Engine No. 1096

There are stars that burn bright and then there are those that are incandescent—Adrian Squire was no doubt the latter. By 21 years of age, he founded his eponymous automotive concern, yet he was already an experienced hand having apprenticed with Bentley Motors later working as a draftsman at MG. Determined to realize his dream, Adrian founded Squire Motors in 1931, backed by wealthy friends and business partners.

Squire's goal was to craft a low slung, high-performance sports car with superb handling. Partnering with Douglas Ross of British Anzani Engineering Company, he equipped the car with a Squire-badged 1.5-liter supercharged twin-cam capable of producing 110 horsepower. Though innovative, the engine faced reliability issues and like many, Squire turned to racing to fast track fine tuning and development. The Squire car, built on a rigid steel chassis with adjustable suspension and powerful hydraulic brakes, was praised for its exceptional handling. None other than 1961 Formula One World Champion Phil Hill opined that the "famous-but-mysterious” Squire performed more like a post-war sports car than pre-war machine in his mid-1980s Road & Track column. During a performance test between it, a Bugatti Type 55, and an Alfa Romeo 8C 2300, the “very surprising” Squire was quick through the slalom, yet its braking performance with its 15.1 inch magnesium drum brakes left Hill in awe. The former factory Ferrari pilot concluded that, “the Alfa and Bugatti were excellent examples of the automobiles of the times, but the Squire was a car of the future.” High praise, indeed!

The first Squire car debuted in 1934 but struggled due to its high price which was nearly double that of comparable Aston Martins and remained above the aforementioned competition from Alfa Romeo and Bugatti. Despite its quality and performance, only seven Squires were built—one of which was destined for Val Zethrin, a Swedish steel heir—before the company ceased operations in 1936. The assets including the remaining parts and spares were later purchased by Zethrin who, with assistance from former Squire employees, finished three (possibly just two) cars—including one with Drophead Coupe bodywork by Corsica by 1937 bringing the total Squire production to only ten cars.

Believed to have been specially ordered by Geoffery Munro, chassis number 1063 is the singular Squire constructed with bodywork from Corsica Coachworks. Corsica employed no in-house designer, relying on the direct wishes of their clients to craft bespoke bodies often for the highest echelons of British manufacturers—the likes of Daimler and Bentley included. The Squire was later acquired by World War II Squadron leader and engineer Cameron Millar—a true motorsport aficionado. By 1984 it arrived in the United States, purchased by Dr. Douglas Oosterhaut, a San Francisco Bay Area craniofacial surgeon who owned the Corsica-bodied Squire until 1986 when it passed to Bob Cole. Cole, who, not only was a member of the Triumph factory race team at the 12 Hours of Sebring on multiple occasions, also ran a multi-marque dealership in San Bruno, just south of The City. The Squire was a natural fit for Cole, a Pebble Beach trophy winner and judge who also served as a member of the Advisory Board for the prestigious event. The car later passed to his son Rob who sold it to Washington State collector Pat Hart. Hart then commissioned master woodworker Don Vogelsang to not only restore the Corsica-bodied sportscar but elevate it to an unexpected level not seen from any Squire since their founding 64 years earlier.

After three years of work what emerged from Vogelsang's workshop was nothing short of breathtaking. At the direction of Hart, who believed the Corsica bodywork to be less aesthetically proportional than ideal, Vogelsang transformed the car into an athletically superior, svelte sportscar with a lowered beltline, vee'd windshield frame, and rear fenders draped with skirts that flow thorough the rear trunk line with aplomb. The body is finished in a near-endlessly deep black and both the front and rear fenders work in concert with the elegant bright-finished side spear profile that gracefully curves into the rear fender.

This Art Deco ethos is carried into the pale eggshell blue leather interior outfitted with items considered de rigueur for an elite 1930s European coachbuilt sportscar. Impressive for its elegant simplicity, the pilot is sat behind with a four-spoke Brooklands steering wheel, large Smiths gauges housed in an engine turned aluminum dashboard. This in turn is surrounded by an upper interior edge framed by inlaid burl walnut trim along the top of the leather-covered door panels and dashboard. The engine bay is a highly polished and detailed affair set with a Squire-badged 1.5-liter twin-cam with its Rootes-type supercharger that looks simultaneously Grand Prix car for the road and concours show car. A preselector gearbox puts power to the rear wheels.

Hart debuted the Corsica Squire at the 1998 edition of the Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance with it later becoming a focal point of his impressive collection. After his passing in 2002, the car was stored and then shown at The Quail in 2010 before being acquired by its newest caretaker who returned the car to the show circuit capturing awards at Palm Beach and Amelia Island where it received the Breitling Award for Timeless Beauty. Further awards followed from the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, California and a Best in Class at the Del Mar Concours that October. Acquired by the Academy of Art University Collection in 2012, it appears that this near-timeless sports car with less than 400 miles since restoration has lost none of the luster that propelled it as concours winning automobile equally capable of impressing Phil Hill among Continental Europe's finest.

It is an easy statement to make that the Squire was ahead of its time. As is well-known, Adrian Squire's life and automotive career was tragically cut short when he died in an air raid during World War II at the age of 30. Of the nine Squire cars ever made, this Corsica Drophead Coupe is an especially celebrated example renowned for its advanced engineering, power, and remarkable handling all wrapped in seemingly effortless style.