LAGONDAS ON BROOKLANDS

July 7th 2014

BROOKLANDS is still respected by manufacturers both as a testing and as a publicity venue. This year Lagonda has made very considerable use of the Track. This work culminated in two highly praiseworthy runs, which took place on October 10th and have added much to Lagonda prestige. Lord Howe drove a V12 saloon shortchassis Lagonda for one hour at an average speed of 101.5 m.p.h. For twentyone laps he averaged 105.52 m.p.h. Then a tyre gave out and the spare was put on with the aid of the standard jacking system. Lord Howe continued, did a last lap at 108.27 m.p.h., and returned the 1011 m.p.h. average for the hour’s run. At the same time, S. Invermee, Lagonda’s experimental chief, drove a short-chassis

41-litre Lagonda saloon and averaged 95.87 m.p.h. for the hour’s run, doing his final lap at 98.43 m.p.h. Both cars were standard demonstrators which had seen about 40,000 miles’ hard service before the runs, and both ran on pump fuel and standard-brand oil. The rims were timed by the B.A.R.C. because the R.A.C. has recently expressed a desire to disassociate itself with the ” Sports-Car Hour,” on the grounds that it is impossible to ensure that cars submitted really are in catalogue trim— although we were under the impression that the R.A.C. Certificates merely told of what had taken place during an officially observed run and did not profess to say in what category the stunt or ” record ” fell, whether applying to duration tests of accessories, top-gear stunts or rapid lappery round Brook lands. Previous sports-car-hour runs have been the Frazer-Nash-B.M.W.’s original famous 101 m.p.h. by S. C. H. Davis, Alan Hess’s run with passenger at 104.4 m.p.h. with the 41-litre T.T. Lagonda (recently advertised for sale as specially prepared by the factory for racing), and Elgood’s 110.3 m.p.h. and Sir Lionel Phillips’s 106.7 m.p.h. at the last M.C.C. Brooklands Meeting, with vintage 41-litre Bentley and vintage

Leyland-Thomas, respectively. But Lagonda’s is the first hour run at over 100 m.p.h. by a sports-class closed car and it does prove very nicely how reliably rapid these modern six and twelvecylinder Lagondas really are.