Magnificent classic car - help

[anonymous-user]

Driving home today was followed for a while by a beautiful racing green classic car. No idea what it was, did not have a chance to take a picture.
But:
It had a "7" painted into the grill
2 little semi circle windscreens
Registration was EVM206
long, low, fab sound

Can anyone tell me what this was?

Seemed 1930-ish, but not Bentley blower type, much lower and appeared much longer.

[Laurel Green]

Number plate not found on a couple of 'reg checks I just tried.

[530dTPhil]

EVM205 is a green V12 Lagonda, perhaps the number plate was misread as 206? EVM206 is not in current use.

[anonymous-user]

530dTPhil said:

EVM205 is a green V12 Lagonda, perhaps the number plate was misread as 206? EVM206 is not in current use.

Ah, thanks , you must be right on the reg, it was indeed a 1939 Lagonda , what is the significance of the numbers in the grill?
I easily found examples on the internet, number 5 seemed a prominent car...


http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b7...

[530dTPhil]

It seems that number 5 was one of the 1939 Le Mans team cars.

[Steffan]

530dTPhil said:

It seems that number 5 was one of the 1939 Le Mans team cars.

Very very rare car OTR. Exceptionally valuable car given the provenance. Remarkable sighting and well done indeed to the OP. Really a very exceptional sighting.

[ClassicMotorNut]

Aletsch said:

Ah, thanks , you must be right on the reg, it was indeed a 1939 Lagonda , what is the significance of the numbers in the grill?
I easily found examples on the internet, number 5 seemed a prominent car...


http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b7...

The number on the grille is just the car's racing number.

[Mound Dawg]

In 1939 Lagonda entered two V12 short chassis cars at Le Mans. They finished 3rd and 4th after chief engineer W O Bentley (yes, THAT Bentley) told the drivers not to over rev the cars as this was a test before a full blown assault intended for 1940.

For various reasons, the 1940 event wasn't run...

The car you've seen is probably a replica of one of these cars.

There were actually three short chassis cars, the third got drop head convertible bodywork fitted but kept the extra two (four in total) carbs and all the chassis bolts have holes drilled for wire locking. It was built as the personal car of Alan Good, the owner of Lagonda. I know this because I've sat in it! It belongs to a friend of mine and is a magnificent beast. Looks like this but Laurences is two tone grey-

http://commons.m.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:1940_Lago...

[anonymous-user]

Thanks all, made my boring drive home into a memorable one! Great stuff

[RichB]

Lovely cars Lagondas and the V12 Le Mans in particular. Always overshadowed by the Bentleys which to me makes them even more appealing. Perhaps I shall own one one day. Incidentally for those new to the mark, WO Bentley joined Lagonda following the acquisition of his company by Rolls Royce and his design of engine survived through into the 50s Aston Martins.

Edited by RichB on Wednesday 10th September 22:28

[RichB]

[Steffan]

530dTPhil said:

EVM205 is a green V12 Lagonda, perhaps the number plate was misread as 206? EVM206 is not in current use.

Subsequent posts seem to suggest that this may be a replica car. I am no expert but I would have thought it would a real challenge to get such a car correctly registered as a V12 LAGONDA. But others may disagree.

[Mound Dawg]

Not if you start with a V12 Lagonda it isnt! Like "Le Mans" Bentleys, a replica like this is often made up from a saloon chassis.

At one time, old Bentley hearses were cheap as chips so lots got chopped up. My pal didn't pay an enormous amount for his Lagonda V12 because he bought it in the mid 70s when they weren't worth much.

FWIW, I don't even know if the car the OP saw was a replica, I suspect it to be one as there are more replicas than real 1939 Le Mans team cars!

[Steffan]

Mound Dawg said:

Not if you start with a V12 Lagonda it isnt! Like "Le Mans" Bentleys, a replica like this is often made up from a saloon chassis.

At one time, old Bentley hearses were cheap as chips so lots got chopped up. My pal didn't pay an enormous amount for his Lagonda V12 because he bought it in the mid 70s when they weren't worth much.

FWIW, I don't even know if the car the OP saw was a replica, I suspect it to be one as there are more replicas than real 1939 Le Mans team cars!

Fair enough. I doubt we will ever know.

