Emeryson: unique F2 racer for the road

In the grand scheme of its creator, Paul Emery, this particular Emeryson is more indicative of the man’s roadgoing GT-based ambitions later in the 1960s, even though the request for road-legality came from its first owner.

But prior to that time, Emeryson’s origins were rooted very much in the competition world and, had Emery’s business acumen even half-matched that of his talent as an engineer and innovator, the name Emeryson might have been up there in lights, along with Lotus, Cooper and Mallock.

Paul Emery was immersed in motorsport before he was old enough to take to the track.

The gate for the Emeryson’s gearbox cuts deeply into the dashboard

Born in 1916, his father George owned a garage in New Malden, Surrey, which, helped by its proximity to Brooklands, prepared cars for competition along with more regular road-car work.

With ever higher speeds being achieved on Brooklands’ Outer Circuit by the 1930s, the key to unlocking a car’s greater potential was seen to be through its chassis.

George and Paul were keen to experiment, and mid-decade purchased an ex-Malcolm Campbell 2.3-litre Bugatti Type 35B.

The Emeryson’s cockpit seats two people

The car was bordering on uncontrollable when Paul drove it on the Outer Circuit: its all-round multi-leaf springs were so stiff that the ensuing chassis flex became the car’s default suspension system.

By simply modifying the front suspension with cantilever semi-elliptics, Paul transformed the Bug, gifting it a level of compliance and stability it had previously lacked.

He started to apply the same principles to GN-based racers powered by a variety of different engines.

The maker’s plate on this unique Emeryson

In 1936 one of these – fitted with a 1020cc Gwynne motor and the first to be called an ‘Emeryson’, in recognition of the father/son collaboration – gave Emery Jnr his first taste of competition success, when he finished third at Donington in a field dominated by ERAs.

In the immediate post-war years, Emery’s technical flair appeared to know no bounds.

The first Emeryson Special to see the light used a ladder-type chassis of Paul’s own design, suspended by swinging arms sprung via transverse torsion bars.

‘The Emeryson appears to have taken the chequered flag, exited Woodcote at the old pits and made a break for freedom’

Power came from a 1087cc Rapier engine, but with the unique twist of being boosted by a two-stage supercharger comprising a couple of aircraft cabin blowers.

Emery sunk so much money into the project, however, that when it came to its inaugural outing at the 1947 Cambridge University Auto Club’s Gransden Lodge meeting he couldn’t afford the entry fee, and had to let racer Eric Winterbottom take the wheel instead.

In his hands the Emeryson won outright, The Motor reporting: ‘It is really quite something when a Special hits off first time out – and nothing short of amazing that a team should do so with a car including independent suspension all round, a tubular frame and two-stage supercharging… it’s only a pity the constructors had no time to complete a body for the car, and as there was nowhere to paint a number… the time-keepers could get no speeds.’

The Emeryson’s recent restoration focused on preserving originality

After qualified success through the rest of the 1947 season, followed by an early dalliance with Formula One – during which Emery adapted the Special to run with a 400bhp Delage straight-eight – lack of money began to restrict his ambitions.

Financial shortfalls had by then become a common theme, forcing Emery to seek pastures new.

He found them in the burgeoning – and more affordable – 500 race series, and built his first car for the 1950 season.

With performance limited so much by the mandated 50bhp single-cylinder engines, weight – and how it was distributed around his JAP- and Norton-powered cars – was crucial.

The neat air scoop feeds air to the 98bhp ‘four’

Emery’s solution was to go down the front-wheel-drive route, much like his contemporary Arthur Mallock would later in the decade.

The driver was seated to the rear with the engine at the front, which resulted in not only optimal chassis balance, but also improved cooling.

As Emery explained to journalist Paul Skilleter in 1976: “Up to a given horsepower and weight, front-wheel drive still has enough advantage on roadholding to effect a balance.”

It proved a successful recipe, too, with Emery taking victory that year at the Grand Prix of Picardy.

The F2-based Emeryson is well-suited to British B-roads

Throughout the 1950s, however, Emery’s penchant for innovation was never matched by commensurate funding, which limited his cars’ potential.

He returned to F1 in 1953 with a new spaceframe chassis design, underpinned by an advanced set-up of front coils and wishbones, and a de Dion rear.

Power first came from an Aston Martin DB3 engine, but as the car evolved a more durable 2.5-litre Alta unit was used.

By 1956 the package was sufficiently well resolved for Emery to qualify ahead of the Maseratis of Maglioli and Brabham at Silverstone for the British Grand Prix, only for his car to fail after four laps with ignition problems.

