1926 LAGONDA LG45 Fox & Nicholl Le Mans Team Car Replica (4.5 litre) Touring PET

This lot will be auctioned via Historics Classic and Sportscar Auctioneers, Farnborough International Exhibition Centre sale on Saturday the 11th of May, GU14 6TQ. The car of choice in the early 1930s, with money no object, was probably the Bentley built by Rolls-Royce. However, this was, at least, double the price of a Lagonda which had far more attractive open touring coachwork. Especially if it carried the powerful 4.5-litre Meadows engine, tried and tested in the Invicta. Even Sir Malcolm Campbell had one, pale blue naturally. Unfortunately, poor sales forced them into receivership in June 1933 although two years later, as luck would have it, a Lagonda won Le Mans securing their reputation within the motorsport arena. As we all know, success on the track usually meant good sales from the high-street showrooms. The reinvigorated Lagonda company was then sold in 1935 to a consortium led by Alan Good with Dick Watney as Managing Director and W.O. Bentley as Technical Director. Refinanced and restructured, the new company wanted to capitalise on the victory at La Sarthe. The straight six, 4.5-litre Meadows unit was re-engineered by Lagondas Technical Director (W. O. himself) who had the incentive and finance required to translate that engine into the LG45 model with performance and reliability improvements.Deliveries commenced in the spring of 1936 with the new big Lagonda more refined; gaining synchromesh gears, flexible engine mounts and centralised chassis lubrication amongst many other improvements. Endowed with such a pedigree, the 4.5-litre Lagonda quickly established itself as a favourite among the wealthy sporting motorists of its day. The power was transmitted through a four-speed gearbox with synchromesh on second, third and top. By 1936, Harry Westlake had been employed to improve the cylinder head which lead to the Sanction 3 (simply translated as improvement) engine with twin spark plugs and twin Scintilla Vertex magnetos producing circa. 130bhp. FPK 696 is probably one of the best developed LG45s around. A product of the Northern Lagonda Factory (a phrase coined by Denis Jenkinson to describe Alan Brown and David Hine in Lancashire). David Hine is chairman of the Lagonda Owners Club and is one of the most knowledgeable authorities on Lagondas and a superb engineer to boot. In 1995, he built this LG45 for his son, Nick, essentially to race. Alan Brown designed and made the body along the lines of a Fox & Nicholls team car but with more of a Rapide boot and light-weight construction. David developed the Sanction 3 engine over a number of years to give 170bhp at the wheels (around 200bhp at the flywheel). Combined with its massive Rapide brakes, this turned out to be a very competitive car, certainly quicker than a 4.5-litre Bentley, although designed as a racer, the current owner has primarily used it as fast-road car. With gearing of 3.33:1 providing a cruising speed of 80mph at under 3,000rpm, it made the last European trip of some 2,000 miles faultlessly.The owner has undertaken general oil, greasing and mechanical servicing as well as having had the magnetos rebuilt in 2023. The FIA papers are through to 2027. There is also a VSCC buff logbook giving the any new owner access to events such as the Le Mans Classic, Miglia Mille , Goodwood and the Vernasca Silver Flag to name but a few.