F3 History

Despite not being one of the most familiar names in motor sport during his career Paul Emery built F1, F2 and F3 cars which puts him in some fairly exalted company. Following in the footsteps of his father George who built specials pre-war Paul built a 500cc car in 1949 which was unusual in that it used rubber damping for its independent suspension and was front-wheel-drive, it had moderate success and some customer cars were sold. By 1953 a F2 Alta-engined car had been built with Emery driving it himself, he continued for several years with the occasional reasonable result despite being hampered by financial considerations. In 1960 things improved when former Cooper driver Alan Brown and others put up the money for a new F2 car, the former Connaught premises were purchased and a car was constructed. During 1960 a F1 version of the F2 model fitted with a Climax engine and a five-speed Colotti gearbox was built. In 1961 Ecurie Nationale Belge ran three cars fitted with Maserati engines and ran them almost exclusively in non-championship races but the cars either crashed or failed to qualify and at the end of the year American Hugh Powell bought the company from Emery although he stayed on. An improved car, the Mk3, was introduced in 1962 it was slimmer and lighter and used a semi-monocoque design but results were still generally poor. In 1963 the cars were fitted with BRM engines and renamed Scirocco but results were no better and at the end of the year Emery decided to leave and concentrate on tuning road cars. In addition to the larger formulae Emeryson also produced a F Junior model, the Mk2, which was a conventional spaceframe, wishbone suspended design. The Mk2 met with some success in the hands of young Mike Spence including a big win at Silverstone. Jack Newton entered and raced an Emeryson-Ford, almost certainly a Mk2, at Brands Hatch in August 1965 but finished well down the field. Peter Wright similarly raced an Emeryson-Ford at Silverstone in July 1966 but failed to finish