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Post by Richard de Bruanche on Dec 17, 2023 18:01:30 GMT
Seeing that there is a garage section in the club, and as Bruce has an interest in Lagondas (although elsewhere he says the supercharged Bentley 4½ Litre is his favourite car), I thought I would add a few words about my own vintage car (technically a PVT but that's another topic). It’s a 1933 Lagonda 16/80 Special Six Tourer and she had her 90th birthday last week. The 16/80 replaced the 2-Litre in Lagonda’s line up as the fashion for six cylinder cars increased at the start of the 1930s. It has a Crossley straight six of two litres which Lagonda stripped and rebuilt in their factory at Staines before installation. The name is thought to be from 16hp and 80mph top speed, not that I’d like to do 80 in her these days. Owning a vintage car gets you involved in some interesting capers. A few years back, having moved an entire hanger, Brooklands re-opened the original start/finish straight over which the hanger had been built during WWII. They also constructed an accurate replica of the original scoreboard which was unveiled at the same time. On the day we were invited to perform racing starts on the track and this photo is one of my favourites. On another occasion we were invited to Highclere Castle to display our cars as part of a Downton Abbey event at which I was fortunate enough to meet Winston Churchill! All good fun.
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Post by Bruce Partington-Plans on Dec 17, 2023 18:44:03 GMT
That really makes for splendid reading, old chap! What a wonderful-looking example of a 16/80 you have there (if it's any consolation the Lagonda 2-litre is easily in my top 5 cars, although I am something of a Morgan man as well! ) and thank you for posting some suitable pictures of it in use. I remember well the lottery-backed restoration of the Brooklands track ( blogged about that too! ) - a friend volunteers there and I have been since the moving of the Bellman Hanger and the reintroduction of the start/finish straight (before that I hadn't been since the 2007 centenary); nevertheless I still don't get there as often as I would like . Winston looks to be in fine fettle with you and the Lagonda there, sir! Highclere is a bit of a step from Partington-Plans Towers (although in the jolly old ancestral county) but is also on the to-visit list sharing as it does a link with the '90s Jeeves & Wooster TV series as well (being Totleigh Towers in that adaptation). Chartwell is not a too far from home, though, and a visit there at some future date is certainly planned. Perhaps I shall see the man himself there!
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Post by Richard de Bruanche on Jan 24, 2024 21:29:29 GMT
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Post by Bruce Partington-Plans on Jan 24, 2024 21:54:24 GMT
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