1947 Lagonda 2.6 litre LBS EX1 prototype sports car chassis LAG/49/77. Originally badged "Lagonda-Bentley" which led to Rolls-Royce taking legal action. The first car probably the first car built by Lagonda after WW2 and the last with W O Bentley involvement. As the car was converted by Aston Martin Lagonda into a service van for the race team, the body is a later creation of unknown origin.
That's the car, yes.
The story is slightly different from the original one I had, which now seems to have disappeared off the 'Net to be replaced by the story quoted below, and I note it is different in a number of points from the story being put out now by the auctioneers (for instance there was no mention of the delivery van stage in my blurb, and they speculate that this body was attached to the car in 1948..)
As usual with these cases the truth is possibly somewhere between the lines..
Here's the story roughly as I had it from the start:
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It is said that when David Brown acquired Lagonda in 1947 all he got was a famous name, a collection of engineering drawings and a handful of prototypes. And although Lagonda's chief engineer and designer, the great W O Bentley, quit the firm when Brown took over, he did leave behind the 2.6-litre, six-cylinder, twin-overhead-camshaft LB6 engine that would power the Aston Martin DB2 and the next generation of Lagondas.
'W O' had begun work on the new Lagonda sports saloon in 1944, assisted by W G Watson and Donald Bastow, and by September 1945 had got the first prototype ready for unveiling to the motoring press. Although it retained a separate chassis, Bentley's design was advanced in other ways, featuring independent suspension all round: by double wishbones and coil-springs at the front - a layout similar to that adopted later on the DB4 - and semi-trailing arms and torsion bars at the rear where the hydraulic drum brakes were mounted inboard to reduce un-sprung weight.
It is not known when the car offered here - chassis number 'LBS EX1', the first Lagonda 2.6-Litre prototype - was fitted with the current sports-racer body, though the accompanying history file speculates that the factory might have re-bodied it as a potential Le Mans contender for the 1949 race.
In 2011, while waiting with 'LBS EX1' in the assembly area for a classic vehicle road rally, the current owner was approached by the elderly but nonetheless sprightly owner of a pre-war Lagonda parked nearby, who proceeded to recall driving 'LBS EXl' when he and Donald Bastow swapped cars and raced against each other in a sprint at Sandtoft Airfield in 1967/8. He was certain of his recollection of the date as he had got married just prior to the encounter. It is possible that when he left Lagonda Donald Bastow took the original prototype car/chassis with him, perhaps as some form of recompense.
'LBS EX1' had been out of circulation for many years when it appeared at a Lincolnshire farm sale in 1971 and was bought by Ian Harris, whose family runs the specialist restoration company, TT Workshops Ltd. The car became the subject of much correspondence with the Lagonda Club's Arnold Davey and was confirmed as a prototype chassis. Subsequently it was owned by Crispin Harris, Perkins & Partners of Wellingborough, Northamptonshire and then by Neil Perkins before being acquired by the current vendor in March 1996. Since acquisition the Lagonda has been cared for by Aston Service Dorset while modifications carried out during the past 15 years include installing a higher-ratio final drive, upgraded ignition system and improved cooling arrangements. More recently, Wren Classics of Donhead St Mary, Dorset have improved the performance of the replacement Aston Martin 3.0-litre engine by fitting a DB3S camshaft, modifying the cylinder head along DB3S lines and fitting new cylinder liners, 9.5:1 compression ratio pistons and Carrillo con-rods.
Benefiting from this recent engine overhaul, 'LBS EX1' is described by the vendor as in generally good condition and offered with current road fund licence, MoT to June 2012 and Swansea V5 registration document and a file of fascinating history.
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