My next project "La Petite Chanteuse"

2 minute(s) of a 82 minute read

Just a few of the other cars on Sunday morning's run.

12-14-2013

Hello All

A question for anyone who cares to an answer.

How good an all-round car is a 1934 Lagonda Rapier with a 1.5 Litre, 4 cylinder 2-OHC engine?

We have just returned from a 181 mile drive almost equally divided into freeway and secondary roads. The first 89 miles being almost all freeway driving, except for the first and last 8-10 miles which were restricted to 35mph, for this we achieved an actual average speed of 50.85 mph. The second part of the journey was mainly on narrow secondary roads through 'hill country' under extremely unpleasant blustery conditions. The fuel consumption for the entire journey worked out at just a shade under 25 mpg running on 98 octane rated fuel. This with a driver and one passenger with luggage for an overnight stop. The combined ages of car, driver and passenger work out to a total of 231 years.

All of the above must say something?

Bj

At a time (1934) when car makers around the world were in all sorts of trouble, the British, Lagonda Company management's direction to Tim Ashcroft, the young engineer who had been engaged to design and oversea the production of the Rapier, was quite simple, direct and to the point. "It must be the BEST LIGHT CAR in the WORLD!" Remarkably, he achieved this at his first attempt.

Bj.