The Emeryson’s simple dashboard communicates the most important information

Nonetheless, Emery continued to campaign the car until 1958, before its lack of competitiveness on circuits led to it being reborn for hillclimbs.

After having the sole works drive of his career in Bernie Ecclestone’s Connaught B3, Emery formed a working relationship with Connaught’s owner, Alan Brown.

In 1960 this led to Emeryson Cars Ltd being refinanced under the direction of Brown, giving Emery for the first time in his career the chance to focus on his core engineering strengths.

The token doors were a requirement to meet Sports Car regulations

Moving from his New Malden workshops to Connaught’s more salubrious base in Send, Surrey, Emery set about developing an all-new F2 car.

Powered by a 1.5-litre Coventry Climax FPF engine mounted at the rear of the spaceframe, it was a competent rather than brilliant performer, but gave Mike Spence outright victory in the 1961 100-mile-long Commander Yorke Trophy at Silverstone – and ultimately resulted in his works drive at Lotus.

All of which brings our Emeryson story back to JCM 700, currently sitting (very) pretty in one of Silverstone’s older pit garages next to the circuit’s original start/finish line.

The Emeryson is supple, agile and alive on the road

By 1961, Emeryson’s breadth of experience across multiple race formulae would certainly have been an inducement for ‘our’ car’s first owner, Ray Fielding, to approach the company with a request to build a roadgoing racer.

While no Emeryson with numberplates had existed before, it was the only way that Fielding could, in effect, take a Formula Two car (which by default became a Formula One car thanks to 1961’s change of regulations that reduced engine capacity to 1.5 litres) and go hillclimbing in it.

Emeryson rose to the challenge and built the car around Sports Car regulations, meaning an extra seat was needed along with doors and lights.

The Lady of Godiva stamp on the Emeryson’s Coventry Climax ‘FWB’ unit

Using the Emeryson F2’s standard spaceframe, the only significant modification was angling the chassis’ vertical members outwards to allow the fitment of two seats.

The body was bespoke, too, and while there’s no reference to its designer, it was clearly modelled on the style of a contemporary Cooper ‘Bobtail’.

Mechanically, this car still hosts its original 1.5-litre Coventry Climax, but it’s a single-overhead-cam 1460cc ‘FWB’ unit, running twin SU carburettors, rather than the circuit car’s more potent FPF twin-cam, and mated to a Cooper-stamped F2 ERSA four-speed gearbox.

The Emeryson in its element, although the track was off limits on the day of our photoshoot

A Climax would have been the natural choice, given its light weight (180lb in basic FW guise), forged-steel crankshaft and 98bhp maximum output.

That seems tepid until you learn that the car’s weight is 1144lb, gifting it a near-200bhp-per-tonne power-to-weight ratio.

The chassis is pure Emeryson, with double wishbones up front and lower wishbones with driveshafts as upper links at the rear.

Rack-and-pinion steering and disc brakes all round complete what was then a state-of-the-art package for this class of car.

The Emeryson’s mid-mounted 1.5-litre engine runs twin SU carburettors

It’s inevitable to make comparisons with the Lotus 23, but subjectively I reckon the Emeryson’s design steals a march on that car.

Its lines are beautifully resolved and artfully disguise the tiny doors mandated for road use, and it looks every bit the archetypal race car that you’d find in a 1960s issue of Boy’s Own.

Orthopaedic surgeon David Gidden has owned the Emeryson for five years, during which time he has embarked upon its comprehensive restoration, with a commendable focus on retaining originality.

The work was initially entrusted to Circuit Motor Bodies, which found evidence of previous crash damage.

Pretty wheels on the restored Emeryson

Acclaimed Lotus specialist Paul Matty then took on the project, but when Paul started to wind down his business, former employee Tim Garrington offered to complete the job.

As a hillclimber of 15 years standing, David intends to continue the Emeryson’s long history in the sport, which began with its first owner.

Fielding – who went on to design the Doune Hill Climb course in Scotland – took delivery of the car, first registered HSO 77, in March 1961 and along with his wife, Doreen, competed throughout that season.

‘We’re happily jostling with assorted Porsche Taycans and BMW M3s without breaking a sweat’

The Emeryson was then sold to Gerry Tyack of Curfew Garages in Moreton-in-Marsh in the November of the same year, before heading north to Graeme Austin of Wirral Racing in Birkenhead a year later.

There’s photographic evidence of Austin competing in it at Chateau Impney soon after, on its new registration JCM 700, before he sold it to Jim McCartney, who kept the car from 1964 to ’66.

