1946 Lea-Francis Cowell Special – The Prototype Without a Series

A Lea-Francis is an uncommon sight even at British classic car events. This car is rarer still: built in 1946, the 14 HP Sports Cowell Special was created as the prototype for a planned small series that never materialised.

Now the roadster, with an extensive history, a FIVA Identity Card and Swiss veteran registration, is being offered by Emil Frey Classic Auctions. The estimate is CHF 155,000 to 185,000.

Lea-Francis – Coventry beyond the big names

Think of post-war British sports cars and Jaguar, MG, Triumph or Austin-Healey usually come to mind first. Lea-Francis, by contrast, is one of those manufacturers whose name is mainly familiar to specialists today.

The company’s history goes back to the late 19th century. After its early years building bicycles and later cars, Lea-Francis earned a reputation, particularly in the 1920s and 1930s, for technically sophisticated and sporting vehicles.

One of its best-known pre-war models was the supercharged Hyper, with which Lea-Francis also achieved success in motorsport.

In 1937 the company was reorganised under new management. A key figure was Hugh Rose, who had previously worked at Riley. Rose designed a new four-cylinder engine whose layout would become central to the later post-war models.

After the Second World War, Lea-Francis resumed car production as early as 1946. The 14 HP was essentially based on the pre-war design but had been developed further and fitted with a four-cylinder engine enlarged to 1,767 cc.

The Lea-Francis Owners’ Club describes the 14 HP as the marque’s most numerous model. The standard saloon initially produced 65 bhp, rising to around 70 bhp from 1947.

An unusual engine design

More interesting than the output figure is the design.

The Lea-Francis four-cylinder has two camshafts mounted high in the block. From there, the valves are operated by very short pushrods. Technically, the concept sits between a conventional overhead-valve engine and the far more complex overhead-camshaft engines of the day.

It was precisely this design that made the engine attractive for motorsport. Output could be increased without sacrificing the engine’s fundamental robustness.

Suitably prepared Lea-Francis engines were later also used by Connaught. The Connaught L2 and L3, among others, were developed from Lea-Francis sports chassis, and the British racing car maker’s later Formula 2 engine was also based on the Lea-Francis unit.

The small Coventry manufacturer thus had a technical influence that went well beyond its comparatively modest production numbers.

Cowell & Watson wanted a sports car of their own

The car now on offer was built in 1946, right in the middle of the post-war restart of the motor industry.

The starting point was a Lea-Francis chassis with a shortened wheelbase. On this, Cowell & Watson developed an open two-seater intended as the prototype for a planned small series.

Nothing came of it.

How many Cowell Specials were actually completed cannot be answered entirely consistently from the sources available to the public today. The current auction house describes the car on offer as the only completed example alongside a second chassis. Earlier documentation, on the other hand, refers to two cars having been built. The Lea-Francis Owners’ Club states that only “a couple” were made, both of which are in the Club.

What is certain is that there was no series production. Whichever way they are counted, the Cowell Special is therefore one of the rarest derivatives of the Lea-Francis 14 HP.

There is a further, particularly interesting link to British motorsport history. According to the car’s documentation, the body was drawn by Denis Jenkinson.

Nine years later, that name would become known around the world.

Denis Jenkinson before the Mille Miglia

Denis Jenkinson was less a car designer than a motorsport man: in 1949 he became sidecar world champion as Eric Oliver’s passenger, and he later became one of the more influential British motorsport journalists of his generation.

In 1955 he sat alongside Stirling Moss in the Mercedes-Benz 300 SLR when the pair won the Mille Miglia in 10 hours, 7 minutes and 48 seconds.

Jenkinson’s navigation system also became famous. He had written route notes on a roll of paper and passed them to Moss during the race using hand signals. The pair averaged just under 158 km/h over the roughly 1,600-kilometre course.

The Cowell Special was built almost a decade earlier. If the attribution is correct, it belongs to a far less well-known phase of Jenkinson’s career.

If the Jenkinson attribution could be proven with original documents, it would give this car a historical dimension that goes well beyond mere rarity.

90 PS according to the documentation

Under the long bonnet is the 1,767 cc Lea-Francis four-cylinder.

Historical descriptions of this Cowell Special quote an output of around 90 PS. With a weight of approximately 900 kilograms, also given there, this would have meant a remarkable power-to-weight ratio for the immediate post-war period.

The surviving vehicle documentation quotes a top speed of up to 170 km/h. These figures have appeared almost word for word in several sales listings over the years. They are therefore carried-forward documentation rather than independent measurements.

