Lagonda 2.6 liter
| Lagonda | |
|---|---|
 Lagonda 2.6 Liter Four Door Saloon
|
|
| 2.6 liter | |
| Production period: | 1948-1953 |
| Class : | Upper class |
| Body versions : | Limousine , cabriolet |
| Engines: |
Petrol engine 2.6 liters (79 kW) |
| Length: | 4978 mm |
| Width: | 1765 mm |
| Height: | 1515 mm |
| Wheelbase : | 2883 mm |
| Empty weight : | 1600 kg |
| successor | Lagonda 3 liter |
The Lagonda 2.6 Liter was a luxury vehicle that the British car manufacturer Aston Martin offered under the brand name Lagonda from 1948 to 1953 . The car is the first Lagonda model launched after the company was taken over by David Brown . The 2.6 liter factory was available as a four-door sedan and a convertible. A total of around 510 vehicles were built.
background
Lagonda was a British automobile manufacturer founded in 1906 by the American Wilbur Gunn. The name of the company was derived from the Lagonda Creek River in the American state of Ohio .
After Lagonda had initially produced small vehicles, from the 1920s onwards the company increasingly oriented itself towards the upper-class automotive segment and eventually competed with Rolls-Royce , Bentley and Daimler . After bankruptcy in 1935, there was a change of ownership, as a result of which the engineer Walter Owen Bentley came to Lagonda, who had previously sold his own company to Rolls-Royce. Among other things, Bentley developed a high-performance six-cylinder in-line engine for Lagonda, although this initially did not go into production due to the outbreak of World War II . After the end of the war, Lagonda constructed individual prototypes, but initially did not resume automobile production for lack of capital and for legal reasons.
In 1947 Lagonda was bought by the British entrepreneur David Brown , who made it into Aston Martin Lagonda Ltd with the sports car manufacturer Aston Martin, which is also part of his group . merged. The main reason for the takeover of Lagonda was the in-line six-cylinder engine designed by WO Bentley, which, in Brown's opinion, was clearly superior to the outdated four-cylinder engines from Aston Martin: Brown wanted to equip Aston Martin sports cars with the Lagonda six-cylinder in the future. In the Aston Martin DB2 and its offshoots, this engine established the brand's sporty reputation in the 1950s.
After the two companies were merged, Brown resumed automobile production under the Lagonda brand in 1948. In contrast to the Aston Martin brand, which was still responsible for open and closed sports and racing cars, Lagonda offered sedate, conservatively designed luxury coupés and limousines. The first model of the so-called David Brown Lagondas was the Lagonda 2.6 liter, which, like the Aston Martin sports car, had the Bentley six-cylinder engine. It was replaced in 1953 by the technically very similar Lagonda 3 liter . After ten years, in which a total of around 800 vehicles had been manufactured, the era of the David Brown Lagondas ended. From 1961 to 1964 there was still the Lagonda Rapide with Aston Martin technology; this very expensive and stylistically not undisputed car was only produced in double-digit numbers. From 1974 the term Lagonda was repeatedly used as a brand name for different Aston Martin sedans ( Aston Martin Lagonda Series 1 and Aston Martin Lagonda Series 2-4 ).
technology
The Lagonda 2.6 liter had an X-shaped steel chassis, the main features of which had been designed by WO Bentley before the outbreak of World War II. On top of it was a steel floor assembly to which the body panels were attached. Unusually for the time, all the wheels were individually suspended . Forwards were coil springs used rear torsion bar springs .
The in-line six-cylinder engine had two overhead camshafts and two valves per cylinder. The initial output was 107 hp; At the end of 1952, a small series called the Mark II was launched, the engine output of which had been increased to 125 hp. The mixture preparation took place in both versions via two SU carburettors. A manual four-speed gearbox from DB was supplied as standard. In the first few months, a preselector from Cotal was available as an alternative ; however, this option was dropped early on in view of license problems. The 2.6 liter had drum brakes on all four wheels. Two six-volt batteries were installed at the factory.
body
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The Lagonda 2.6 liter was offered as a four-door sedan ("Saloon") and as a two-door convertible ("Sports Drophead Saloon"). Both versions had four seats. Frank Feeley designed the superstructures. All models had molded front and rear fenders, the front doors were hinged on the B-pillar and opened to the rear (so-called suicide doors ). Initially, Lagonda made the bodies itself; At the beginning of the 1950s, David Brown increasingly transferred the production of the superstructures to the body manufacturer Tickford , which was still independent at the time . The change in manufacturer did not result in any visual changes.