Well-known ’60s hillclimber Georgina Baillie-Hill then became JCM’s fifth owner and racer, after which the car was sold in 1971 to Richard Falconer, who kept it for 46 years.

The one-off Emeryson is a true road-legal racer

During that time the Emeryson was campaigned extensively, including notable entries with Emery driving at a support race for Thruxton’s 1976 European 5000 Championship and the following year covering 85 laps in the Silverstone 6 Hour Relay Race.

And perhaps it was this pit garage – or one nearby – in which JCM 700 was based for that 1977 event.

Alas, we don’t have access to the track today, but to be honest I’m more intrigued by how a historic competition car behaves on the road.

Swing open the token door, drop down into the tight clutches of the fixed, ribbed-leather driver’s seat and, really, you couldn’t sit much lower in the car.

The Emeryson has covered headlamps

But it’s comfortable and ergonomically pretty decent for a 60-plus-year-old racer.

Elements of spaceframe surround you in the cabin as you face the three-spoke steering wheel with four dials behind it – two mains, for speed (to 120mph) and revs (redlined at 6500rpm), and two secondaries for oil pressure and water temperature.

Switchgear on the flat, crackle-black dash extends only to a couple of light switches, a choke lever and a battery cut-off.

Sparco harness clipped on, you search for the pedals by feel – the deep dash blocks your view of them – but they’re perfectly spaced, making heel-and-toeing a cinch.

The Emeryson’s brutal engine note is a reminder of its racing-car origins

Flick on the fuel pump, turn the ignition key and… My God, it’s loud!

By no means a cultured sound, but it makes you feel conspicuous, even at idle.

The clutch and throttle are light in action, and as you pull away the whine from the straight-cut gears accompanies the Coventry Climax’s steady crescendo.

Gear selection from the Citroën-based ’box is via a dash-mounted lever to the right of the steering wheel, with the gate cut deeply into the dashboard’s surface.

The Emeryson with its first owner in 1962

So this is what it feels like to drive a Formula Two car on the road.

Yes, the raucous engine note tempers your enthusiasm to clip the tacho’s redline after a while (which, thanks to the closely stacked ratios and short gearing, is easy to do), and the top of the low Perspex ’screen sits right in my sight line.

But few road cars provide such an immersive experience.

Strangely, it’s much like driving a first-series Lotus Elise, with about another 50% added to everything you feel and hear.

The Emeryson at Chateau Impney with Graeme Austin in 1963

The steering wheel jiggles in your hands, constantly alive with feedback.

Turn into a bend and there’s some understeer but almost no body roll; the rack’s ratio is also calm enough to prevent any nervousness at higher speeds.

The ride is supple, save some secondary brittleness, which allows for decent velocities to be carried on the uneven B-roads near to Silverstone.

And the unservoed discs have plenty of feel and strength, as long as you’re prepared to work them hard.

‘The only significant modification was angling the chassis’ vertical members outwards to fit two seats’

It’s only when we reach the A43 and ping up to 70mph in convoy with the moderns that there’s a hint of understeer where you’d least expect it, on the long sweepers; David suspects the issue is down to an over-zealous limited-slip differential, and easily fixable.

But the A43 is not where the Emeryson belongs.

Wearing road-legal numberplates was the loophole that granted a thinly disguised circuit racer licence to compete in hillclimbs, but on today’s evidence it also created a rather magical roadgoing sports car that never received the credit it fully deserved.

Images: Max Edleston

Thanks to: Paul Matty; Silverstone

Factfile

Emeryson

• Sold/number built 1961/ 1
• Construction steel spaceframe chassis, aluminium body
• Engine all-alloy, sohc 1460cc ‘four’, twin SU carburettors
• Max power 98bhp @ 6300rpm
• Max torque 91lb ft @ 4650rpm
• Transmission four-speed manual with straight-cut gears, limited-slip differential, RWD
• Suspension independent, at front by double wishbones rear lower wishbones, driveshafts as upper links; telescopic dampers, coil springs f/r
• Steering rack and pinion
• Brakes discs
• Length 11ft 6in (3520mm)
• Width 4ft 7in (1400mm)
• Height 2ft 8in (820mm, to top of ’screen)
• Wheelbase 7ft 2in (2200mm)
• Weight 1144lb (519kg)
• Mpg n/a
• 0-60mph 6 secs (est)
• Top speed 117mph
• Price new n/a
• Price now £100,000*

_{*Price correct at date of original publication}

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