Lanchester

GB, 1895 – 1956

(1) Lanchester Engine Co Ltd, Birmingham, 1895 – 1904

(2) Lanchester Motor Co, Birmingham, 1904 – 1931; Coventry, 1931 – 1956

The first Lanchester car was remarkable in that, like the first Benz, the Lanchester car was designed from the ground up as a motor car, not as an adaptation of the horse carriage, and in that the Lanchester car was a homogenous mechanical entity, owing nothing to the practice of the stationary engine and its power transmission. In the latter respect, the Lanchester car was unique: the power unit and belt transmission of the Benz were derived from stationary practice. Frederick Lanchester’s prototype was built in 1895 and improved upon two years later. Production Lanchester car models followed in 1900. The engine of these Lanchester cars, centrally mounted, was horizontally-opposed, air-cooled, 10hp twin; each piston and cylinder had its own crankshaft and flywheel assembly, which rotated in opposite directions. Smoothness unparalleled in other contemporary Lanchester cars resulted. By the standards of the day the engine was quiet. Epicyclic gears provided three forward speeds, with preselector control of the first and second. Engine and gearbox of the Lanchester cars had automatic lubrication. There was worm final drive. In accordance with the best modern practice, the suspension, by cantilever springs at front and rear, was soft while the unit construction of the chassis and body provided great stiffness. The steering of the Lanchester car was by a side lever which, like the wick carburetor, was apparently old-fashioned but was in practice extremely efficient. Water-cooled engines were offered as an option on Lanchester cars from 1902, and bigger, faster Lanchester cars were made in 1904. However, in that year the first model with a vertical 4-cylinder engine was introduced, the Lanchester 20hp, and the twins tailed off. The engine on this Lanchester car was moved forward to a position between the front-seat passengers, and it was given horizontal ohv’s and pressure lubrication. A 28hp six Lanchester car arrived in 1906. This and the 20hp four were replaced respectively by the Lanchester 38hp for 1911 and the Lanchester 25hp for 1912. On the original Lanchester cars, gearchanging and braking were effected by two levers, the only pedal being for the accelerator. By now, however, convention had demanded the substitution not only of a steering wheel, but also of the usual three pedals and gear lever, except that, of course, the epicyclic gears Lanchester cars, still enabled changed to be made without trouble or fuss. By 1912, Frederick’s brother George was in charge. Although Frederick’s design of the Lanchester car had gained a large and devoted following for the Lanchester car make, the public trend was increasingly towards convention, and George Lanchester’s cars were to follow it.

George Lanchester was responsible for the Lanchester Sporting Forty of 1914. Although only a handful were made, this Lanchester car was a landmark because it was the first Lanchester car to have its engine in the conventional position, covered by a bonnet (it was also the only Lanchester car to be called sports car, and to have an sv engine.) From it was developed the Lanchester Forty, which was at first the sole Lanchester car offered. Its six-cylinder, 6.2-litre engine was made in unit with its 3-speed epicyclis gearbox, and had an ohc. The springs, half-elliptic at the front and cantilever at the rear, were underslung on the Lanchester car. Worm final drive was retained. This Lanchester car was a very fast, very expensive car in the Rolls-Royce class, and its makers feld bound to wide their net of Lanchester cars. Late in 1923 there appeared the Lanchester Twenty-One, which was a scaled-down, simplified, modernized Lanchester Forty. The 6-cylinder engine of the Lanchester car was of 3.1-litres, it had a 4-speed sliding-pinion gearbox, and front wheel brakes were standard. In 1926 the bore was enlarged, to provide 3.3-litres. In this form the Lanchester car was sometimes known as the Lanchester Twenty-three. Alongside this Lanchester car, the Forty (with front wheel brakes from 1925) continued until 1929. It was replaced in that year by the Lanchester Thirty, which was an up-to-date Lanchester car design with a straight-8 engine of 4½-litres, still with ohc, and a normal 4-speed gearbox. Like the Forty, this Lanchester car was a massive and magnificent car ideal for high-speed cruising. The Twenty-Three was dropped in 1931, when the BSA group of companies, in which Daimler already provided a line of luxury cars, took over Lanchester cars, although the Thirty was still catalogued in 1932 as a Lanchester car. From now on, the name of Lanchester was applied to a line of much cheaper, smaller cars, beginning with the Lanchester 15/18hp. This Lanchester car had a 2½-litre, push-rod ohv, 6-cylinder engine designed by George Lanchester, hydraulic brakes, and the Daimler fluid flywheel. It was a good car in its class, but like most Lanchester cars to come, lost its character as the Lanchester Eighteen, with fixed cylinder head and mechanical brakes, and became a cut-price Daimler. The group complicated matters further by introducing a 4-cylinder 10hp Lanchester ar as a more expensive version of the contemporary sv BSA’s. This Lanchester car had a 1.2-litre and then a 1.4-litre ohv engine. Probably the best of the Lanchester cars at this period was the Lanchester Roadrider de Luxe 14hp of 1938, a small six with a detachable cylinder head and independent front suspension. A few straight-8 Lanchester cars were made from 1936 to 1939, but these were in fact 4½-litre Daimlers with Lanchester radiators. Four Lanchester cars were supplied to King George VI.

