Lot Ended
Description
Barn find in need of full restoration; engine turns; rolls easily;
rare model that needs to be saved!
The Lanchester
brothers are some of motoring’s true greats. Autocar once wrote that of
the 36 primary features in modern motorcars, Lanchester were responsible for 18
of them. Priding engineering above all else, they lacked commercial acumen and
produced a range of quality cars with a peculiar mix of technical innovation and
conservative styling which never really caught the imagination of the
well-heeled buyers they were aimed at.
By 1930
they were saddled with debt and the company was purchased lock, stock and barrel
by the BSA concern. BSA had already acquired Daimler and moved Lanchester
production to the Daimler works in Coventry.
The
12hp Lanchester Light Six of 1935/1936 thus became an early example of badge
engineering, being an upmarket version of the BSA Light Six with four-door
saloon coachwork by Mulliners of Birmingham.
Power came from a 1,378cc six-cylinder overhead valve engine fed by a
single SU carburettor, driving through a fluid flywheel to a four-speed
pre-selector gearbox and on to an underslung worm-drive rear axle. The
suspension was by semi-elliptic springs all around. Costing around £340 in
period, only around 1,075 were made, making it an exceedingly rare car these
days.
This rather sorry looking Light Six dates
from 1935 and was acquired by our vendor in 2016 at which point it had
been languishing in a barn in West Wales for several decades. Sadly it
comes with no documents other than a V5C which records that the
previous Welsh owner acquired the car in 1978, and the GR 1888 number plate
suggests that it would have been first registered in Sunderland.
Intriguingly there is a Kruger National Park sticker in the front passenger side
window so perhaps it made its way to South Africa at some point – who knows?
Our vendor was planning to restore the car as a
project to keep him busy in his retirement but as he has not even made a start
on it some 10 years on, he has decided that the time has come to pass it on
to someone else with more enthusiasm for the task. On offer here at no reserve,
the car seems largely complete, the engine still turns, the tyres hold air and
it rolls easily so transporting it won’t be a problem.
In 20 years of hosting these sales we have never seen a Lanchester
Light Six before, and we can only find a record of one other being sold at
auction in the last dozen years so this must be a rare survivor that definitely
deserves to be saved.
Consigned by James
Dennison – 07970 309907 – james.dennison@brightwells.com