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Lagonda is a British luxury car brand established in 1906, which has been owned by
Aston Martin Aston Martin Lagonda Global Holdings PLC is an English manufacturer of luxury sports cars and grand tourers. Its predecessor was founded in 1913 by Lionel Martin and Robert Bamford. Steered from 1947 by David Brown, it became associated with ...
since 1947. The trade-name has not had a continuous commercial existence, being dormant several times, most recently from 1995 to 2008 and 2010 to 2013.


History


Establishment

The Lagonda company was founded in 1906 in the UK in Staines, Middlesex, by American-born Wilbur Gunn (1859–1920), a former opera singer. He became a British national in 1891 and worked as a speedboat and motorcycle engineer in Staines. He named the company after the Shawnee settlement "Lagonda" in modern-day
Springfield, Ohio Springfield is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Clark County, Ohio, Clark County. The municipality is located in southwestern Ohio and is situated on the Mad River (Ohio), Mad River, Buck Creek, and Beaver Creek, approxim ...
, the town of his birth. This is a glacially eroded limestone gorge of much beauty. Historically, the area played a major role in the Treaty of Easton and the aligning of the Shawnee tribe with the British during the French and Indian War. He had built motorcycles on a small scale in the garden of his house in Staines with reasonable success, including a win on the 1905 London– Edinburgh trial. In 1907 he launched his first car, the 20 hp, six-cylinder Torpedo, which he used to win the MoscowSt. Petersburg trial of 1910. This success produced a healthy order for exports to Russia which continued until 1914. In 1913, Lagonda introduced an advanced small car, the 11.1, with a four-cylinder 1,099 cc engine, which, by 1914, featured a panhard rod and a rivetted unibody body and the first ever fly-off handbrake. The ratchet control button on the end of a fly-off handbrake is designed to work in the opposite way to what is normally expected. If the lever is lifted or pulled back to the "on" position, on letting go it immediately releases unless the end button is pressed and held in place before letting go of the lever. Once set, the brake is released by lifting the handbrake lever (not pushing the button) in the setting direction (up or back). This mechanism was traditionally fitted to sports cars to facilitate a racing get-away, such as at traffic lights. It can also be used to help the back wheels to slide, without the worry of the ratchet leaving the brake on. During the First World War the Lagonda company made artillery shells.


Between the wars

After the end of the war the 11.1 continued with a larger, 1,400 cc, engine and standard electric lighting as the 11.9 until 1923 and the updated 12 until 1926. Following Wilbur Gunn's death in 1920, three existing directors headed by Colin Parbury took charge. The first of the company's sports models was launched in 1925 as the 14/60 with a twin-cam 1,954 cc four-cylinder engine and hemispherical combustion chambers. The car was designed by Arthur Davidson who had come from Lea-Francis. A higher output engine came in 1927 with the two-litre Speed model which could be had supercharged in 1930. A lengthened chassis version, the 16/65, with a six-cylinder 2.4-litre engine, was available from 1926 to 1930. Their final car of the 1920s was the three-litre using a 2,931 cc six-cylinder engine. This continued until 1933 when the engine grew to 3,181 cc and was also available with a complex eight-speed Maybach
transmission Transmission may refer to: Medicine, science and technology * Power transmission ** Electric power transmission ** Propulsion transmission, technology allowing controlled application of power *** Automatic transmission *** Manual transmission *** ...
as the Selector Special. A new model for 1933 was the 16–80 using a two-litre
Crossley Crossley, based in Manchester, United Kingdom, was a pioneering company in the production of internal combustion engines. Since 1988 it has been part of the Rolls-Royce Power Engineering group. More than 100,000 Crossley oil and gas engines ...
engine with preselector gearbox from 1934. A new small car, the Rapier came along in 1934 with a 1,104 cc engine and pre-selector gearbox. This lasted until 1935 but more were made until 1938 by a separate company, D. Napier & Son of
Hammersmith Hammersmith is a district of West London, England, southwest of Charing Cross. It is the administrative centre of the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham, and identified in the London Plan as one of 35 major centres in Greater London. ...
, London. At the other extreme was the near 4.5-litre M45 with a Meadows-supplied six-cylinder, 4,467 cc, engine. A true sporting version, the M45R Rapide, with a tuned M45 engine and a shorter chassis, achieved a controversial
Le Mans Le Mans (, ) is a city in northwestern France on the Sarthe River where it meets the Huisne. Traditionally the capital of the province of Maine, it is now the capital of the Sarthe department and the seat of the Roman Catholic diocese of Le Man ...
victory in 1935. Also in 1935 the three-litre grew to a 3.5-litre. All was not well financially and the receiver was called in 1935, but the company was bought by Alan P. Good, who just outbid Rolls-Royce. He also persuaded
W. O. Bentley Walter Owen Bentley, MBE (16 September 1888 – 13 August 1971) was an English engineer who founded Bentley Motors Limited in London. He was a motorcycle and car racer as a young man. After making a name for himself as a designer of aircraft an ...
to leave Rolls-Royce and join Lagonda as designer along with many of his racing department staff. The 4.5-litre range now became the LG45 with lower but heavier bodies and also available in LG45R Rapide form. The LG45 came in three versions known as Sanction 1, 2 and 3 each with more Bentley touches to the engine. In 1938 the LG6, with independent front suspension by torsion bar and hydraulic brakes, came in. Along with ex-Rolls-Royce employees, Stuart Tresillian and Charles Sewell, and design expert
Frank Feeley Frank Gerald Feeley, born in Staines-upon-Thames on 16 January 1912, was an automotive stylist and designer. He joined Lagonda based in Staines, where his father, Jeremiah Feeley, also worked, straight from school as an office boy under Arthur T ...
, Bentley hid distaste for the primitive conditions of Lagonda's factory, and got to work on the new engine that was to become his masterpiece, the V-12, launched in 1937. The 4,480 cc engine delivered and was said to be capable of going from in top gear and to rev to 5,000 rpm. The car was exhibited at the 1939 New York Motor Show: "The highest price car in the show this year is tagged $8,900. It is a Lagonda, known as the "Rapide" model, imported from England. The power plant is a twelve-cylinder V engine developing 200 horsepower."


