Lagonda

Wilbur Gunn had built motorcycles in the garden of his Staines home before launching his first car in 1907, the 20 hp six-cylinder Torpedo, which he drove to victory on the Moscow to St. Petersburg trial in 1910. Success in Russia generated healthy export orders that continued until 1914. In 1913 Lagonda introduced the advanced small 11.1 model with a four-cylinder 1,099 cc engine; by 1914 it featured a panhard rod suspension, a riveted unibody, and the first ever fly-off handbrake.

During the First World War the company manufactured artillery shells. After Wilbur Gunn's death in 1920, three directors headed by Colin Parbury assumed control. The first sports model, the 14/60, appeared in 1925 with a twin-cam 1,954 cc four-cylinder engine. A higher-output two-litre Speed model followed in 1927, with a supercharged version available from 1930.

The 1930s brought Lagonda its greatest sporting achievement. The M45, powered by a Meadows-supplied six-cylinder 4,467 cc engine, was capable of approaching 100 mph and served as the backbone of the performance range. Its derivative, the M45R Rapide, used a tuned engine on a shorter chassis and secured a controversial Le Mans victory in 1935.

Financial difficulties the same year brought in a receiver, but the company was purchased by Alan P. Good, who narrowly outbid Rolls-Royce. Good persuaded W. O. Bentley to leave Rolls-Royce and join Lagonda as chief designer, along with many of his racing department colleagues. Under Bentley, the 4.5-litre range became the LG45, produced in three Sanction variants incorporating progressive Bentley refinements. In 1937 Bentley's masterpiece, the V-12, was launched: its 4,480 cc engine produced 180 bhp, and was said to be capable of pulling from 7 to 105 mph in top gear. The V-12 Rapide was displayed at the 1939 New York Motor Show as the highest-priced car on the floor at $8,900.

In 1947 David Brown acquired Lagonda and merged it with Aston Martin, which he had also recently purchased, relocating production to Feltham, Middlesex. The final Bentley-designed prototypes became the 1948 Lagonda 2.6-Litre, featuring a new twin overhead camshaft straight-six whose architecture became the basis for Aston Martin engines throughout the 1950s. A 3-litre version followed in 1953 and was offered until 1958.

In 1961 the Rapide name was revived on a four-door saloon based on the Aston Martin DB4, with aluminium coachwork by Carrozzeria Touring of Milan and a 3,995 cc engine giving a top speed of 125 mph. Production ended in 1965. A further four-door prototype on the Aston Martin DBS platform appeared in 1969 and was used by David Brown himself; between 1974 and 1976 seven production saloons were built from that prototype. In 1976 the large, wedge-shaped Aston Martin Lagonda designed by William Towns entered production, drawing on V8 mechanical components and remaining in the catalogue until 1990, with 645 built in total.

During 1993 and 1994 Aston Martin produced nine four-door saloons and seven shooting brakes based on a stretched Virage, available with either a 5.3-litre V8 of 310 hp or a 6.3-litre V8 of 500 hp. Six were acquired by a foreign royal family. These represented the only factory-built Aston Martin shooting brakes until the 2018 Vanquish Zagato.

In September 2008 Aston Martin announced it would relaunch Lagonda to address markets such as Russia where a year-round luxury saloon made more commercial sense than a specialist sports car. At the 2009 Geneva Motor Show a four-wheel-drive, four-seat SUV concept with a V12 engine was unveiled to mark the brand's centenary. In 2014 Aston Martin announced the Taraf, a large low-bodied saloon priced at £1 million and powered by a normally aspirated V12 producing 565 hp, limited to 200 units and initially sold in the Middle East before extending to the UK, Europe, and South Africa.

Lagonda represents one of the oldest continuous luxury-automotive lineages in Britain. Its Le Mans victory, W. O. Bentley's V-12, and the futuristic Towns-designed wedge saloon are each landmark moments in British car history. The brand's intermittent dormancy — most recently from 2016 onward — reflects the commercial challenges of maintaining a distinct ultra-luxury identity within the constraints of a specialist manufacturer, yet the name retains strong recognition among collectors and marque historians.