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Here is a Derby I bought from a chap in Canada. The Bentley MK V Corniche was going to be the flagship car but WW2 broke out
The original Bentley MK V Corniche currently being recreated by the RRHT in Derby
From Canada! How interesting. Any Canadian history? Beautiful car, love the colour too. Not too sure about that strange looking job though. For that kind of dough I would rather have a Bugatti or Voisin, something French.
Yes was in Vancouver since the early seventies. The colour is the same as the original colour, which is Corniche maroon and the recreation of the Corniche ( Designed by Georges Paulin in 1938/39 ) is the same maroon and silver as the original car. Your right the look isnt to everyones taste but the inovations incorporated in the engineering were carried forward in principal to the postwar rationalised range of cars leading uo to the fabulous continental R.
I attended the Brough rally in 2008 and we rode our Broughs through south Wales to visit a lovely lady with a collection of Brough automobiles and a Continental R which attracted a lot of attention. I then bumped into by chance at Hershey 2 months on the previous owner who spoke very highly of it.
Wonderful R type.
Paulin also I believe was responsible for the Embiricos Bentley, which was and is a truly gorgeous car, and I will concede, more attractive than JPG492, Lagonda’s V12 response.
The R Type Continental…yes, beautiful…so much so that if my original quest for a V12 drophead not been successful, I would have bought one of these instead. Great car, provided rear seat passengers have no legs below the knees. Strange that they could produce a car so beautiful, yet also be responsible for the MkVI & standard R Types, exercises in utter stodge, not to mention rust.The mascot on my MK V was designed by Paulin. It was to be used on the Corniche. I have been lucky enough to have owned 2 MK V1’s one a saloon and the other a shooting brake and in addition a 2 door R type. Stodge they may be but the driving experience is wonderful and can be driven daily with ease. The quality of all the steel in Europe used post WW2 was inferior and rust was an issue but its generally easily repairable now and preventable materials are avaiable.
Yesterday in the peak district at a clay pigeon shoot
To return to the topic of this thread, a friend has been to see the car and has found numerous very good reasons not to make this guy any offer. However, just in an academic interest sense, I have a query based on the photographs in the listing. Something ‘bugged’ me about these photographs when I first saw them and discussions with others have thrown this issue into sharp relief.
The body/chassis combination is odd. It does not fit with my understanding of the V12 model range bodies, precisely. When I first saw it, the general shape made me think ‘middle’ length saloon. But, on further consideration the radiator can be seen to be too high for this to be right. Also, the presence of the front quarter lights should have made me think ‘long’ saloon. But, there are further difficulties with this analysis.
The ‘long’ saloon was actually built on the same length chassis as the ‘middle’ length car, of course – the difference being between the relative over hang of each body. Only the de Ville body was built by the factory on the the long chassis, I think. But, the shape of the car on ebay is wrong for both the ‘long’ saloon and de Ville bodies – the former because the rear doors are ‘suicide’ and the latter because of the shape of the rear roof line.
The body shape actually looks most like that of the LG6 de Ville, but there are differences even in that regard. So, one would think that it was a non-factory coach-built body. But, it appears not to be so given the ‘Lagonda’ sill plate.
Any thoughts, gentlemen? Have I misunderstood something (I’m always very keen to be educated).
TVJL,
Whoops, pressed wrong button so this answer may be duplicated.
The car has a Lagonda Club badge so you could probably get answers about the history, provenance and correct identification of the model from Arnold Davey if you wanted to pursue it.
It is also relisted at lower price now
It does look like Lagonda’s own coachwork to me, style-wise at any rate. I think the factory were not averse to making changes…perhaps at the behest of the person ordering the car.
My drophead is a short chassis car; but has the long chassis taller radiator, and the long chassis fuller boot area. The wheel cases do not have the “german helmet” tail on them, so are like those on LG45s and I think, some LG6s…and they do have the car’s body number stamped on them so they are original to my car.
That said, on the car advertised, the adjusters for seat squab height are new to me, as is the sill cut out beneath the handbrake; but then I’m not familiar with the saloon versions.
LaurenceThanks for your replies, gentlemen – all very interesting. I’ve discussed the car with a number of people now, and there seems to be a fair amount of disagreement. Some think that this is an LG6 body, others that it is an early prototype of the de Ville type (I use the phrase advisedly and I am a little unsure as to what it means precisely). it certainly has oddities about it that make one wary. There also seem to be other questions about the auction that require answers – but, I’d better not address those online.
All in all, I still think this would be a great project for someone if the seller comes down significantly from his current asking price. It would be lovely to see the car restored to its former glory.
Having been down to see the old girl, and poked around a fair bit, I believe that this is indeed a Lagonda made body on the middle length, 11 foot chassis. As to whether it is an early prototype de Ville or an LG6 body is very hard to say. The club do hold a fair few details on this car as you may doubt now know, its history is known from 1947, but not before.
If I am correct the build records do not exist for all the V12 cars. I think it is very easy to generalise about these magnificent cars, in terms of “set body styles and shapes”, radiator heights, and even the length of the boot or position of front lights. But a key point is, that the customer could really specify what ever he or she wanted.
I think the costs to restore this car would be considerable, partly because of the complexity of the engine and the fact that it will certainly have the original crankshaft and con rods, which it would be unwise to retain. It is a very high revving engine and the crank had a design weakness that often led to serious cracking at the flywheel end, while the Duralumin con rods will by now have lost much of their original tensile strength because of progressive changes that have been found to be intrinsic to this alloy. One can easily run up a bill for 50k GB pounds plus, just for parts for the engine alone …
The car is not a “standard” short or medium wheelbase saloon, which everyone wants. It is a de Ville limousine and whilst Frank Feeley designed some fabulous bodies for the 4.5 litre cars, this wasn’t one of them, being an early possibly prototype de Ville.
Does Frostick illustrate any similar styles?
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