Lagonda at war

Richard Watney was managing director of Lagonda at the start of the Second World War: Watney finished second at Le Mans in 1930 driving a Bentley. He returned to
Rootes Rootes may refer to: People *Baron Rootes, a peerage in the United Kingdom *Jamey Rootes (1966-2022), American sports executive *Maurice Rootes (1917–1997), British film editor *William Rootes, 1st Baron Rootes (1894–1964), founder of the ...
in 1946, and was posted to
Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...
. He was killed in a car accident in Melbourne in 1949.


Aston Martin ownership

In 1947, the company was taken over by David Brown and moved in with
Aston Martin Aston Martin Lagonda Global Holdings PLC is an English manufacturer of luxury sports cars and grand tourers. Its predecessor was founded in 1913 by Lionel Martin and Robert Bamford. Steered from 1947 by David Brown, it became associated with ...
, which he had also bought, in Feltham, Middlesex. The old Staines works at Egham Hythe passed to Petters Limited, in which A.P. Good had acquired the controlling interest. Production restarted with the last prototypes from Bentley, the 1948 2.6-litre with new chassis featuring fully independent suspension. Its new 2,580 cc twin overhead cam straight-six became the basis for the Aston Martin engines of the 1950s. This was replaced by the 3 litre in 1953 and continued to be available until 1958. Many thought that the marque had disappeared, but in 1961 the Rapide name was resurrected, with a four-door saloon based on the contemporary
Aston Martin DB4 The DB4 is a grand tourer that was produced by Aston Martin from 1958 until 1963. Technically the DB4 was not a development of the DB Mark III it replaced, nor did it evolve into the DB5. It had a platform rather than a tubular chassis with a ...
, with an aluminium body by
Carrozzeria Touring Carrozzeria Touring Superleggera is an Italian automobile coachbuilder. Originally established in Milan in 1925, Carrozzeria Touring became well known for both the beauty of its designs and patented superleggera construction methods. The bus ...
of Milan and a 3,995 cc engine capable of taking the car to . By this time, Aston Martin-Lagonda as it now was, had moved to
Newport Pagnell Newport Pagnell is a town and civil parish in the City of Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire, England. The Office for National Statistics records Newport Pagnell as part of the Milton Keynes urban area. It is separated from the rest of the urban ...
in Buckinghamshire. The Rapide lasted until 1965. In 1969, the Lagonda name was briefly resurrected, appearing on a four-door prototype of the new DBS model. The prototype was allocated chassis MP230/1, and was retained by the factory until 1972 and used by Sir David Brown as his personal car, registered "JPP 5G". The car originally ran a prototype five-litre V8 engine but this was quickly replaced by an early 5.3-litre production quad carb version (VS4008EE). Between 1974 and 1976, seven Lagonda four-door saloons were produced based on the 1969 prototype. The production models adopted a single-headlight treatment with a Lagonda "horseshoe" grille in place of the twin-headlamp treatment of the prototype. In 1976, a new Lagonda saloon appeared, the large and futuristic Aston Martin Lagonda designed by William Towns. This low, rather square, wedge-shaped car was built on Aston Martin V8 components and was available until 1990. A total of 645 were built. Aston Martin produced a concept car called the " Lagonda Vignale" at the 1993 Geneva Motor Show. During 1993–94, nine Lagonda four-door saloons and seven shooting brakes (badged on the rear door or tailgate as ''Les Vacances'') were made based on a stretched Aston Martin Virage. These are the only factory-built shooting brakes in Aston Martin's history; six were bought by a foreign royal family. They could be ordered with the 5.3-litre V8 (310 HP) or the 6.3-litre V8 (500 HP) engine.


