Lanchester Motor Company

All bodies were made by external coachbuilders until 1903 when a body department was set up, until 1914 most cars had Lanchester built bodies. Frank Lanchester ran the London sales office.

File:Lanchester-1895.jpg|1895

File:Lanchester-99.jpg|1899

File:Lanchester, FRW 766, London to Brighton Veteran Car Run 2004, 1901 12 h.p. Tonneau 4382236615.jpg|1901 12 h.p

File:Lanchester, AR 621, London to Brighton Veteran Car Run 2004, 1903 12 h.p. Tonneau 4382961356.jpg|1903 12 h.p

File:1910 Lanchester 28-HP Landaulette p3.JPG|1910 28 h.p

File:Lanchester 1912.JPG|1912

File:Lanchester-Motor-car-1913.jpg|1913 38 h.p

File:Lanchester 40 h.p. 753785341.jpg|1914 40 h.p

File:Lanchester.JPG|1914

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War

During World War I the company made artillery shells and some aircraft engines but some vehicle production continued with the Lanchester Model 19B which also formed the basis of the Lanchester armoured car, used by the Royal Naval Air Service on the Western Front.

Postwar

After the First World War the company adopted a single model policy and the Forty was re-introduced with a 6.2-litre overhead-cam engine in unit with a 3-speed gearbox still using epicyclic gears and a worm drive rear axle. It was very expensive, dearer than a Rolls-Royce Silver Ghost and to maintain production a smaller car, the Twenty One joined the range in 1924. This had a 3.1-litre, six-cylinder engine, with removable cylinder head, mated to a four-speed conventional gearbox and four-wheel brakes. It grew to the 3.3-litre Twenty Three in 1926. The Forty was finally replaced by the Thirty with straight-eight 4.4-litre engine in 1928. A further series of armoured cars was made in 1927, using a six-wheeled version of the Forty chassis.

For 1928 there was George's last design, a 4446 cc straight-8; only 126 were made before the economic depression effectively killed demand.

Olympia 1930

Twelve months after the Wall Street Crash these were the cars shown by Lanchester on their stand at the Olympia Motor Show in October 1930:

21 hp

Daimler

George Lanchester was kept on as a senior designer and Frank became the Lanchester sales director. The first new offering, still designed by George Lanchester, was a version of the Daimler Light Twenty, the Lanchester Eighteen with hydraulic brakes and a Daimler fluid flywheel. The Ten of 1933 was an upmarket version of the BSA Ten. The pre-war Fourteen Roadrider of 1937, was almost identical to the Daimler New Fifteen.

The then Duke of York, a repeat customer during the 1920s and 1930s, preferred this less showy version of a Daimler car and took delivery of a pair of specially built Daimler straight-eight limousines with the Lanchester grille and badges.

Post war, a ten-horsepower car was reintroduced with the 1287 cc LD10 which didn't have a Daimler equivalent and the four-cylinder 1950 Fourteen / Leda. The very last model, of which only prototypes were produced, was called the Sprite.

Image:Lanchester Ten.jpg|1933–1936 Ten

File:Lanchester LD 10 (1951) , Dutch licence registration UP-98-20 pic2.JPG|Ten sports saloon body by Barker (1951 example)

File:1953 Lanchester Leda 4331626219.jpg|Leda or Fourteen (1953 example)

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Jaguar, Ford, Tata

Daimler was in decline, and in 1960 BSA sold Daimler's premises and business to Jaguar Cars who have since used the Daimler name on their most expensive products. Jaguar has moved into and out of the Ford group and since 2008 Jaguar, Lanchester belongs to Tata Motors.

Monument

left|thumb|Blue plaque, on former factory on Montgomery Street, Sparkbrook, Birmingham

right|thumb|Lanchester Car Monument

An open-air sculpture, the Lanchester Car Monument, in the Bloomsbury Heartlands area of Birmingham, designed by Tim Tolkien, on the site where Lanchester built their first four-wheel petrol car in 1895.

Lanchester cars

{| class="wikitable"

! Type

! Engine

! Approx. production

! Year

! Notes

| Lanchester Five

| 2472 cc overhead-valve four-cylinder water-cooled

| 1904–1911

| Lanchester Twelve

| 3974 cc twin-cylinder overhead-valve water-cooled

| 1906–1908

| Lanchester 28

| 3654 cc six-cylinder overhead-valve water-cooled

| 1906–1911

| Lanchester 50

| 8145 cc six-cylinder overhead-valve water-cooled

| 1 car, 2 engines

| 1907

| Experimental

| Lanchester 38

| 4856 cc six-cylinder overhead-valve water-cooled

| 1911–1914

| Lanchester 25

| 3137 cc four-cylinder overhead-valve water-cooled

| 1912–1914

| Lanchester 40

| 5482 cc six-cylinder side-valve water-cooled

| 1914

| Lanchester 40

| 6178 cc six-cylinder overhead-cam water-cooled

| 392

| 1919–1928

| Chassis £2200. Four-wheel brakes from 1924

| Lanchester 21

| 2982 cc six-cylinder overhead-cam water-cooled

| 735 (including Twenty Three)

| 4448 cc eight-cylinder overhead-cam water-cooled

| 126

| 1932–1940

| Badge engineered Daimler Light 20. Fluid flywheel.

| Lanchester Ten LA10

| 1203 cc (1444 cc from 1936) four-cylinder overhead-valve water-cooled

| 12250 approx