry O'Neal de Hane Segrave (22 September 1896 – 13 June 1930) was an early British pioneer in land speed and water speed records. Segrave, who set three land and one water record, was the first person to hold both titles simultaneous ...

won the 1924

San Sebastián Grand Prix The San Sebastián Grand Prix (''Gran Premio de San Sebastián'') was an automobile race held at the Circuito Lasarte in Lasarte-Oria, Spain. During most of its existence, it was the main race event in Spain, since the Spanish Grand Prix had not y ...

in a Sunbeam. However, the Syracuse result proved to be the exception rather than the rule, with the cash-strapped team generally struggling to compete against the

and

opposition. A limited World Championship programme, just five races over the next three seasons, yielded a best place of third for Ron Flockhart at the

1956 Italian Grand Prix The 1956 Italian Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held on 2 September 1956 at Monza. It was the eighth and final race of the 1956 World Championship of Drivers. Coming into the race, Juan Manuel Fangio had an eight-point lead over Ferrari ...

. In national UK events it was slightly more successful, with

Archie Scott Brown William Archibald Scott Brown, known as Archie, (13 May 1927 – 19 May 1958) was a British Formula One and sports car racing driver from Scotland who had a prodigious racing ability despite only having one hand. He became known as motorspo ...

winning the 1956 BRSCC Formula 1 Race and Stuart Lewis-Evans winning the 1957 Glover Trophy. In its final World Championship race, with the team now being run by

Bernie Ecclestone Bernard Charles Ecclestone (born 28 October 1930) is an English business magnate. He is the former chief executive of the Formula One Group, which manages Formula One motor racing and controls the commercial rights to the sport, and part-owns ...

, both cars retired from the 1958 British Grand Prix.

Development history

Race history

References

Further reading