1937 Lagonda Rapide
Drawing the name from a Creek and Shawnee settlement located near Springfield, Ohio, Lagonda would be the brain-child of former opera singer and Scottish-American Wilbur Gunn. Becoming a British national just before the beginning of the 20th century, Gunn would start out building motorcycles, that at the turn of the century were competitive and race winners. Later adding 3 wheelers and then cars, Lagonda competed with Bentley and Rolls for the upscale British patronage. In 1933 they inserted the sturdy and race reliable Meadows 4 1/2 liter 6 cylinder engine (also found in the formidable Invicta seen previously in my photostream, and in the Vickers Tank) to produce the M45 In a melodramatic crisis worthy of Hollywood, Lagonda actually won outright the 1935 LeMans in the M45 WHILE they were filing for bankruptcy!
A consortium led by Alan Good barely out bid Rolls (those greedy folk), and Good promptly wooed WO Bentley away from Rolls, as he was bored, and Rolls had made the Bentley too tame for the race bred WO. Bentley, now chief engineer, tinkered with the lowered chassis and especially the venerable Meadows engine, tuning and strengthening it making it fast enough that the company claimed it was the fastest non-racing car in the world, and the car magazines confirmed top speed of 108 MPH. The lowered profile helped cornering, and if you look up images, the late 30s Lagonda look like lowered Bentleys........no surprise there. The Rapide was the ultimate pre-war Lagonda, and the rarest as only 25 were built.
Extremely desirable and valuable, this blue chassis shows not all WO Bentley cars are BRG (British Racing Green).
1937 Lagonda Rapide
Drawing the name from a Creek and Shawnee settlement located near Springfield, Ohio, Lagonda would be the brain-child of former opera singer and Scottish-American Wilbur Gunn. Becoming a British national just before the beginning of the 20th century, Gunn would start out building motorcycles, that at the turn of the century were competitive and race winners. Later adding 3 wheelers and then cars, Lagonda competed with Bentley and Rolls for the upscale British patronage. In 1933 they inserted the sturdy and race reliable Meadows 4 1/2 liter 6 cylinder engine (also found in the formidable Invicta seen previously in my photostream, and in the Vickers Tank) to produce the M45 In a melodramatic crisis worthy of Hollywood, Lagonda actually won outright the 1935 LeMans in the M45 WHILE they were filing for bankruptcy!
A consortium led by Alan Good barely out bid Rolls (those greedy folk), and Good promptly wooed WO Bentley away from Rolls, as he was bored, and Rolls had made the Bentley too tame for the race bred WO. Bentley, now chief engineer, tinkered with the lowered chassis and especially the venerable Meadows engine, tuning and strengthening it making it fast enough that the company claimed it was the fastest non-racing car in the world, and the car magazines confirmed top speed of 108 MPH. The lowered profile helped cornering, and if you look up images, the late 30s Lagonda look like lowered Bentleys........no surprise there. The Rapide was the ultimate pre-war Lagonda, and the rarest as only 25 were built.
Extremely desirable and valuable, this blue chassis shows not all WO Bentley cars are BRG (British Racing Green).