For comparison: the regular 14 HP saloon, with its initial 65 bhp, reached around 75 mph, or 120 km/h. The Lea-Francis 14 HP Sports, built from 1947, recorded around 87 mph – just under 140 km/h – in a contemporary road test.

On paper, the Cowell Special was therefore a far more single-mindedly sporting car.

Power goes through a manual four-speed gearbox to the rear wheels. Braking is by drums all round.

The unsynchronised first and second gears are part of the character of a sports car of this era. Anyone driving such a car briskly should be comfortable with double-declutching.

Eight decades and an elaborate restoration

According to the seller, the history of the car on offer is unusually well documented.

According to the listing, the car has had eight owners to date. The current owner bought the Lea-Francis in Switzerland in 2013. An earlier restoration carried out in Italy evidently did not meet his standards, so he decided on a second, far more comprehensive rebuild.

According to Emil Frey, around 4,000 hours of work went into it.

According to the seller, three binders document the car’s history as well as its restoration and technical maintenance. They include historical documents, invoices and an original Lea-Francis owner’s handbook.

The effort put into setting up the engine is also remarkable. According to the seller, the owner spent around a year tuning the carburettors.

A retrofitted lambda sensor now allows the air-fuel ratio to be monitored. It is not an original 1946 detail, but on a historic engine that is driven regularly it is a thoroughly pragmatic way of keeping an eye on the mixture.

The car also has a FIVA Identity Card and Swiss veteran registration.

The seller describes its current mechanical condition as very good. The most recent workshop check reportedly found no faults apart from a slight oil leak, or “sweating”, from the engine.

According to the listing, the Swiss vehicle inspection is valid until April 2028.

The power figure deserves a second look

One aspect of the current documentation should, however, be clarified by any interested party before bidding.

The description gives the Cowell Special’s output as around 90 PS. The technical data in the listing, however, state 85 kW or 116 PS, and additionally note a factory output of 74 kW/100 PS.

For a historically significant one-off or near one-off, this discrepancy is not a minor detail.

It would therefore be worth clarifying which test or documentation the current power figure is based on and what modifications have been made to the engine over its history.

Likewise, the Classic Trader listing does not currently describe the car as “Matching Numbers”; chassis, engine and gearbox numbers are not given in the publicly visible data.

In earlier sales listings, for example at Lutziger Classic Cars, the car was described as chassis number 442, “Prototype”. This is the only publicly available identity information, but it is no substitute for checking the stamped numbers and the original documents.

For a car of this category in particular, these details should be verified against the existing historical records and the FIVA documentation.

Hardly a meaningful market comparison

When it comes to price, conventional market analysis reaches its limits. Regular Lea-Francis 14 HP Sports are fundamentally different cars and are therefore no yardstick.

The Cowell Special’s value depends less on the general Lea-Francis market than on its individual provenance, the historical significance of its body, its authenticity and documentation, and on how the car ranks among the few known Cowell cars.

Emil Frey Classic Auctions has set the estimate at CHF 155,000 to 185,000.

Whether the market accepts this figure will be shown by the auction itself.

With a car like this, documentation decides

A prototype or near one-off makes different demands on valuation than a series-production classic.

With a Jaguar E-Type or Porsche 911, production data, specification variants and market prices can be compared relatively easily. With the Cowell Special, by contrast, a considerable part of the valuation has to come from the car’s individual history.

That is why paint and mechanicals are not the only things that matter here. Chassis identity, engine history, body, contemporary documents and the traceability of later changes are just as decisive.

The current listing does not include an independent inspection report.

An unusual piece of British post-war history

The appeal of this Lea-Francis lies less in wearing a particularly famous badge on its radiator.

What makes it interesting is the combination.

A small manufacturer from Coventry, a technically unusual engine by Hugh Rose, a shortened sports chassis, Cowell & Watson, a body attributed to Denis Jenkinson and an attempt to put an independent British sports car on the road immediately after the Second World War.

The planned series never happened.

What remains is a car whose story is today almost more interesting than the name on its radiator.

The Lea-Francis at auction

The Lea-Francis 14 HP Sports Cowell Special is being offered in the Emil Frey Classic Auctions online autumn sale, which closes on 3 October 2026 from 2 pm. The cars can be viewed at a preview event on 1 October 2026 at the Classic Center Schweiz in Safenwil.

→ View the car

Photos: Emil Frey Classic Auctions

Author: Classic Trader

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