Revival

Aston Martin said on 1 September 2008, as reported by ''Automotive News Europe'', that it would relaunch its Lagonda brand to help it expand into new markets such as luxury saloons and celebrate Lagonda's centennial anniversary in 2009. "The Lagonda brand would allow us to develop cars which can have a different character than a sports car," said CEO Ulrich Bez in a statement. "Lagonda will have its own niche with luxurious and truly versatile products suitable for both existing and emerging markets".Aston Martin to Revive Lagonda Nameplate
– Automobile.com
"Lagonda models would be vehicles that could be used all year round in markets such as Russia where specialized sports cars such as Aston Martins could only be used for three or four months each year", said Aston Martin spokeswoman Janette Green. At the 2009 Geneva Motor Show, Aston Martin unveiled a 4WD, four-seat SUV to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the first Lagonda car. It includes a V12 engine and 22-inch wheels. The ''Rapide'' name was revived in 2010 as the Aston Martin Rapide saloon. Aston Martin confirmed the revival of the Lagonda brand on 9 March 2011. The new range initially consisted primarily of high-end SUVs. In 2014, however, Aston Martin announced a large, low-bodied saloon version, the
Taraf ''Taraf'' ("Side" in Turkish) was a liberal newspaper in Turkey. It had distinguished itself by opposing interference by the Turkish military in the country's social and political affairs. It was distributed nationwide, and had been in circulati ...
, a £1 million car powered by a Normally Aspirated V12 producing 565 HP and 465 lb-ft of torque. The Taraf was limited to only 200 production units and is being sold in the UK and US markets, despite initial plans to be offered only in the Middle East.


Models


See also

*
David Brown Ltd. David Brown Engineering Limited is an English engineering company, principally engaged in the manufacture of gears and Transmission (mechanics), gearboxes. Their major gear manufacturing plant is in Swan Lane, Lockwood, West Yorkshire, Lockwoo ...
*
List of car manufacturers of the United Kingdom :''This list is incomplete. You can help by adding correctly sourced information about other manufacturers.'' As of 2018 there are approximately 35 active British car manufacturers and over 500 defunct British car manufacturers. This page lists ...


Footnotes


Further reading

* Aston Martin and Lagonda; Frostic, Michael; * Images of Motoring Lagonda 1899–1999; Davey, Arnold; : A short history of the company and marque by the UK Lagonda club historian * Lagonda Gold Portfolio 1919–1964; : Collection of reprints of articles from early motoring magazines * Lagonda Heritage; Bird, Richard; : Collection of colour photographs * Lagonda: An Illustrated History 1900–1950; Seaton, Geoffrey; * Aston Martin: Power, Beauty and Soul; Dowsey, David;


External links

*
Lagonda Club

Lagonda Fest

The Classic DB Lagonda
(archived)
Lagonda Rapide
(archived)
Fly-off handbrake

Aston Martin Lagonda Taraf Limited Edition (2015) Exterior and Interior in 3D
{{Ford Motor Company
Taraf ''Taraf'' ("Side" in Turkish) was a liberal newspaper in Turkey. It had distinguished itself by opposing interference by the Turkish military in the country's social and political affairs. It was distributed nationwide, and had been in circulati ...
Aston Martin Ford Motor Company Car manufacturers of the United Kingdom Luxury motor vehicle manufacturers Vehicle manufacture in London Vehicle manufacturing companies established in 1906 Car brands 1906 establishments in England