... . . . all you need to know about Lagonda
Born: 1898 Nationality: British
Lagonda founder Wilbur Gunn began his automotive career by building motorcycles at Staines near London. These developed into three-wheeler "forecars" and eventually a 10hp proper car in the early 1900s. The name is from the Shawnee Indian language and was a placename in Springfield, Ohio, where Gunn grew up.
Gunn had also developed an early form of "unitary construction" with bodywork tin sheets fastened to a light frame, and by 1913 his cars had dispensed with chassis frames altogether. The 11.1 had a 1-litre engine and was a two-seater, and a four-seater was also introduced just before the first World War.
In the war, Lagonda made armaments. After the conflict, the 11.1 was reintroduced, and was soon joined by a longer wheelbase 11.9 which had a 1.4-litre engine. Gunn died in 1920, having provided a variety of innovative ideas for his cars.The 1925 London Motor Show introduced the 12/24's successor, the 14/60, which had a 2-litre engine and reverted the Lagonda construction format to include a traditional chassis frame.
The 16/65 of 1925 had a 2.7-litre engine, enlarged to a 3-litre in 1928. A variant of this latter had a Maybach gearbox with eight gears. The car had a long production run, to 1934, being replaced by a similar model with a 3.5-litre engine. In 1928 and 1929 the company entered the Le Mans, with indifferent results. The endeavour did result in the production of what are termed the "low chassis" models.
In 1932, the 16/80 was introduced, with a new six-cylinder 2-litre engine built by Crossley. A 4.5-litre M45 was introduced in 1933, with an engine built by the Meadows company. A run to Greece in the prototype gained great publicity when it beat the London-Brindisi train by 14 hours.
In 1934, a 1.1-litre Rapier which had a Lagonda-built engine, became famous for being the highest-revving production engine of the time.
However, with too many models and variants rolling out of the factory, the company was forced into receivership, despite a Lagonda 4.5-litre winning Le Mans in 1935. It was restructured by Alan Good as LG Motors and one model, the LG45, replaced all the others. It was designed by WO Bentley, brought in by Good to sort out the situation. Bentley designed a V12 engine which went into production in 1938 and pulled Lagonda cars to reasonable success at Brooklands and Le Mans towards the end of the 30s. In 1948, David Brown had bought both Lagonda and Aston Martin and merged the two brands. Bentley's engine was later used in 2.6- and 3-litre forms in Aston Martin's DB2 and DB2/4.
Lagonda models were built until 1957 when there was a hiatus for four years. In 1961 the 4-litre Rapide was introduced - essentially an Aston Martin DB4 with a different suspension, carburation and an automatic transmission.
After another change of ownership in 1972, the next Lagonda was the V8 of 1974, but only seven were built in the next 20 months, during which time the ownership of the company changed again to a team led by Peter Sprague and George Minden. In the meantime, Ford bought a majority shareholding in Aston Martin Lagonda in 1987.
From 1990, Aston Martin called all their four-door cars Lagondas, but the name was an add-on to the Aston brand. The company has been fully-owned by Ford since 1994.
Best Car: The 1938 LG6 Drop head Coupé (pictured), regarded as the most beautiful car of its time.
Worst Car: The 1.5-litre Rapier of the mid-'30s.
Weirdest Car: The 1953 3-litre, which had possibly the ugliest front end of any car of its time. - Brian Byrne