Lanchester looking for new lover

• 
• 
• 
• 
• 

One dear reader who has just offered a truly lovely car for sale doubts the knowledge of his fellow-readers here on PreWarCar, writing: “Nobody knows what Lanchesters are, they went bust in 1930 when the bank fore closed on a £25,000 loan. Not a lot of money and probably covered by Work In Progress. The business was sold to Daimler who really needed the small car that George Lanchester had designed or they really would have gone bust. Smells like a historic stitch up to me.”

Quite some interrogations! We are sure though, that many of you will be very familiar with the Lanchester marque. But what’s the car in question that he has now decided to part with? Well, it’s a gorgeous looking Lanchester 30hp Straight-Eight of 1932-vintage. Rivalling Rolls-Royce it was a pretty car when it was new , with the 30hp variant (a ‘fabric saloon’) winning the Concours d’Elégance straight away when it was first shown in Southport in 1928. This 4-seater Sports model with its round back and duotone paint colours may be even better than that?

With its 4.4-litre overhead cam 8-cylinder with cross flow head, dual choke carbs and dual ignition it’s a fascinating car. It also used servo-assisted brakes while the crankshaft came in 10 bearings. The engine developed 90bhp at 3,000rpm and looks wonderfully clean. It topped 80mph, supposedly easily. Parry Thomas raced a 40hp and lapped Brooklands at nearly 110mph, also taking the British 12-hour record at 95.66mph. That particular car ended up at a breakers yard in Eastbourne for £5 before being demolished…

With just 126 30hps made, this particular car was luckier to survive. The owner adds: “A great many Lanchesters vanished in the great scrap metal drives of the Second World War, as they were full of desirable metals. This coupled with the fact they are very good cars means that owners keep them for very long periods. And as a great many of them are in museums, they rarely come to market. This car was made in 1930 just as the Lanchester Motor Company was absorbed into Daimler’s, making it one of the last true Lanchesters made.”

You can find the ad here, and when interested there is also some film footage of the car being driven here.

Ajoutez un commentaire...