1937 Squire 1.5-Liter Drophead Coupe by Corsica

Offered by RM Auctions | Amelia Island, Florida | March 10, 2012

Remember how, in high school, you’d sit and doodle and draw the fastest imaginary car you could imagine? To be honest, it was probably atrocious (mine were) – festooned with grotesque wings and Countach-like boxy proportions.

Well, in 1931 Adrian Squire, then 21-years-old, decided he would build the dream car he wanted. He founded Squire Motors Ltd. and set out building amazing automobiles. And he did. Squire was a former employee of both Bentley and MG, so he knew what a great sports car should be.

The company was renamed in 1934 to the Squire Car Manufacturing Company and started building cars in 1935. They used a 1.5-liter inline four built by Anzani. A Roots-type supercharger was then added for a total output of 110 horsepower. The cars were exorbitantly expensive and only seven were sold by the end of 1936.

The final car was bought by a man of the name Val Zethrin (who sounds like the villain in a sci-fi movie about space). He was apparently impressed by the car and acquired the rights (and spares) of Squire. He constructed about a car per year through 1939, taking total Squire production to 10 cars. The one offered here is the first of the Val Zethrin cars, from 1937.

Adrian Squire left his company and went to work at Lagonda before ending up at the Bristol Aeroplane Company, where he was killed at age 30 during a bombing raid in WWII. The cars that bear his name remain legendary for being some of the fastest, best handling and performing road cars built prior to WWII.

This car features spectacular coachwork from Corsica of London which was modified slightly during restoration in the mid-1990s. The mechanicals have been freshened more recently and the car is ready to roll. Nine of the ten Squires built are still around. You won’t find one more outstanding than this.

If you want it, I hope you have deep pockets, as RM did not publish an estimate for this car. To read the entire catalog description, click here. And to see the rest of the Amelia Island lineup, click here.

Update: Sold $990,000.