1936 Lagonda LG45R Rapide

It always used to come to us in November, to be readied for the Mille Miglia, and it’s a gutsy car that hasn’t been tarted up for Pebble Beach

by Paul Hardlman

Lagonda introduced the 4½-liter M45 at the 1933 London Motor Show. With its overhead-valve 6-cylinder Meadows engine, here was a Lagonda sports car capable of genuinely high performance, even by today’s standards.

For 1935, two additional models were introduced—the 4½-liter Rapide and the 3½-liter—both on the same shorter, lighter chassis. But in these post-Depression years, even victory in the 1935 24 Hours of Le Mans came too late to save the company from collapse. It looked as if Lagonda was about to be absorbed by Rolls-Royce, but it was instead rescued by entrepreneur Alan Good, who appointed W.O. Bentley as chief designer.

W.O. took Lagonda into the luxury car market in 1936 with the new LG45. It featured longer springs and Luvax dampers, and Bentley improved the engine, his modifications emerging in the “Sanction III” power units introduced at the 1936 London Motor Show.

Competition variants of the LG45 were tailor-made at Staines...