Lagonda

Lagonda is a British luxury car brand established in 1906, which has been owned by Aston Martin since 1947. The trade-name has not had a continuous commercial existence, being dormant several times, most recently from 1995 to 2008, 2010 to 2013, and 2016 onward.

History

Establishment

thumb|12-24 LC 1925

thumb|2½-litre 16-65 1927.

thumb|2-litre 16-80 Weymann saloon c.1930.

thumb|4½-litre M45 sports tourer, 1934.

thumb|4½-litre V12 drophead coupé 1940.

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 of Lagonda in modern-day Springfield, Ohio, 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.

Gunn had built motorcycles on a small scale in the garden of his house in Staines This continued until 1933 when the engine grew to 3,181 cc and was also available with a complex eight-speed Maybach transmission as the Selector Special.

A new model for 1933 was the 16–80 using a two-litre Crossley 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, 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 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.

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 in 1946, and was posted to Australia. He was killed in a car accident in Melbourne in 1949.

Aston Martin ownership

thumb|2.6-litre drophead coupé by Tickford, 1953

thumb|right|[[Aston Martin Lagonda, 1989]]

In 1947, the company was taken over by David Brown and moved in with Aston Martin, 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 Lagonda 2.6-Litre with new chassis featuring fully independent suspension. Its new 2.6L twin overhead cam straight-six became the basis for the Aston Martin engines of the 1950s. This was replaced by the 3 litre Lagonda engine in 1953 and continued to be available until 1958.

thumb|left|Rapide, 1964

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, with an aluminium body by Carrozzeria Touring 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 in Buckinghamshire. The Rapide lasted until 1965.

thumb|The (1974–1976) Aston Martin Lagonda – a stretched A.M. V8

In 1969, the Lagonda name was briefly resurrected, appearing on a four-door prototype of the new Aston Martin 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 were (until the 2018 Vanquish Zagato shooting brake) 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

thumb|right|2015 [[Lagonda Taraf]]

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".

"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.

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 was to consist primarily of high-end SUVs. In 2014, however, Aston Martin announced a large, low-bodied saloon version, the Taraf, a £1 million car powered by a normally aspirated V12 producing 565 hp and 465 lb-ft of torque. The Taraf was initially planned to be sold only in the Middle East but was later sold in the UK, Europe and South Africa, with production limited to 200 units.

Models

thumb|1922 Lagonda 11.9 Roadster

{| class=sortable wikitable

! Year

! Type

! Engine

! Production

| 1906–1913

| 20

| 3,052 cc side-valve 4-cylinder

| 1911–1913

| 30

| 4,578 cc side-valve 4-cylinder

| 1913–1921

| 11

| 1,099 cc inlet-over-exhaust-valve 4-cylinder

| 6,000 (inc 11.9 and 12)

| 1920–1923

| 11.9

| 1,421 cc inlet over exhaust valve 4-cylinder

| 6,000 (inc 11 and 12)

| 1923–1926

| 12 and 12/24

| 1,421 cc inlet-over-exhaust-valve 4-cylinder

| 6,000 (inc 11 and 11.9)

| 1925–1933

| 14/60 and 2-litre Speed

| 1,954 cc ohv 4-cylinder

| 1,440

| 1933–1938

| Rapier

| 1,087 cc twin ohc 4-cylinder

| 470 + app 45 by Rapier Cars

| 1935

| M45

| 4,467 cc ohv 6-cylinder Meadows

| 410 + 53 M45R Rapide

| 1953–1958

| 3-litre

| 2,922 cc double ohc 6-cylinder

| 270

In popular culture

A 1939 Lagonda LG 6 Rapide Drophead Coupé was featured in the 1960 Twilight Zone episode, "A Thing About Machines".

Lady Eileen ("Bundle") drives a Lagonda in the first episode of The Seven Dials, a Netflix production, in 2026.

Captain Hastings, a character in the Agatha Christie Poirot detective series, drives a Lagonda.

Cary Grant drives a Lagonda in Alfred Hitchcock's Suspicion (1941 film).

Footnotes

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