Those who didn’t know that the extremely desirable Lagonda V12 was inspired by W.O. Bentley could surely have guessed, for here was a massive, locomotive-like machine, with an engine producing immense torque, and all the characteristics of the legendary ‘vintage’ Bentleys. Those cars, at least, had carried the famous badge, but the Lagonda V12 was a latter-day ‘W.O.’ by another name.
Bentley himself, the confident and renowned engineer, had been tied to Rolls-Royce since the take-over of 1931, but was eventually released in 1935, after which he immediately joined the small Lagonda company, which made its cars at Staines, in Middlesex. Current Lagondas of the early 1930s were worthy but rather rough sports and saloon cars, which used massive Meadows six-cylinder engines. Bentley’s new team quickly refined what they found, developed a new chassis, and finally set about the design of a new engine, an ambitiously-detailed 4.5-litre V12. Although the prototype was shown at the Olympia Motor Show of 1936, it was still not complete, and production units were not delivered until 1938. |
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The V12’s chassis was solid, well detailed, and modern. It shared many of the various body styles with the LG6 type (Meadows six-cylinder-engined) which ran alongside it, so all attention was concentrated on the engine. This was only the second British V12 to go on sale (Rolls-Royce, with the Phantom III having the first), though Hispano-Suiza also had such a power unit. It had an overhead-camshaft valve gear and ‘two of everything’ – SU carburettors, electrical coils and fuel pumps – so this was a smooth and effective power unit, which not only produced 180 bhp, but was the most powerful of all pre-war British engines.
Available in saloon, drop-head coupé, limousine, tourer and other derivatives, each and every V12 had to be hand-built – and in fact only 189 were built before war broke out.
The engine went on to have a fine career in light naval craft, but was not revived after the war.
Undeniably expensive cars, (from £1,550 in 1938, at a time when the Bentley 4.25-litre cost only £1,430), they were bound to sell slowly, but because every type had a top speed of more than 100 mph, they were very popular.
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