Lagonda Rapiers

3 minute(s) of a 484 minute read

From time to time I make mention of my favourite breed of Dog, Airedale Terriers. It is almost 65 years since I owned one but I still talk to the occasional one I meet on the street. I was pleasantly surprised when my grand-daughter "Lottie" gave me this surprisingly accurate drawing of one yesterday. Woof!

11-14-2017

The mesh "box" was fitted to the carbs because the circuit we were racing on had been recently "resurfaced" and there was still a lot of loose stones in places around the track.

The other (action) photograph was taken at the now defunct Templestowe Hill Climb. This was quite a long climb with a 1 in 4 "peak" which had a 90 degree turn as you  reached  the crest of the hill.

The "trumpets" fitted to the carbs were not just cosmetic, it had a huge amount of overlap on the cams and the "ram tubes" were designed to help cope with the "stand-off."experienced at between 5,500 and 6,500 rpm. As there was no clutch and no starter motor fitted (it had a ENV preselector gear box and was "push started") the flywheel was extremely small and light. 

"KG" our long suffering "road two seater" uses the same ENV pre-select gearbox and has no clutch fitted. It does have a modern "geared starter" working on a lightened flywheel. Just removing the clutch & pressure plate reduces the weight of the flywheel considerably. There is a single steel drive plate with a splined hub in the centre, this is bolted directly to the flywheel. You need to look up ENV Pre-selector Gearboxes to see how it all works.  Historic British racing cars such as the ERA also used preselect transmissions. These were/are standard fitting to Lagonda Rapiers The last photo is of a standard Lagonda Rapier gear selector. it is shown in neutral. It goes one notch forward for reverse (protected by a flip-over lock out latch) and pulls back through five inline detents for neutral and the four forward gears . The selected gear is "engaged" by pushing in and releasing the "clutch" pedal. Very fast, positive gear changes are possible.