-
Hi Folks,
Actually, the pictures that DavidLG45 is asking for would be very valuable for all Lagonda enthusiasts.
Arnold Davey tells me that during Walter Buckingham’s time as head of coachbuilding with Lagondas, he refused to make dropheads because of the weight of the doors on the hinge post. However customers really wanted a drophead so they went behind Buckingham’s back and commissioned a batch of drophead bodies from VdP. The original batch included one Three Litre, one Two Litre and four 16/80s. Some more 16/80s were finished off in the factory, including my one whose designation on the chassis plate is “S.DHC1”.
When the LG45 drophead was produced, Frank Feely had replaced Buckingham and they really did need a factory drophead in the model range. He designed a massive cross member to which the hinge post is attached to support the weight of the doors. The challenge with any drophead – particularly LG 45s – is the door fit, and unless the hinge post is in really good shape the doors will drop and then the door often won’t close very well. This may not be apparent on examination at an auction and can be an expensive thing to repair! So just because a car looks flash and sells for a lot of money, it doesn’t mean that it might have some very severe problems in this department.
For this reason Oakley will be doing fellow members a favour if he can get some good photos of this car as suggested by David. The Lagonda Club secretary keeps a comprehensive photographic archive of all known cars and it would be great of Oakley could let the secretary have some copies – the more the better!
Cheers
Colin
Because the problem is apparently well-known, I don’t see the point of checking if this particular car has good hinge posts or not. Besides, such a thing is difficult to photograph. However, I will open the doors and look if they drop or not. For the benefit of the Club Secretary’s Archives, excellent photographs of the car, better than I can ever make, are readily available and can simply be downloaded from the Bonhams website.
Hi Oakley…
OK its up to you what you decide to do at the auction. However it is precisely because the problem is well-known that it would be nice to have a go and take some snapshots of this particular car. When you open the doors to see if they if they drop, some close ups of the inside bottoms of the hinge posts would great. The club doesn’t just want excellent posed photographs it needs snaps which are squirrelled away to help members in the future. I’m sure you would like to help club members in the future. If it’s too much trouble, then don’t worry. Have a great time at the show.
Hi David…
For various reasons I would like to continue this debate regarding LG 45 drophead hinge posts and if you or anyone else would care to send me a private message, we can continue the discussion off line and perhaps post the outcome as a new thread. This could include possibly discussing Oakley’s snaps. IMHO rotten hinge posts are possibly the single most likely reason why factory LG 45 dropheads are turned into boy racers and I need to understand this a bit more, particularly how they can be repaired.At some stage in the future we might be able comfort a new club member who paid a lot of money in an auction for one of these dropheads only to discover he had a problem.
Colin M34
I will go to this auction too (not that I have money to spend but there are really nice cars to see +Retromobile +Paris +meeting friends). I will make a bunch of fotos for you of the two Lagondas, especially the DHC (also close ups of door hinges)
It was a very long auction, the french lady from Bonhams took a bit to much time playing here charme.. I left after about 4 hours after most of the interesting cars had been sold. In all most remained under the low estimates (put rather high). Record braking was the Bugati Brescia wreck pulled out of Lago Maggiore after 70 years and fetching 230?000 EUR ! It can be used as sculpture as is. A car dealer said using the chassis and engine numbers it will be an original Bugatti after reconstruction. I do not share this opinion. See also prewarcar.com
The 2 Lagondas:
the LG45 DHC was very nice overall. The drivers door was hanging a bit low (the problem Colin mentioned). And it scraped on the bottom side when opening. There was a crack in the body close to the boot lid, jackall was missing, underside looked good, wheels not perfect. Sold for 140?000EUR plus premium.the LG45 -sort of M45 Le Mans replica:
sold for 112?000 EUR plus premium. I think most has been said about this car. Another point in making profit with these replicas is that they even can be in rather used and scratched condition which looks like “historic racing use”.A few photos attached I have some more if needed
I would like to add that the auction was rather unsuccessful with only about half of the cars sold. The cheaper cars did the best (a trio of Citroen DS’s for instance, of which one, a rare convertible, went to pop-star J.K. for 120.000 Euros) but most of the expensive cars went back to their former owner.
The widely advertised Bugatti fished out of Lake Maggiore fetched 220.000 Euros which go to a fund for victims of street violence. It was moving to see the parents of the lad whos murder inspired the sale of the remains of the car, which did much better than the expected 80.000 Euros.
The car was bought by Dutch Bugatti trader Jaap Braam Ruben on behalf of an American client who is going to put it, as it is, in a museum in the US.
The Lagonda M45 Le Mans replica actually did not sell. It was pushed to 112.000 Euros by shadow bidders (well below the reserve price) but my contact from Bonhams told me that no real bidders came in and the car was withdrawn which didn’t surprise me.The Bonham’s website claims it “Sold for ?128,800 inclusive of Buyer’s Premium”.
You must be logged in to reply to this topic.