Most of the vehicles were fitted with the factory body. Only eight chassis received individual superstructures at the customer's request. Two vehicles were dressed by Tice & Sons in Bournemouth, one each by Gurney Nutting and one by Graber .
production
The Lagonda 2.6 liter was no longer built in the old Lagonda factory in Staines in southern England , but together with the Aston Martin models in rented rooms in Feltham . This is where the chassis was built, and numerous vehicles were also given their (factory) bodies here, which were either built by Aston Martin Lagonda itself or - later - by Tickford.
Mark I and II
The majority of the vehicles were series 1 (“Mark I”) models. It was produced from 1948 to the end of 1952. This was followed by a second series (“Mark II”), which differed from the first version only in that the engine output was 18 hp higher. The Mark II models were only offered as sedans, there were no Mark II convertibles from the factory.
Brooklands of Bond Street
16 vehicles, known as the "Brooklands of Bond Street", play a special role. They were hybrid models that combined the look of the future Lagonda 3 liter with the technology of the previous 2.6 liter Mark II.
Brooklands of Bond Street was a Lagonda dealer based in London's Bond Street . Brooklands bought the last 16 chassis of the Lagonda 2.6 Liter Mark II and had them fitted by Tickford with a body that corresponded to that of the future Lagonda 3 Liter. Ten of them were convertibles, six were designed as two-door coupés. In some cases, these vehicles were retrofitted with the new model's 3-liter six-cylinder when it was available. One of these Brooklands models belonged to actor Peter Ustinov .
Production numbers
A total of around 510 Lagonda 2.6 liter vehicles were built. The count differs in some cases from one another in different sources. In addition to the different handling of the bare chassis, it depends on whether the Brooklands-of-Bond-Street models are included in the 2.6 liter series or the successor 3.0 liter.
| Production figures Lagonda 2.6 liter |
|||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| construction | Body manufacturer | Mark I. | Mark II | Brooklands of Bond Street | total |
| 4 door saloon | Lagonda | 283 | 10 | - | 363 |
| Tickford | 70 | - | - | ||
| Drophead Saloon | Lagonda | 124 | - | - | 134 |
| Tickford | - | - | 10 | ||
| 2 door saloon | Tickford | - | - | 6th | 6th |
| chassis | 8th | 2 | - | 10 | |
| total | 485 | 12 | 16 | 513 | |
The Lagonda 2.6 liter as a classic
Today only a few Lagonda 2.6 liters are left. Many vehicles have been dismantled in the past few decades; In the case of compatibility, their technical components often came onto the market as spare parts for the much more expensive sports cars from Aston Martin. This is especially true for the engine and the transmission.
literature
- Andrew Noakes: Aston Martin fascination . Parragon, Bath 2006, ISBN 978-1-4054-7900-4 .
- William Presland: Aston Martin V8 . Crowood Press 2009. ISBN 978-1-84797-066-4
- Rainer Schlegelmilch, Hartmut Lehbrinck, Jochen von Osterroth: Aston Martin . Verlag Könemann 2005. ISBN 3-8331-1058-9 .
Web links
- www.db-lagonda.com (private website on the Lagondas of the David Brown era)
Individual evidence
- ↑ Overview of the Lagonda prototypes from the 1940s on the website www.db-lagonda.com , accessed on May 8, 2015.
- ↑ The basis for this was a judicial dispute between WO Bentley and Rolls-Royce over the assignment of naming rights. For this in detail William Presland: Aston Martin V8 . Crowood Press 2009. ISBN 978-1-84797-066-4 , p. 9 and the description of the legal dispute on the website www.db-lagonda.com (accessed on May 8, 2015).
- ↑ Andrew Noakes: Fascination Aston Martin . Parragon, Bath 2006, ISBN 978-1-4054-7900-4 , p. 30.
- ^ Robert Coucher: Lagonda 3 liter . Brief description in: Classic Cars Spezial 1994: Englische Oldtimer, p. 72.
- ↑ William Presland: Aston Martin V8 . Crowood Press 2009. ISBN 978-1-84797-066-4 , p. 9.
- ↑ Illustration of the chassis on the website www.db-lagonda.com (accessed on May 8, 2015).
- ↑ Technical drawings of the wheel suspensions on the website www.db-lagonda.com (accessed on May 8, 2015).
- ↑ Nick Walker: A – Z of British Coachbuilders 1919–1960 . Shebbear 2007 (Herridge & Sons Ltd.) ISBN 978-0-9549981-6-5 , p. 171.
- ↑ Overview of the Lagonda 2.6 liter with individual bodies on the website www.db-lagonda.com (accessed on May 8, 2015).
- ^ History of the Brooklands-of-Bond-Street-Models on the website www.db-lagonda.com (accessed on May 8, 2015).