UPDATE: Sold February 29, 2024 at the Bonhams auction for
US$742,000 ($A1.19m) inc. premium

AN important slice of 20th century motorsport history and one that represents a unique example of Australian engineering ingenuity will later this month be presented to the world’s classic-car auction fraternity with hopes that its $AUD1.5 million sale estimate will secure a new owner and maintain its position as an automotive icon.

The vehicle, owned by the estate of the late Peter Briggs, is a recreation of a 1904 Napier L48 “Samson” that had a peerless history of racing wins and exploits in Europe, the US and Australia before being broken up in 1915 and set aside for almost 70 years.

Motoring commentator, author, event organiser and curator of the Peter Briggs classic-car collection trust, Graeme Cocks, said that the Napier has a long history of campaigning in motoring events that started soon after the car-maker first made the inline six-cylinder engine.

In 1950 the engine — the only remaining identifiable part of the original racing car — became the core of a painstaking recreation by Australian industrialist Bob Chamberlain. The task was made more difficult by the need to source blueprints from Napier and compensate for the engine spending some time powering a water speed record boat.

The Napier automobile company started in 1895 by Montague Napier who built a prototype based on a Panhard chassis and a vertical twin-cylinder engine of Napier’s own design.

Engine development was instigated by Australian Selwyn Francis (SF) Edge who was born in New South Wales but went to Britain with his parents in 1871 at the age of three. SF Edge was so impressed with the Napier engine that he urged Napier and and financier Harvey du Cros to expand the sales organisation.

They agreed to sell the entire output of the new motor vehicle division of the company and the close association which lasted until 1912.

In 1903, Edge announced a new six-cylinder model for 1904, which eventually made the company the world’s first series manufacturer of six-cylinder motor cars.

“Samson” L48 was first shown in June 1904 and built for the 1904 Gordon Bennett race. It contested many competition events in the UK, including the 1905 British “Gordon Bennett” eliminating trials.

The distinctive feature of the L48 engine is its unusual cooling system, consisting of copper tubes running the length of the engine. But this was not for streamlining or for efficient cooling, but because Edge thought the pipes would make the Napier stand out.

Fitted originally with a 155mm x 152mm engine it continued to compete in events up to 1908, including Brooklands culminating in its challenge race with the great Fiat, “Mephistopheles” in 1908.

It was later fitted with an even larger engine of over 20 litres (when it was named “Samson”) and with this engine took the British half-mile record at 119.34 mph.

With the original engine, (now in the recreated vehicle) Edge’s 90hp “L48” took out the World Land Speed Record at Daytona Beach in the USA in 1905 (January), driven by Arthur Macdonald at 104.65mph (168kph) over the measured mile.

Macdonald was one of the first people in the world to travel at over 100 mph. His drive at Daytona during the annual Speed Week was the first time a car was recorded at over 100 mph in the United States and it was the first British car to exceed 100 mph.

Over the course of the week, Macdonald drove the Napier to set world’s records over 5, 10 and 20 miles, and a new American record for a flying kilometre at 97.258 mph.

The competition successes of the Napier L48 included:  

