Adrian Squire was just 21 when he set out to build his own motor car. Dreaming of such a venture since he was a schoolboy, at 16 he sketched out a whole catalog for the “world’s greatest sports car.” He envisioned advanced engineering and light, flowing coachwork sitting on a chassis with a low center of gravity. In many ways, he succeeded beautifully.
At age 18, Squire was apprenticed to Bentley Motors and later worked as an assistant draftsman at MG. On his 21st birthday in 1931, he inherited £20,000, the capital with which he financed Squire Motors.
For his engine, Squire selected a 1.5-liter DOHC four, designed by T.D. Ross of Frazer Nash. Production of the engine was handled by Anzani. The chassis frame was exceptionally rigid, with cruciform bracing, and adjustable friction shock absorbers allowed control over ride and handling. For stopping power, its hydraulic brakes were given huge 15-inch magnesium alloy drums.
Although its chassis was completed in February 1934, the first Squire was sold in May 1935. Customers, however, did not materialize in any number, perhaps because the cars cost almost as much as a Bugatti. The last car built in 1935 was sold to Val Zethrin of Chislehurst, Kent. After just two deliveries in 1936, Squire Car Manufacturing Company was shut down, and Adrian Squire went to work at Lagonda.
Zethrin took up the project, purchasing all the parts on hand, and between 1937 and 1939 he built three more cars. Adrian Squire was killed in a bombing raid while working at the Bristol Aeroplane Company in 1940.
Chassis 1063 was the first of the final three cars built under Val Zethrin’s supervision, completed in the autumn of 1937. Originally ordered by Geoffery Munro and laid down by Adrian Squire before he left the company, it was fitted with sleek drophead coupe coachwork by Corsica.
This Squire was owned for many years by British Maserati aficionado Cameron Millar. In December 1984, it was exported to the United States in the ownership of Dr. Douglas Oosterhaut, a prominent San Francisco plastic surgeon. Oosterhaut used it regularly until 1986, when he sold it to California collector Bob Cole.
In June 1995, it was acquired by Washington state collector Pat Hart.
Although the car was remarkably original and in good running order at the time of sale, Hart embarked on an extensive, three-year, no-expense-spared restoration by Don Vogelsang in Seattle.
It was finished in the original black, complemented by light blue leather. Fresh from the shops, the car made its debut at the 1998 Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance. After the show, it took pride of place in Hart’s private collection, where it remained until his passing in 2002.
Since acquisition, the owner has had the engine returned to top running condition, as it had languished from disuse. The 2011 show season was exciting, beginning at Palm Beach, FL, where it was voted People’s Choice and Best of Show at Classic Sports Sunday at the Mar-a-Lago Club in January. At Amelia Island in March, it received the Breitling Award for Timeless Beauty, then copped Designers’ Choice at the prestigious Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, CA, and finished Best in Class at California’s Del Mar Concours in October.
Nine of the original 10 Squires survive. This one is, quite simply, the loveliest of them all.
SCM Analysis
Detailing
| Vehicle: | 1937 Squire 1½-Litre drophead coupe |
This car, Lot 166, sold for $990,000, including buyer’s premium, at RM Auctions’ Amelia Island sale on March 10, 2012.
This tiny British drophead is certainly exquisite — and has the chops to back up those unsurpassed looks. In handling and braking, Squires were far superior to the opposition — even compared with Bugatti and Alfa — and they were faster and better handling than most pre-war race cars. They had better brakes than many cars well into the 1950s and 1960s.
Adrian Squire understood that a stiff chassis would allow the suspension to do the work it was intended for, and that, by keeping the center of gravity as low as possible within the 104-inch wheelbase, roll and uncontrolled movement would be reduced, maximizing performance and handling without need for more horsepower.
There were a few problems: The Squire-branded Anzani R1 DOHC motor tended to lift its head at first, and those marvelous brakes were by some accounts too powerful for the front springs. And there was the price — £1,095 ($5,370) — which was a lot of money in 1935. At its launch, the Squire was the most expensive sports car in Britain, costing about twice as much as a 2-Liter Aston Martin.
Three of the original seven Squires were bodied as Vanden Plas roadsters, and they have been called the most attractive British two-seaters ever built. Our subject car, one of the three “continuation” cars, was the only Corsica-bodied car.
But it has been chopped. Pat Hart was convinced that the body had been intended for another chassis, since it seemed uncomfortable on the Squire — and this is quite possible, given the diversity of Corsica’s work.
Many body modifications
The hood sat high, hiding the top of the radiator shell, so to correct the proportions, Hart had Vogelsang section the body by two inches. This uncovered the radiator shell but required modifications to the trunk area to match, so apparently Hart told Vogelsang to “take a couple of darts out of it.” This whole process sat the beltline lower and smoothed out the trunk’s steep “tumblehome.” To match these alterations, a new top and veed windshield were required, and sculpted skirts were added to the rear fenders.
Ulp. Let all that sink in. This is one man’s interpretation of how the best Squire could have looked… using as a donor one of the few real ones, which still had its correct, Roots-blown, 1,496-cc Anzani R1 motor producing 110 horsepower and ENV preselector transmission. However beautiful, its body is not anything Adrian Squire designed, sourced or approved.
Strictly speaking, then, this isn’t a “real” Squire — at least, not above the chassis; it’s a continuation build on an unfinished car, probably with the wrong body intended for another car — one that has since been modified.
Hart and company have lavished their care and vision on producing an achingly beautiful motor car — a true work of art — and possibly Adrian Squire would have approved, as it certainly sounds as if it is an improvement upon the original.
But Squire didn’t build it (his old crew did) and is no longer able to voice an opinion on someone else’s fantasy residing under his name. Extrapolating from there — and factoring in English reserve and all that — the whole plot might therefore be seen as a step too far.
If the body looked awkward, perhaps the best option might have been to reclothe this real chassis in Vanden Plas style like its predecessors, such as the previously “missing” X-103? It happens to lots of Bentleys and nobody seems to mind.
And, rather than impose a revised style on what left Remenham Hill, why not just build a complete new interpretation of what a new Squire might have looked like?
Few cars, fewer sales
The last Squire to sell at auction was X-103, in 2001, selling (to England) for $145,000 at the Bonhams & Brooks Quail Lodge sale on August 18, 2001 (SCM# 23238). That “missing Squire” (it had been out of circulation for 25 years and was eventually disinterred as a barn find) had the wrong engine — a Salmson 1.5-liter unit — but it sold $100,000 over estimate.
The Symbolic Motor Company of La Jolla, CA, offered our subject car for sale in 2010 for $995,000, and it sold very quickly for “a little bit less,” according to Symbolic’s Bill Noon, who added, “It took the better part of 10 years to pry the Squire away from the Hart estate. Hands-down, one of the most amazing and beautiful machines I have ever encountered, and the most incredible driving and handling vehicle I have ever driven.”
Even though the sale price looks huge, the seller is likely slightly behind or just about even after paying for that engine work. But he does have all those trophies to show for it — which at this level of collecting and to this level of collector is surely what matters.
But what of the old trooper that won them? This car is glamorous, beautiful and rare; but, for me, the way it has been arrived at puts it in Nowheresville — a fascinating glimpse of what might have been.
At least two people — the last two buyers — agree on the price. And a derelict original is rumored to have sold for big money at the Paris Rétromobile sale two years ago. Will the real Squires please stand up?