Lagonda 3 Litre T7 Open Tourer
|
Car producer : |
Lagonda |
|---|---|
|
Model: |
3 Litre T7 Open Tourer |
|
Year: |
1928-1934 |
|
Type: |
Tourer |
Lagonda was founded as a company in 1906 in Staines, Middlesex, by an American, Wilbur Gunn (1859–1920), a former opera singer of Scottish ancestry. He named the company after Lagonda Creek near Springfield, Ohio, the town of his birth. He had originally built motorcycles on a small scale in the garden of his house in Staines with reasonable success including a win on the 1905 London–Edinburgh trial. In 1907 he launched his first car, the 20 hp, 6-cylinder Torpedo, which he used to win the Moscow–St. Petersburg trial of 1910. This success produced a healthy order for exports to Russia which continued until 1914. In 1913 Lagonda introduced an advanced small car, the 11.1 with a four-cylinder 1099 cc engine, which by 1914 featured a panhard rod and a rivetted monocoque body and the first ever fly-off handbrake.
The four-cylinder models were joined by a six-cylinder version with a magnificent pushrod o.h.v. engine in a lengthened chassis that was developed into the outstanding three-litre model. A descendant of the vintage 16/65, it was a far more flexible, not to say powerful companion to the better known two litre model. To take a more commodious touring and saloon coachwork, it came with high and low chassis options and by the 1930's, it had grown into a large handsome touring car, with a 10ft 9in wheelbase and a choice of fabric or fully panelled painted bodies. They were also characterised by their sleekly rounded radiators and P100 headlamps. The six-cylinder, 2,931cc overhead valve engine was designed by Arthur Davidson, the designer of the classic twin-cam two-litre unit, offering around 80bhp in its original form, the capacity was increased to 3,181cc in 1931, doing this produced an engine that was immensely robust and smooth.
