Squire Car Manufacturing Co. Ltd., Henley-on-Thames, Oxfordshire.
Few cars have generated more interest from a tiny production figure than the Squire. It was conceived by a young Englishman, Adrian Morgan Squire (1910-1940), who had worked out the basic design of the car, even issuing a 6-page catalogue, whilst still at school. At the age of 21, in 1931, he set up Squire Motors Ltd., a small company which sold, repaired and tuned sports cars, and in 1934 incorporated a separate company, the Squire Car Manufacturing Co., to build his dream car. Announced in September 1934 it was a low slung 2 seater sports car powered by a twin overhead camshaft 4 cylinder 1496cc Anzani R1 engine which, when Squire had worked on it, developed 110bhp. The press never mentioned the Anzani origins, for Squire had his own trademark cast on the inlet manifold. The engine's designer, Douglas Ross, is reported to have said that Squire could call it anything he likede as long as he paid for it. The engine drove through a Wilson 4 speed pre-selector gearbox in which the bottom gear band served as a clutch. The chassis was a very strong cruciform braced structure, and the brakes, though Lockheed actuated, were Squire's own design, with magnesium alloy drums 15.5 inches in diameter, which entirely filled the internal diameter of the wheels, with practically no daylight showing through. They were able to stop the car in under 10 metres from 30mph, braking so powerful that sometimes the front spring shackles fractured.
Two wheelbases were offered, 102 or 125 inches, for 2 or 4 seater bodies, which were to be open or drop-head coupes by Vanden Plas. In fact the coupes were never made, and only two long wheelbase cars were ever delivered, together with five on the short wheelbase. There was nothing against the Squire but its price; this was £1220 for a Vanden Plas 2 seater, about double the cost of a contemporary Aston Martin or Frazer Nash, and nearly as much as a Type 55 Bugatti. Adrian Squire hoped to sell the cars through his friends, and several did become customers, but not enough to keep the little firm going. In an effort to reduce the price, a much cheaper body by Markham, with cycle type wings , was offered in 1935, but even so it still cost £995. A single-seater, also bodied by Markham, was raced at Brooklands by Luis Fontes, but he never had much success with it. By May 1936 the price of the "Skimpy", as the Markham 2 setaer was nicknamed, had been reduced to £695, with a standard 2 seater at £795 and a 4 seater at £895. However, only two cars were delivered in 1936, a "Skimpy" and a Vanden Plas 4 seater, and on the 3rd July 1936 the Squire Car Manufacturing Co. was wound up. Squire Motors continued as a garage, but Adrian Squire left to join Lagonda. He was working for the Bristol Aeroplane Co. when he was killed in an air raid in September 1940.
The Squire story did not end completely in 1936, for one of the customers, Val Zethrin, purchased all the remaining parts, and managed to buld up two more short chassis cars between 1937 and 1939. They were made by Squire mechanics working at the Henley-on-Thames premises. The first to be completed had a Corsica drophead body and the second was a Zethrin-designed open 2 seater. Zethrin also modified the Anzani engine to make it quieter. He hoped to resume production after the war, but could not obtain the patterns for the cylinder heads and cylinder blocks, and the cost of making new ones would have been unrealistic for a small production run. Of the seven cars made by the Squire Car Manufacturiung Co., six survive, as do both the Zethrin assembled cars.
