1952 Lagonda 2.6-Litre Drophead Coupé
The Lagonda 2.6-Litre Drophead Coupé automobile was produced in the United Kingdom by Aston Martin Lagonda Ltd. from 1948 to 1953. It was named for the new straight-6 engine that debuted with this car following the company's acquisition by David Brown who purchased Aston Martin the previous year.
While in England during the early 1960s, this Lagonda convertible was stored in a barn and almost forgotten until it was rediscovered in 2004. The car was rescued and has since been completely restored from the ground up to mint condition.
The pleasingly graceful and stylish Lagonda 2.6-Litre DHC was originally finished in maroon with beige leather interior delivered on January 22, 1952, to Cyril Williams Motors Ltd, Wolverhampton.
Only 511 of these models were built, 125 being Drop Head Coupés. Today only 20 to 30 of this model are known to exist making it an incredibly rare and historic British car.
The Lagonda Motor Cycle Company Ltd was founded in 1904 in Staines, Middlesex, England, by Wilbur Gunn (1859–1920), a Scottish-American who was a former aspiring opera singer. Wilbur became a British national in 1897 and started his work as a speedboat and motorcycle engineer in England. Gunn borrowed the name for his new company, the Lagonda Motor Cycle Co. from the fast-flowing river that ran through a former Shawnee Indian settlement called "Lagonda" what is now Buck Creek in modern-day Springfield, Ohio, his birth town.
By the late 1800s Springfield, Ohio had become a major manufacturing center for farm machinery. Scenes of Lagonda Agricultural Works: men harvesting grain, and harvesting machinery. Date c1859.
The motorcycles Wilbur originally built on a small scale at his home in England had some success by winning the 1905 London–Edinburgh trial that was an annual ride of the local Motor Cycling Club from London to Edinburgh that had to be completed in under 24 hours. The race would become the predecessor to "24 Hours of Le Mans" that is the world's oldest sports car endurance racing since 1923 near the town of Le Mans, France.
In 1907, he launched his first car, the 20-hp, 6-cylinder torpedo-bodied car. During WWI he focused Lagonda's production efforts making artillery shells for the British Army.
Gunn's initial automotive efforts met with popularity and success until his death in 1920. Lagonda would go on to build sporting machines through the 20s, and would grow in popularity with their M45R Rapide winning the 1935 24 Hours of Le Mans, but the company ran out of money shortly after, and the receiver was called in selling the company to Alan Good.
24 Hours of Le Mans | 1935
The 1935 24 Hours of Le Mans was the 13th Grand Prix of Endurance and took place on June 15 and 16, 1935. The drivers were Johnny Hindmarsh and Luis Fontés who raced for the British racing team Arthur W. Fox & Charles Nicholl. They won the race in a 4½ liter Lagonda M45R Rapide. Three years later Johnny was killed while test flying Hawker Hurricane I L1652 at Brooklands. Luis was killed during WWII while delivering a Vickers Wellington Mk1C bomber to the RAF.
Luis Fontés
Johnny Hindmarsh
Lagonda straight-6 engine
Towards the end of World War II, the great engine designer W. O. Bentley along with the majority of Rolls-Royce's former racing designers and engineers he recruited began work on a new straight-6 engine for the Lagonda company. Bentley had just completed his compulsory three-year term with rival Rolls-Royce who acquired his Bentley Motors company after it went into voluntary liquidation in 1931.
The Lagonda 2.6-liter, six-cylinder, twin-overhead-camshaft engine caught the attention of David Brown who had just bought Aston Martin the previous year. In 1948 he purchased the Lagonda company incorporating Aston Martin Lagonda Ltd. that same year. The new engine design launched Aston Martin into fame and fortune as a maker of British sports and racing cars.
Lagonda's Coachbuilder
The Coachbuilder Tickford had begun to play an increasingly important role as body suppliers to some of the top car builders including the Aston Martin and Lagonda during manufacture of the 2.6-Litre automobile.
Tickford company grew to be substantial coachbuilding business founded in the 1820s by Joseph Salmons later called Salmons and Sons at Tickford. In 1955 David Brown bought Tickford Limited.
One of Lagonda's, and David Brown's, greatest assets was automotive stylist and designer Frank Feeley, the man who infused the Italianate flair into the DB2. Feeley's 2.6-Liter design looked back nostalgically at the Lagonda's car style before the war years for his inspiration.
Feely made his name by producing a new design for the LG45 Rapide and the Lagonda V12 that was shown at the 1939 New York Motor Show.
It was described as: "The highest price car in the show this year is tagged $8,900. It is a Lagonda, known as the "Rapide" model, imported from England. The power plant is a twelve-cylinder V engine developing 200 horsepower."
After David Brown acquired Lagonda, Feeley and the rest of his Lagonda design team began to work for David Brown's Aston Martin company. His first project at Aston Martin was the DB1, and he went on to design the 1949 Le Mans racer that utilized the recently acquired Lagonda 2.6-Litre engine and would evolve into the DB2.
The Art of David Brown's Lagonda Advertising
Auto Vino rare and exotic car storage is proud to preserve and protect the heritage of British Motorcars in a museum-like setting to display beautiful examples of Art-on-Wheels for those who have a passion for rare, exotic, and fast cars, and for those too who don't.
The car presented here is privately owned and not for sale.
