Beschreibung:

The Lithe Lagondas American-born Wilbur Gunn founded the Lagonda Motor Company of Staines, Middlesex, England, in 1906. He adopted the attractive-sounding name from Lagonda Creek, Louisiana. In 1925 chief engineer Arthur Davidson had designed a 2-liter overhead-valve engined model which established Lagonda as a sporting marque. At the 1933 London Motor Show two important new models were unveiled; the 1104cc Rapier with twin-overhead camshaft engine and the 4½-liter M45 which employed an overhead-valve six-cylinder proprietary engine, manufactured by Meadows. Here at last was a Lagonda sports car which was capable of genuinely high performance, not only by the standards of the time, but enduringly so – even today. For 1935, two additional Lagonda models were then introduced. They both shared the same shorter, lighter chassis frame and were entitled the 4½-liter Rapide, and the 3 ½-liter. Unfortunately, this multiplicity of models added to the company’s post-Depression financial problems, and even notable victory in the 1935 Le Mans 24-Hour race came too late to save them from collapse. It looked as if Lagonda was about to absorbed by Rolls-Royce – as had Bentley Motors – but that summer saw it rescued by entrepreneur Alan Good, and he appointed the revered W. O. Bentley himself as new chief designer. ‘W.O.’ then took Lagonda straight into the luxury car market in 1936 with the new LG45 model. It featured longer springs and Luvax dampers, while retaining the successful and well-proven M45-model Meadows six-cylinder engine and chassis. Bentley meanwhile directed his attention to improving the proprietary engine, and his modifications emerged in the ‘Sanction III’ power units introduced at the 1936 London Motor Show. Fox and Nicholl It was against this background that special competition variants of the LG45 had been tailor-made at Staines Bridge for the Lagonda company’s experienced and battle-hardened quasi-works racing team, Fox & Nicholl Limited, of Tolworth, Surrey. Arthur Fox and Bob Nicholl were Lagonda specialists, whose sizable business in Tolworth, Surrey, had been preparing and racing Lagonda cars since as early as 1927. Arthur Fox had persuaded the Lagonda company to support his team’s competition activities and in 1929 he and Nicholl ran a flotilla of four 2-liter cars in both the Irish Grand Prix and RAC Tourist Trophy races. Fox rapidly established himself as a meticulous preparer of competition Lagondas, and he was never slow in improving upon the factory specification if he perceived any possible advantage. Just as Enzo Ferrari's private Scuderia ran the quasi-works Alfa Romeo team cars from 1932-37, so Fox & Nicholl's highly-effective organization became selected by the Lagonda company to represent their vital interests in International motor racing. One might in effect, for 'Fox & Nicholl' read 'Britain's Scuderia Ferrari'. ‘EPE 97’ For 1936 the manufacturers’ production department at Staines Bridge built four competition cars specifically for Fox and Nicholl. This quartet comprised two four-seaters, bodied to comply with Le Mans 24-Hour regulation requirements, and two two-seaters, this superb surviving example offered here being one of the latter. It was completed in May 1936 and was first UK registered ‘EPE 97’ that August. Its sister two-seater was ‘HLL 534’ which also survives (incidently sold by the Bonhams team - when known as Brooks – on behalf of the then owner Lord Dunleath in 1995) while the fate of the sister four-seaters remains obscure. Fox & Nicholls’ as yet officially un-registered new car, chassis ‘12111’, made its racing debut – apparently painted French blue instead of Fox & Nicholls’ normal racing red livery – in the experienced hands of Algerian-born French driver Marcel Lehoux in the sports car Grand Prix de l’ACF at Montlhéry, outside Paris, France on June 28, 1936. While sister car ‘HLL 534’ won its class (in what appears to have been its only race), Lehoux was forced to retire. This car