Information from the H&H Classic Cars auction when this car did not sell:
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1947 Emeryson Single Seat Racecar
Features 2.8 Jaguar Engine.
Estimate was £20,000 to £22,000
Bid to £15,000 - "Not sold"
The striking red, front-engined, single-seater racing car offered is an intriguing proposition. It lays claim to being the Emeryson Lagonda Special built in 1947 by Paul Emery and his father. Initially powered by a two-stage supercharged 1100cc Lagonda Rapier engine, that car is credited with taking Eric Winterbottom to a minor win at Gransden Lodge and third place in the 1947 Manx Cup before being sold to Ulsterman Bobby Baird. History suggests that, with Paul's Emeryson's help, Baird replaced the Lagonda unit with the ex-Whitney Straight 4.5-litre Duesenberg unit, coupled to an ENV type 110 pre-selector gearbox. Though then entered for the 1948 Grand Prix at Silverstone, it apparently never ran, as problems feeding the new-found power through the transmission could not be resolved in time. The car was apparently then sold within Ireland, where it spent some time competing in hillclimbs and regional races. Various references suggest a number of other engines were later run in the same chassis, including Alta, Aston Martin and Jaguar units. They also at one point link the car to the inimitable motoring writer Denis Jenkinson. Unfortunately, there is no documentation to prove that the sale car and the one described above are definitely one in the same.
The sale car currently features a 2.8-litre Jaguar engine. While some parts of the suspension are akin to that on the original Emeryson Special others, it seems, are not. However, that could easily be explained by the continual development of such a car - especially one that changed hands many times and was used for both circuit racing and hillclimbs. As we said at the outset, an intriguing proposition indeed!
PLEASE NOTE: Since the catalogue went to press we have been informed that there are two cars which lay claim to having been derived from the Emeryson Lagonda Special. The other car is currently resident in Austria and is understood to have passed through the hands of Bobby Baird, Henry Kyle, Barrie Carter, Denis Jenkinson and Duncan Rabagliati before being acquired by the present owner during 1998.
There is little doubt that the Emeryson chassis would have required substantial modification to accommodate a straight-eight Duesenberg 4.5 litre engine in place of its original in-line four-cylinder 1.1 litre Rapier unit. It has been hypothesised that the lot on offer was assembled using parts which were discarded either during the single-seater's conversion from Rapier to Duesenberg power or at some later date.
The vendor tells us Wilbur McKee, a former employee of Paul Emery, confirmed to him that the lot on offer bore a resemblance to the Emeryson single-seater as he remembered it. However, the vendor asks that prospective purchasers make their own investigations into and draw their own conclusions about his car's provenance.
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