Lot details
Registration No: GVU 675
Chassis No: 14105
Mot Expiry: Nov 2014

"It is a new-born car, unrelated to any yet on the road - here or on the Continent. Such is the 12-cylinder Lagonda - a car destined to rank from now on, among the greater names in motoring history". (Lagonda Press Release, August 1937)

Debuting in prototype guise at the October 1936 Olympia Motor Show, the Lagonda V12 was engineered by a crack team of ex-Rolls-Royce employees including W.O. Bentley, Stuart Tresillian and Charles Sewell. A 'clean sheet' design that aimed to marry limousine refinement to sportscar performance, it was based around a substantial cruciform-braced box-section chassis. Singularly advanced, the model's aero-engine inspired 60-degree V12 featured overhead camshafts (one per bank), twin SU carburettors, a combined duplex-chain / gear-driven timing system and Lanchester-type vibration damper. Displacing 4480cc, the unit was quoted as developing 180hp @ 5,500rpm. The provision of a centre-change four-speed manual gearbox (with synchromesh on the top three ratios) and conventional pedal layout made it surprisingly easy to drive. Of the 200 or so Lagonda V12s produced between 1938 and 1940, a mere 100 are thought to have survived to the present day.

According to Club records, 14105 was first delivered to Dick Watney, then MD of Lagonda Motors, and registered on 24th October 1939. After WW2 it was rebuilt by the factory and sold as a new car in June 1946 to F C Price of Hanover Gate Mansions, London. Subsequent owners include those in Ireland, Australia and Jersey from where the car was recently repatriated. Now reunited with its registration GVU 675, the car is described as being in "good" condition regarding its bodywork, paintwork, engine, transmission and interior and is offered with current MoT to November 2014.