By Graham Rabagliati with Duncan Rabagliati
2024 review by Peter McFadyen
From the very first motor race I witnessed first-hand, a minor national Formula 1 race won by Roy Salvadori in the Gilby Engineering 250F Maserati in which Paul Emery drove his Alta-engined F1 car to the Historic Formula Junior race which I photographed at Silverstone not 24 hours ago, Emeryson cars have been a constant thread throughout my motor racing experience. Not until I read this book, however, did I realise the extent to which Emery and his cars have been constantly involved in all levels of motor sport. As the book gleefully points out on the rear cover and inside, Emeryson was one of only two racing car constructors to produce cars for all of the first four World Championship formulae from the 1940s to the 1960s; the other was Ferrari.
Paul Emery, son of French-born George Emery, followed in his engineering father’s footsteps. His debut as a driver at the wheel of one of his father’s Gwynne-engined Emeryson Specials came at Donington Park in 1936 when Paul was 20 years old. The book follows his varied progress from resuming racing after the war with the first F1 car, a 4½-litre Duesenberg-powered device which Bobby Baird debuted in the 1948 Jersey road race. From there, the story takes us via Reg Parnell’s Challenge(r) to the innovative 500cc F3 Emerysons, unusual in being front-engined, FWD and powered by a 500cc JAP twin rather than the ubiquitous single cylinder units whose vibrations Emery hoped to avoid.
Then it’s on to the F1 car with an Alta engine bought from Connaught and Emery’s involvement with the latter, rear-engined F1 cars and his work with Equipe National Belge, Emeryson Formula Junior cars, a twin-engined Mini and the Emery GT sports cars. John Markey drove one of the GT cars to considerable success and he has contributed the foreword to the book.
It was while researching his earlier book ‘From Send to Surrey – The History of Connaught’ that author Graham Rabagliatti became aware of the extent of Paul Emery’s involvement. Graham’s brother Duncan is, of course, well known not least for his part in compiling the multi-volume series ‘A record of Grand Prix and Voiturette Racing’ and has gathered a huge amount of data on all things Emeryson. This forms a valuable and fascinating 58-page appendix listing competition results of Emery’s cars. The book is illustrated throughout with many, many photographs, all well reproduced and given sufficient space for their proper appreciation. The comprehensive 7-page index is divided into sections including cars, drivers, personalities and venues and just a glance at this will give some idea of the wealth of information and the story within. An excellent book all round.
Paul Emery was only 76 when he died in 1993.
Publisher: Enigma Publishing
Price: £50.00 plus postage.
Description: 302 pages, hardback in dust jacket, 252mm x 190mm. Copious illustrations.
ISBN: 9781872955421
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