Paul Emery

November 12, 1916 - Chiswick, London -- February 3, 1992 - Epsom, Surrey (age: 76)

	2 Aspenlea Road, London
	Paul Emery working on a 2.5-litre Connaught engine for a historic racer
	Engine shop
	Assembly and general shop

Emery:

• arch-special builder
• Formula 1 driver
• 500 c.c. constructor and driver
• Connaught driver
• you name it, he's done it

This indefatigable special builder from the 1950s built a wide variety of cars under the Emeryson banner, and competed in the 1956 British Grand Prix in an Alta-engined machine.

After WW II, Paul Emery took over Emeryson Ltd. from his father, George Emery, who had been building racing specials since the 1930s. Emeryson Ltd was bought by American Hugh Powell in 1961. Emery agreed to stay on as the designer. For 1962 Powell established Scirocco-Powell Racing. 'Emerysons' were renamed Sciroccos and fitted with BRM engines. Emery remained involved until the end of the year. He then turned his attention to engine-tuning while his son Peter carried on the family tradition of building racing cars with the Formula Junior Elfin.

Paul Emery and Willy Griffiths (who came from Roger Nathan) went straight to work on the Imp and got a motor together that was very fast indeed.

After the Imp appeared in 1963, Paul Emery Cars specialised in making the Hillman Imp and Singer Chamois extremely fast. He announced in 1963 a rather neat little GT coupe, built round Imp mechanical bits and pieces. At the time of the article in CCC, Oct. 1965, they were in the process of making one for an American customer.
In 1964 they produced the Emery GTI. Paul Emery Cars prepared and tuned Imps to all shapes and sizes for road and competiton use, as well as marketing the GTI as a sort of complete car.

In 1964, he appeared at the Racing Car Show with a lowered, rakish line in hot Imps.

The machine shop, even though it's tiny, has a crank-grinding machine and a vertical mill: reboring is done on the premises. The Emery men tackle their own blocks, cranks and pistons, which are usually special castings of their own. Rootes pistons are rarely used, although in some capacities it fits nicely. In the 998cc engine, the Rottes 72.5mm bore is just the thing for the job.

Lowering the roofline is also done on the premises. They do it often enough to be very good at it, and the cutting and re-welding can't be detected.

For the Nürburgring race of early September 1965, the two Emery Team cars were prepared with a transistor ignition system, developed by Willy Griffiths and based on a system by Klinger Controls Ltd. This was expected to improve sparking over 6000 revs.

Tony Lanfranchi drove an Emery lowered roof line Imp, February 13th 1966 at Brands Hatch. He lost against Bernard Unett in a Fraser Imp, who set a new class record. (Club racing, All Saloon car meeting)

1964 Nürburgring 500 Km

6 September 1964 - Nürburgring (D): Round 7, International Championship for Manufacturers (Division I)
22 laps of a 14.174 mile/22.810 km circuit - 311.817 miles/501.820 kms were completed
Weather: rain

NRF = Not Running at finish
DNA = Did not arrive

500 km Nurburgring 1965

Two Emery Imps were entered in the Le Mans 24 Hour Endurance Race of 1965 in the 1300cc class. They were to be driven by Paul Emery and Chris Lambert. They were not accepted.

(What about competition numbers 90 and 96 ?? mention on the Merica site...)

1965 Le Mans 24 Hours Competitors & Results

24 h Le Mans
Race: 13,461 km * 348 laps = 4677,110 km
20 June1965
12th round of the 1965 World Championship source

Pos.  NO  Driver / Nationality  Car                   Entrant     Laps Time/retired    Group   Practice
      69 Chris Lambert / GB     Emery - Hillman Imp   Paul Emery        Not accepted   P1.3 

an advert in Autocar, 26 November 1965: Performance + Imp & Chamois conversions ! Why not out-Imp and out-Chamois all your fellow drivers ? Show them something new and unexpected from a car like yours: a dazzling acceleration, a catch-me-if-you-can top speed. The secret's simple. A Paul Emery conversion gives your car a sporting chance. Stage I to stage IV. Four steps up the high performance path give you the raciest little car you've ever owned. With conversions ranging from as little as £27.10.0 Paul Emery-upmanship is cheaper than you dare to think. Why not write to find out more ? PAUL EMERY CARS 2, Aspenlea Rd. Fulham W.6. FUL 2763

Norbert Dietsch worked for the late Paul Emery. He also decided to enter himself as a driver and raced for around 4 years across the UK in Oval circuits where they averaged 16 seconds per lap on 1/4mile Oval circuit! This was either on a shale, tarmac or concrete track in a car that only had a 1150cc Hillman Imp Single Overhead Cam engine.

Literature

E is for Emery : improved (and how) Imps : the tuners. - Cars and Car Conversions 1965, October. - p.257-258
with four photos (as reproduced on this page). Chief photographer of those CCC days was Michael Cooper

Cut 'n' shut / photography by Elisabeth Lewis; Max Le Grand. - Small Car 1965, February. - p.46-47
Emery Imp: Watch out, it burns (Road test)
4 photos: Elisabeth Lewis at Putney Reach, London and Max Le Grand at Brands Hatch, Kent

Paul Emery - Grand prix driver
Emeryson Cars Ltd.
Emeryson 500 Paul Emery - Formula1 Driver
Colin Chapman's single Emeryson appearance (good reading)
Paul Emery - F1 / Designer