RE: Aston Lagonda: Catch It While You Can

[Budleigh]

firebird350 said:

I happen to admire the looks. In some ways, I guess Towns/AM envisaged this as a futuristic replacement for all the tall, haughty aristocratic cars that wealthy, establishment-type people drove throughout the decades prior to this era eg. Bentley Continentals, various Rolls-Royce models such as the Silver Clouds, Silver Shadows and the already-mentioned Camargues.

Compared to such leviathans the AM Lagonda was probably a lithe and nimble handler with seriously superior performance.

It was a contemporary of the Bentley Continental Turbo R in its later years, a rival which was superior in every respect.

When it was new, even the usually jingoist Car mags thought it was below par. That's telling, for me.

[CampDavid]

Had a Tickford for my wedding day. Amazing thing

[Gorbyrev]

Always loved these. There was a fabulous cover of one on CAR magazine that I stared at for ages. Sadly the red Matchbox reproduction had oversized wheels which somewhat spoiled things. There is the makings of a great £100K wedge garage here. Good quality Lagonda, perhaps an Alfa SZ and a Citroen XM as the daily driver. For everyone who grumbles when a stunning concept gets criminally normalised for production (see the new STi a few stories up), this is what a production concept should look like. Thank you Mr Towns!

[Carparticus]

Erudite geezer said:

Carparticus said:

Pardon my ignorance, but does the Lagonda have pop up lights?

They did indeed. And then there's the Shooting Brake derivative ..

[Coatesy351]

Make mine a late model in black.

[Europa1]

Carparticus said:

They did indeed. And then there's the Shooting Brake derivative ..

Why is it a shooting brake rather than an estate?

[Timbola]

Man, that interior looks like Buck Roger's cockpit




But the exterior is glorious. Love it!

Edited by Timbola on Friday 19th December 08:13

[fireturk]

the only time I have seen one of these was driving across a stubble field at a Grass track race meet (not racing)!! think I have a pic somewhere, will see if I can dig it out.

[RichB]

Europa1 said:

Why is it a shooting brake rather than an estate?

'Cos it's posh

[Z28DUNC]

Suprised no ones mentioned Evil Knievels old Lagonda.....

http://www.motoexotica.com/inventory/listing/1984-...

Check out the trailer!!!!!

[Track Rod]

I absolutely love these, even the interior! Maybe I'm odd, but I love the straight lines and wedge profile, plus the size of the thing. Definitely have one in my lottery garage. For me, it's one of those cars which I wouldn't care what it drove like, it's just so damn cool. I also like the Alfa SZ and DeLorean, also marmite cars. I used to see a Lagonda all the time beside the Great West RD by the Master Robert hotel, used to brighten up my commute to LHR!

[Carparticus]

Europa1 said:

Carparticus said:

They did indeed. And then there's the Shooting Brake derivative ..

Why is it a shooting brake rather than an estate?

tis wot posh peeps use, init ;-)

Personally, I would call that an estate car as I live in the UK.

Depending on maker, country, social status blah blah .. it could also be a Station Wagon, an Avant, Sport Tourer, Touring, Sports Wagon etc etc


As per usual, wiki has entries, with surprisingly detailed entries for all of it :-

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Station_wagon

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shooting-brake

[Europa1]

Carparticus said:

Europa1 said:

Carparticus said:

They did indeed. And then there's the Shooting Brake derivative ..

Why is it a shooting brake rather than an estate?

tis wot posh peeps use, init ;-)

Personally, I would call that an estate car as I live in the UK.

Depending on maker, country, social status blah blah .. it could also be a Station Wagon, an Avant, Sport Tourer, Touring, Sports Wagon etc etc


As per usual, wiki has entries, with surprisingly detailed entries for all of it :-

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Station_wagon

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shooting-brake

Thanks for those. I'd always thought shooting brakes only had 2 passenger doors, and estates had 4 doors, hence why i was surprised the Lagonda was called a shooting brake.

Whether it's an estate or a shooting brake, it's certainly "challenging" to look at, to say the least.

[simonrockman]

Z28DUNC said:

Suprised no ones mentioned Evil Knievels old Lagonda.....

http://www.motoexotica.com/inventory/listing/1984-...

Check out the trailer!!!!!

Travesty

[gck303]

soad said:

A true marmite car!

Too ugly for my liking.

I absolutely adore this car. There is nothing finer!

Every reason that people have given in this thread of what is wrong with it is true. However, all of those make it brilliant. The styling, interior, headlights, wheels and the wedge shape are all so wrong they are right.

A work of art invokes thought, opinion and debate. This is the automotive equivalent.

Question: does it have a cross-plane or flat plane V8?

[Big Rumbly]

LittleEnus said:

Big Rumbly said:

There was a motor programme in the 80'S called the motor show on sunday afternoons. Every week they had a guest driver from Joe Public who didn't know what it was till the last moment when they opened the garage doors. I was a guest driver on one show and I got one of these. I think my jaw dropped slightly when it was revealed, but at least I knew what it was.
Spent a great morning driving it and being interviewed, cameramen and interviewer crammed into car, and being followed and overtaken by a camera car. I went over a hump back bridge and thought I had grounded it, when we stopped at the end of the run, there was water underneath the car, and I was a tad worried, only to be informed by the chap that owned it, that it was the air conditioning draining (what a relief), not many cars in those days had this feature. Nice memories.

Lucky you, thanks for the story. Was it wallowy? fast? Did it sound good?

From what I can remember, It pulled like a train, it was quite well silenced, but the intake roar was noticeable. I expected it to handle like a blamanche on stilts, but was quite composed, It was sooo huge, or it seemed to be at the time.

[DiscoColin]

Carparticus said:

Am I the only one looking at this and thinking that it is more hearse than shooting brake...?

[B17NNS]

DiscoColin said:

Am I the only one looking at this and thinking that it is more hearse than shooting brake...?

My initial thoughts too.

[350Matt]

Brillant

in a ugly kind of way
but yes I'd have one ( not top of my list you understand but when I win euro millions and have a 50 car garage to fill)

very glad these were made

[sim16v]

Reardy Mister said:

Are those pepperpot alloys lifted straight from the early Jaguar Sovereigns?

I thought it was just the odd random owner that put them on, but there are that many of them, I wonder if they might have been factory fit parts bin specials.

I think they are that ugly, they are therefore cool!

moustachebandit said:

Probably going top get flamed for this but the Lagonda is crying out for a choice set of wheels and being dumped on airbags.

I agree, and funnily enough, BMW alloys will fit.

Imagine a proper set of BBS or some other split rims with a bit of dish!