Portmarnock Sands Speed Trials, UK – September 1904. L48 was raced for the first time putting up fastest time. –
Gaillon Hill Climb, France – September 1904. It completed the flying kilometre in 29.4 seconds, creating a new record.-
Ormond-Daytona Beach Meeting, Florida, USA – January 1905. In addition to the Flying One Mile World Record of 104.65 mph, L48 achieved other records including:  Flying Kilometre (American Record) 97.26 mph;  World’s Competitive Kilometre Record (Standing – Start) 81.6 mph; World’s Competitive Mile 96.25 mph; World’s Five Mile Record 91.37 mph; World’s Ten Miles Record 96.00 mph (winning the Miller Trophy; World’s Twenty Miles Record 89.21 mph (winning  the Thomas Trophy); “Gordon Bennett” Races, Clemmont Ferrand – June 1905. Napier timed fastest over the kilometre but finished a disappointing 9th due to poor preparation.
Brighton Speed Events – July 1905. British record for the flying kilometre, 97.2 mph.
Blackpool Speed Events – July 1905. Beat both a 100 hp Fiat and a 100 hp Darracq.  Flying kilometre 104.52 mph and mile at 96.25 mph set fastest time.
Chateau-Thierry Hillclimb, France – October 1905. Fastest time of the day.
Doundon Speed Trials, France – November 1905. Fastest time of the day over both kilometre and mile events.
Ormond-Daytona Beach Speed Trials, Florida, USA – January 1906. 1st in the five mile event. Won the Miller Trophy.
100 Mile Minneapolis Cup, USA – 1906. 1st ahead of the Napier’s Fiat rival.
Blackpool Motor Race Meeting, UK – October 1906. Initially tied with a 200hp Darracq in event 12, but beaten in a run-off by .2 of a second. Established Ladies Record driven by Miss Dorothy Levitt over the flying kilometre.
Gaillon Hillclimb, France – September 1907 (fourth visit). Fastest time of the day (average 84mph).
Brooklands UK – August 1908 (fitted with a new engine and now named “Samson”) First in Thirty Mile Race (for the Montague Cup) New Record.
Brooklands, UK – October 1908. 90hp Ten lap record raised to 102.21 mph and half-mile record raised to 114.98 mph.
Brooklands, UK – 18 November 1908. 90hp Class short record pushed up to 119.34mph. Top speed of 130 mph achieved on the “Byfleet” banking. (“Samson’s” Brooklands record lap stood for six years).

Mr Chamberlain was most publicly known for his production of tractors and agricultural machinery in Australia under the Chamberlain name from 1949 until the mid-1970s when the business was merged with John Deere. He was also gained publicity when he entered one of his tractors in the 1955 around Australia Redex Trial.

Although Mr Chamberlain first became interested in the recreation project after seeing the unusual engine in the warehouse of the pottery business owned by the Cornwell brothers. The brothers bought the engine of the L48 in 1908 and fitted it to their their record-breaking speedboat, “Nautilus 2” that won races including the E.C. Griffiths Cup in 1914 and 1915.

The boat was regarded at the time as the fastest boat in Australia and better than most imported competition.

Chamberlain was reported as having the ideal of cleaning up and displaying the engine at one of his factories.

But in 1977, he had a change of heart and started re-creating L48 using original factory drawings from the Science Museum in London, photographs, and his company’s engineering facilities.

The entire car was to be recreated to its 1908 specifications, a time when it raced at Brooklands with the 15-litre engine.

Reports who that the rebuilt engine first started in July 1982 “instantly with no problems” with the only problem being early demonstration runs in Australia that showed that the tyres were moving on their rims. More modern tyres were used on the rear wheels and used subsequently in runs at Lake Perkolilli and Lake Seabrook in 2007.

By 1982, Mr Chamberlain’s project had attracted global interest as it represented one of only a handful of Edwardian racing car recreations that had been made and even fewer of the quality of the Chamberlain car. 

The work done by Chamberlain on the Napier was so highly regarded that it set the standard for the recreation of historic cars.

In Bonhams’ detail of the car now up for auction, it said that it “was now accepted that it is legitimate to recreate a car around the original motor so that once again the spirit of the early years of motoring can be enjoyed by younger generations.”

Napier estimated sale is $US1.5 million, based on recent sales of similar vehicles including a 1909 Lorraine-Dietrich 16.4-litre Grand Prix Two-Seater Chassis no. 60189 that sold at a Bonhams auction in August 2023 for US$1,270,000 inc. premium.

The Napier will be offered for sale at the Bonhams Auction at Amelia Island, Florida on 29 February 2024. Link at https://cars.bonhams.com/auction/29261/preview-lot/5775130/1904-napier-samson-l48-15-litre-240-bhp/

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