Chassis Number: 1320A
This “Edwardian Giant” is offered from the collection of its fifth owner in 120 years, Australian businessman Peter Briggs. The discovery of this engine in the 1950s, fit to a complete body in the 1980s, heralded the definitive rebirth into the motoring world of the L48 and its singular legacy. Any new owner must keep bright and burning the flame of transformation and perseverance this motor has ignited in all its custodians.
Napier was begun by Montague Napier’s father more than 100 years before the birth of the L48, and by 1900 was quite a small engineering shop producing products of a nonetheless superior precision, such as coin-weighing machines for the Royal Mint. Montague and his Australian-born collaborator Selwyn Francis Edge, a marketing wizard who cut his teeth in the hyper-competitive bicycle business, were eager to reposition Napier as an innovator.
Around this time the British motor industry had struggled for recognition among the elite nations of motor manufacturing, namely France and Germany. The French engineer and journalist who later founded the Le Mans 24 Hour Race, Charles Faroux, suggested to Edge that building a 6-cylinder engine would provide a smoother power delivery to the rear wheels, improving tire life. As part of his ambitious strategy of building powerful engines for the fastest cars and sending them to win high-profile international races, Edge announced in October 1903 that Napier would compete in the 1904 racing season, with what would become the world’s first successful 6-cylinder car.
The front of the new race car was revised to include a streamlined nose and an exterior radiator. A spectacle with its 242 feet of quarter-inch copper pipe used for the unique 80-tube radiator (holding 20 gallons and operating at atmospheric pressure), the lines of copper tubing were as much about making the Napier L48 distinctive as about cooling.
The L48 was first raced in September 1904 but its greatest victory was won on the 25th of January, 1905, on a stretch of sand between Florida’s Ormond and Daytona Beaches. With Englishman Arthur MacDonald at the wheel, the Napier broke the Flying One Mile World Record of 104.65 mph. It was the first car to record 100 mph on American soil and the first British car to crack the 100-mph barrier. The car was nicknamed “Samson,” a nod to the resemblance of the engine’s copper cooling tubes to the flowing locks of the biblical strongman.
The car was eventually sold for scrap by Napier. The story of the engine’s survival after its racing career begins with Alan “Bob” Hawker Chamberlain, manufacturer of the celebrated Australian-made Chamberlain Tractors. At the Cornwell pottery factory where the engine was rediscovered, only the intake-valve rocker arms and domes were visible, poking through the dust.
Fortunately, unlike other manufacturers, Napier did not destroy its records. The archiving efforts of enthusiasts such as Anthony Heal and Derek Grosmark enabled Bob Chamberlain to rebuild the Napier with characteristic thoroughness. The rebuilt engine was started for the first time in 67 years on the July 8, 1982, and it is said to have started on its first turn. It was tested on a dynamometer and showed almost 180 hp. Journalist, author and stalwart editor of the famed Motor Sport magazine, Bill Boddy, wrote, “Whether or not you approve of the modern reconstruction of old cars, you must concede that this is the re-creation of the decade.”