[Roy C]

The two 1939 Le Mans cars are No.5 - HPL448 - chassis 14089 - Arthur Dobson/Charles Brackenbury (finished 3rd) and No.6 - HPL449 - chassis 14090 - Lord Selsdon/Lord Waleran (finished 4th). Both cars still exist, but were extensively damaged by a doodlebug in 1944 and subsequently modified over the years, before being returned to approximately original spec.

EMV205 is registered as a 1938 car, which suggests it is a replica built from an earlier car, as the Le Mans cars were built in 1939 (Alan Good only told W.O.Bentley he wanted to compete at Le Mans just before Christmas 1938 and the race engine didn't run until spring 1939). And the DVLA are never wrong, are they?

I vaguely remember the story of a replica that was built alongside one of the original cars while it was being rebuilt. However, there seem to be at least half a dozen other replicas in existence in the UK and possibly more in Europe and the USA!

Edited by Roy C on Thursday 11th September 08:13

[MGJ2]

The real Number 5 is now in The Louwman Collection in The Hague:

Louwman Museum 101

Louwman Museum 104

[Mr. Magoo]

MGJ2 said:

The real Number 5 is now in The Louwman Collection in The Hague:

Louwman Museum 101

Louwman Museum 104

ooooh what I'd give! Ive been running my fathers Lagonda this year. It has been in the family for 60 years but I only ever saw it running once. It still says 12K on the clock and its almost 85 years old. Folklore has it that my father offered a farmer £50 for it in the late 50's but the farmer refused as he was using it to cart bales around. The next day they settled don £55.
I know I am bias but I am growing very fond of it and the marque. The reaction when you are overtaking on the motorway is magnificent.

[Martin 480 Turbo]

Aletsch said:

Driving home today was followed for a while by a beautiful racing green classic car. No idea what it was, did not have a chance to take a picture.
But:
It had a "7" painted into the grill
2 little semi circle windscreens
Registration was EVM206
long, low, fab sound

Can anyone tell me what this was?

Seemed 1930-ish, but not Bentley blower type, much lower and appeared much longer.

And I thought this was a really bad description of an early Lotus "7". Well . . .

Cool Lagonda, I must say. Whut love a soundbite.

[mph]

Steffan said:

Subsequent posts seem to suggest that this may be a replica car. I am no expert but I would have thought it would a real challenge to get such a car correctly registered as a V12 LAGONDA. But others may disagree.

There are quite a few "replicas" around using the V12 saloon as a donor.

One of the Lagonda specialists used to build them (forget which one)and they're obviously very close in detail to the real thing and have a decent value.

I've seen several over the years so I imagine there has to be 10 or 20 replicas at least. Just a guess obviously.

[Steffan]

mph said:

Steffan said:

Subsequent posts seem to suggest that this may be a replica car. I am no expert but I would have thought it would a real challenge to get such a car correctly registered as a V12 LAGONDA. But others may disagree.

There are quite a few "replicas" around using the V12 saloon as a donor.

One of the Lagonda specialists used to build them (forget which one)and they're obviously very close in detail to the real thing and have a decent value.

I've seen several over the years so I imagine there has to be 10 or 20 replicas at least. Just a guess obviously.

I appreciate that there has been and remains a reproduction market in the classic car business particularly in the roadster copies. What surprises me in this particular case is that from the information given on here concerning the plate the car involved appears to be actually registered as a Lagonda V12 with many years of standing. I wonder how that registration process was achieved? Presumably the vehicle was registered some years ago in that form by some means without the requirements of modern modified car registration becoming involved.

Experience has taught me in recent years that achieving a registration such as this with a car presumably made up from a number of donors and getting correct registration through the DVLA on an old plate and using a name like Lagonda has become extremely difficult in recent years. Curiosity causes me to wonder how this was actually achieved in this case. Hence my question. Creating a convincing replica or copy of any car is possible. But getting such a car then registered as dating from many years ago with a specific make on the Registration thus giving immediate provenance to the vehicle is getting very tricky as I know to my cost. Clearly there is (or was) a way of doing it and I therefore thought the question worthwhile.

At face value if this car is showing on the insurance database as a Lagonda V12 it must be registered as a Lagonda V12 at the DVLA in its own right. Which begs the question of how can it be a copy? Providing that information is actually correct. That so be seems to me to be most unusual. Other may disagree: but I cannot see how else the car can actually appear on the DVLA and insurance database as a Lagonda V12.