Erin Motor Company

Erin Shield and Erin Signature logos, as of March 2017

Sam Wenfort (Head of ErinSport)

ErinSport (factory motorsports team)

The Erin Motor Company (often shortened to *Erin*) is a British automaker from Nottingham, England. The company developed out of the Erin Motorsport racing team and was officially registered as a business on 1st September 1957. Since then, it has expanded its operations considerably and is now the 2nd largest car manufacturer in the United Kingdom.

Erin is most recognised for selling premium and sports cars, with sales averaging between 700,000 and 800,000 per year. Erin produces its cars at its two manufacturing plants in Nottingham, England and Manchester, England.

Erin's factory race team, ErinSport, are one of the largest motorsport operations in the world, and have competed or participated in a vast number of disciplines both via teams directly managed by them, teams in partnership with other motorsport companies and through sponsoring other teams. They are the official supplier of race-prepared Erin vehicles and engines.

In 2016, Erin was voted Best Luxury Car Maker at the Automation End Of The Year Awards.

Erin is most noted for its Merna compact car and Scarlet sports car.

## Summary

Beginning life as a racing team in the early 1950s, Erin rose to fame as the underdogs in major motorsport events such as Le Mans and the Mille Miglia. A request from a rich American motoring enthusiast for “his own Erin” led to the founding of the company as a mass producer of high end sports cars, before expanding into the GT and small car market during the 1960s.

A string of management and marketing screw-up in the late 70s almost brought the company to ruin, but it only led to the rebranding of Erin as a maker of safe, good-to-drive and good looking cars. From the late 90s onwards, Erin pioneered fuel efficiency with its ‘Millenial’ and ‘Pureon’ engine ranges in an effort to prove that eco-motoring needn’t be boring.

Today, Erin makes everything from supermini’s to executive saloons to high-end sports cars.

Their in-house tuning company, The X Department, design sportier versions of their cars, as well as being the R&D division of the company.

ErinSport, the company’s factory team, has an extensive history in GT, endurance and touring car racing, and have won Le Mans on several occasions.

## History

*See also: History of the Erin Motor Company*

#### Origins and Early Days of Erin Motorsport

Erin can trace its routes back the end of the Second World War. Dominic Erin, then still an engineer for the Royal Air Force, began experimenting with old and disused aircraft parts to modify road cars and even build vehicles from the ground up. By 1949, he had a small team and a car, competing at unofficial national events including some at their local track, Donnington.

In 1950, Dominic registered "Erin Motor Sport" as a private company, renting out a warehouse in the south of Nottingham, where they prepared their cars. Having saved up funds and developed a sports car from the ground up, the Erin Motorsport SP-1, the team entered into the 24 hours of Le Mans in 1951. Despite the poor finish, the team continued to develop their car, and returned the year later, also entering into other competitions that would soon form the World Sportscar Championship.By the mid-50s, Erin Motorsport was making a name for itself and becoming very competitive.

The team made their big breakthrough in 1956 with a victory in the S-2000 class at Le Mans that year with the Erin Motorsport SP-2C, followed up in 1957 with a victory in the S-3000 class with the SP-3A. By now, considerable interest was growing into road-going versions of their cars, both from within the now vastly expanded team and also from the fans of the World Sportscar Championship. American Entrepreneur, Frank Greenwald, offers Dominic Erin a sum of money for him to buy a road-going version of their WSC racer after finishing 1st again in their class at Sveriges Grand Prix in Sweden that year, which finally got the amateur race team to start developing road-going versions of their race cars. Less than a month later, on the 1st September 1957, the Erin Motor Company is founded as a side-venture to Erin Motor Sport.

#### Beginning of the Erin Motor Company

As requests for road-going cars increased, plans were drawn up to build a production line in the south-west of Nottingham, with construction beginning in 1958. As the need for more profits begins to become more important, the EMC takes a bold venture into a new market and design a family car, the Erin Merna, to act as a source of reliable income.

## Motorsport

Erin's factory motorsport team, ErinSport, is one of the largest motorsport divisions in the world, operating as a separate but linked company to the Erin Motor Company. The team operates loosely under three 'divisions'.

### Prototypes Division

The prototypes division is the sub-team that design and develops prototype race cars, most commonly for endurance events. This is the oldest sub-team within ErinSport, and have seen the majority of their cars race in the World Sportscar Championship (1953-1992), European Le Mans Series and World Endurance Championship.

### Touring Car Division

The touring car division emerged in the early sixties as the team responsible for developing and racing tuned versions of the Erin Merna. Much of the division's efforts have been focused on the British Touring Car Championship, where the Merna has been highly successful over the past 50 years. Since 2000, the touring car division have also been running tuned versions of the Erin Tauga in the World Touring Car Championship.

### GT Division

The GT division is the team responsible for homologating Erin's road-going sports cars, and have developed some of ErinSport's most recognisable cars. Most famously, the GT division worked on the Civera Silhouette Program (1971 to 1976) and the Scarlet GT Program (1991 to 2002).