In 1898 Gunn produced a single-cylinder motor cycle, the first of these being made on the lawn of his house at Staines, the site that was to become the Lagonda factory.

From motor cycles Gunn developed in 1904 the early Lagonda Tricars and in 1908 he won the London to Edinburgh reliability trial, earning himself the Gold Medal for that year.

Lagonda cars have always been in the forefront of design development, the 1909 model, for example, being the first British car to join an all steel body and chassis in one unit.

The Lagonda Company produced a high performance 11 hp light car which was regularly successful in trials and other competitions and in 1921 one such model covered 79.19 miles in an hour to win the Light Car Trophy of that year.

The year of 1926 saw the introduction of the high effiency twin-cam 2-litre model and in 1930 Lagonda pioneered supercharging to achieve no less that 90 mph with a highly flexible engine of only 14 hp, RAC rating and a quoted fuel consumption of 20 mpg.

Further enhancing their reputation in the racing world, Lagonda entered the RAC Tourist Trophy in 1934 and their two 4-1/2-litre, 6-cylinder models took 2nd and 3rd places in the unlimited class. The following year a similar model won the Le-Mans 24-hour race, covering 1,868.42 miles at an average speed of 77.85 mph.

The famous V12 Lagonda, introduced in 1937, was a massively powerful model with independent front suspension and many other advanced features. Britain's leading coachbuilders competed with one another to build superla- tive bodies for this magnificent chassis and they are still admired today.

Evidence of the high performance of this model is the fact that in 1938 a standard V12 saloon covered 101.5 miles in an hour including a stop to change a tyre. This achievement constituted a notable record since the V12 was the first production closed car to exceed 100 miles in one hour and in 1939 two standard V12's finished 3rd and 4th at Le Mans.

After the war, Lagonda had developed a new model with independent suspen- sion on all four wheels and a 2.6-litre 6-cylinder twin overhead camshaft engine designed by the great W.O. Bentley.

Probably this engine prompted Mr. Brown of Aston Martin to take over the company and so a new chapter began in Lagonda's history

© April 1995 - 1997.

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