The Lomax is a British

kit car A kit car is an automobile available as a set of parts that a manufacturer sells and the buyer then assembles into a functioning car. Usually, many of the major mechanical systems such as the engine and transmission are sourced from donor ve ...

based on mechanical components of the

Citroën 2CV The Citroën 2CV (french: link=no, deux chevaux(-vapeur), , lit. "two steam horse(power)s", meaning "two ''taxable'' horsepower") is an air-cooled front-engine, front-wheel-drive, economy family car, introduced at the 1948 Paris Mondial de l ...

. It has been in production since 1982 when it was introduced by the Lomax Motor Co of Willoughton,

Gainsborough, Lincolnshire Gainsborough is a market town, inland port and civil parish in the West Lindsey district of Lincolnshire, England. The town population was 20,842 at the 2011 census, and estimated at 23,243 in 2019. It lies on the east bank of the River Trent ...

. In the late 1980s the production was transferred to the Mumford Motor Co. of Gigg Mill,

Nailsworth Nailsworth is a town and civil parish in Gloucestershire, England, lying in one of the Stroud Valleys in the Cotswolds, on the A46 road (the Roman Fosse Way), south of Stroud and about north-east of Bristol and Bath. The parish had a populat ...

Gloucestershire Gloucestershire ( abbreviated Glos) is a county in South West England. The county comprises part of the Cotswold Hills, part of the flat fertile valley of the River Severn and the entire Forest of Dean. The county town is the city of Gl ...

, where it was produced until the early 1990s. From then it was built at Cradley Motor Works in

Cradley Heath Cradley Heath is a town in the Rowley Regis area of the Metropolitan Borough of Sandwell, West Midlands, England approximately north-west of Halesowen, south of Dudley and west of central Birmingham. Cradley Heath is often confused with the ...

, West Midlands. By 2009 the car was being made by Cradley Motor Works at

St Leonards-on-Sea St Leonards-on-Sea (commonly known as St Leonards) is a town and seaside resort in the Borough of Hastings in East Sussex, England. It has been part of the borough since the late 19th century and lies to the west of central Hastings. The origina ...

East Sussex East Sussex is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in South East England on the English Channel coast. It is bordered by Kent to the north and east, West Sussex to the west, and Surrey to the north-west. The largest settlement in East Su ...

. It was designed by Nigel Whall. From the early 1990s the Lomax has also been sold in the Netherlands and Germany.

Variants

The major variants are: * Lomax 223 & 224: 223 with three wheels, 224 with four wheels * Lomax Lambda 3 & 4: more rounded version of the 223 & 224 * Lomax Supertourer: four-wheels only with look of a traditional 1930s tourer; retaining 2CV cooling fan and heat exchanger rather than simple in-air cooling of other models

Design

The design is slightly reminiscent of the better-known Morgan Three Wheeler of the 1930s. The car consists of a fibreglass body mounted on an un-modified

Dyane Dyane is a census town in Nashik district in the state of Maharashtra, India. Demographics As of the 2001 India census, Dyane had a population of 24,837. Males constitute 51% of the population and females 49%. Dyane has an average literacy r ...

floorpan and engine. Later a steel tube chassis was introduced. A Lomax is usually an open 2-seat roadster, which is driven completely without a roof. The original 1982 prototype had a bespoke four-wheel chassis which was specially constructed, and of shorter wheelbase than the donor car, a

Citroën Ami The Citroën Ami is a four-door, front-wheel drive economy (B-segment) family car, manufactured and marketed by Citroën from 1961 to 1978. The Ami was offered in saloon and estate/wagon/break body styles over two generations, the Ami 6 and t ...

. Early "3-wheel" variants were actually four wheeled, with two rear wheels closely paired as in some

Heinkel Heinkel Flugzeugwerke () was a German aircraft manufacturing company founded by and named after Ernst Heinkel. It is noted for producing bomber aircraft for the Luftwaffe in World War II and for important contributions to high-speed flight, with ...

bubble cars of the 1960s. Later versions were genuine trikes, three wheels with two wheels in front and one at the back, this allowed to benefit from the (lower) 3-wheel UK road-tax. A four-wheel variant followed later, using an unmodified 2CV chassis. The naming convention was the number of cylinders, the number of seats, and the number of wheels. The common model designations are 223 (2 cylinders - 2 seats - 3 wheels) or 224 (2 cylinders - 2 seats - 4 wheels). A few examples used the engine from the

Citroën GS The GS is a front-engine, front-drive, four or five door, five passenger family car manufactured and marketed by Citroën in two series: for model years 1970-1979 in fastback saloon and estate bodystyles and subsequently as the GSA for model ye ...

or GSA, these were designated 424 (4 cylinders, 2 seats, 4 wheels). The Lomax weighs approximately , delivering a top speed of approximately with a 602cc 2CV/Dyane engine. Petrol consumption is -.

In media

* A Lomax sold for $7,100 on a 2011 episode of the U.S. television series ''

Auction Kings ''Auction Kings'' is a reality television series produced by Authentic Entertainment for the Discovery Channel. The series premiered on October 26, 2010 and the Atlanta auction house Gallery 63 in Sandy Springs, Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia, loca ...

''. The Lomax 224 was used as a car produced by a company in the UK TV series ''

Frank Stubbs Promotes ''Frank Stubbs Promotes'' (alternative title: Frank Stubbs) is a British comedy drama series by Simon Nye, that starred Timothy Spall, Lesley Sharp, Danniella Westbrook, Choy-Ling Man, Anne Jameson, Nick Reding, Trevor Cooper and Roy Marsden. Tw ...

'' starring ''

Timothy Spall Timothy Leonard Spall (born 27 February 1957) is an English actor and presenter. He became a household name in the UK after appearing as Barry Spencer Taylor in the 1983 ITV comedy-drama series ''Auf Wiedersehen, Pet''. Spall performed in '' S ...

References

External links

{{Commons category, Lomax vehicles
Lomax Cars
(archived 27 June 2023)
Cradley Motor Works, Lomax manufacturersLomax-Club (Germany)Lomax
2CV kit car club, Netherlands Citroën 2CV Front-wheel-drive vehicles 1990s cars Cars powered by boxer engines Kit car manufacturers Motor vehicle manufacturers of England Cars introduced in 1982