The first post-war Lanchester car was a 4-cylinder ten of 1.3-litres on pre-1939 lines, but with independent front suspension, like all Lanchester cars to come. It was replaced for 1952 by a new Lanchester Fourteen, with 2-litre, 4-cylinder engine and fluid flywheel. This Lanchester car was basically a Daimler Conquest with two fewer cylinders and was the last Lanchester car to qualify as a serious production car. In 1953 – 1954, a handful of Lanchester Dauphines were made. This was a true luxury car, consisting of a 6-cylinder Daimler engine in a Fourteen Lanchester car chassis, surmounted by a luxurious coachbuilt body by Hooper; price was an unrealistic £4.010. Finally, late in 1954, Lanchester produced a completely new and original design, which was also their last – the Lanchester Sprite. The engine was an ohv, 4-cylinder unit of 1.6-litres; there was independent front suspension on the Lanchester car, the brakes were hydraulic, but the Sprite incorporated unitary construction of body and chassis, and fully automatic Hobbs transmission instead of the fluid flywheel. The Sprite Lanchester car was never put into production, and the once-great and always respected name of Lanchester car died.

Source: Georgano, encyclopedia of motorcar; TRN

The information is written with the greatest of care. However, if you have any suggested amendments please contact us at office@prewarcar.com

Daimler

D, 1886 – 1902

(1) Gottlieb Daimler, Bad Cannstatt, 1886 – 1890

(2) Daimler Motoren-Gesellschaft, Bad Cannstatt, 1890 – 1902

Gottlieb Daimler was employed until 1882 as technical director at the Gasmotorenfabrik Deutz, where he worked on internal combustion engines. Wilhelm Maybach was also engaged by Daimler at the Deutz works. Daimler held shares in the Deutz company and the income form these gave Daimler some financial support when Daimler left Deutz. He moved to Bad Cannstatt near Stuttgart, where Daimler started a small workshop for research and experimentation and brought in Maybach to work for him. Daimler’s plans were to develop a high-speed internal combustion engine which could be fitted into road and rail vehicles as well as into boats. In 1883 a high-speed Daimler prototype petrol engines with hot-tube ignition were built. This was the first time that petrol was used for an internal combustion engine. The next step for Daimler was the construction in 1885 of the world’s first Daimler motor cycle, which was also the last one ever built by Daimler or later companies bearing the Daimler name. Next, trials were made with a motorized boat and sleigh before Daimler and Maybach fitted an engine to an ordinary horse-drawn carriage, modified for the purpose . The Daimler car was ready in 1886 and made its first trial runs around Cannstatt. The engine was an air-cooled vertical single-cylinder or 1.5hp with tube ignition. Further trials with Daimler engines in boats, trams and fire-engines followed.

For some time Maybach had tried to convince Daimler that they should build a vehicle designed from the start as a motor car. Daimler opposed the idea for a long time but he at last agreed to build a Daimler prototype. It was a two-seater 4-wheeled vehicle with a rear-mounted V-twin engine. The chassis was a tubular steel frame and the steel wire wheels gave the cars its name of ‘Stahlradwagen’. The Daimler car was sent to the Paris World Fair of 1889. Panhard-Levassor and Peugeot took a great interest in this car, and both firms started car production with Daimler engines and laid the foundation of the French motor car industry.

In 1890 the Daimler Motoren-Gesellschaft was founded by soon differences arose between Daimler and his new partners. This led to Daimler’s separation from the company in 1893. He and Maybach started an experimental workshop in the Hotel Hermann; this can be regarded as an independent Daimler enterprise which also built cars. Daimler successfully continued his efforts to develop a high-speed engine for motor cars. The very important invention of the atomizing carburetor by Daimler was also made in the Hotel Hermann. In 1895 an agreement was reached and Daimler and Maybach returned to the Daimler company. The Daimler cars produced were the belt-driven 2-cylinder type, the first Daimler car manufactured in any numbers. It was succeeded in 1897 by the Daimler Phönix, the first type with front engine. 1899 saw the first 4-cylinder engines. A car with a 28hp engine was entered by its owner, Emile Jellinek for the Nice Week, 1899; this Daimler car was called the Mercedes after his eldest daughter.

Jellinek was a successful business man and Consul-General of the Austro-Hungarian empire in Nice, taking a great interest in motoring and especially Daimler cars. He acted as an unofficial agent selling Daimler cars to his wealthy friends. But he was not satisfied with their performance and suggested that the Daimler company should build a high-performance car of an entirely new conception. The result was the 35hp 4-cylinder Daimler model which became known as the first Mercedes car. It was designed by Maybach, incorporating some of the principles of the P.D. Car designed by Paul Daimler, a son of Gottlieb Daimler. It made a very successful debut at the Nice Week, 1901. Jellinek had a seat on the Daimler car company’s board of directors since 1900. He now obtained the sole agency for Daimler in France, Belgium, Austro-Hungary and the United States of America. He sold the cars under the name of Mercedes – which formerly had been only his pseudonym – to counter possible legal proceedings by Panhard-Levassor, who owned licences for Daimler cars under an earlier agreement with Gottlieb Daimler himself. As a result of the great successes of Mercedes cars Daimler decided in 1902 to accept this as a new brand name for all subsequent private Daimler cars. Commercial vehicles continued to be marketed under the name Daimler, and this name was also applied to the cars built in 1901 by the breakaway M.M.B. company in Berlin.

GB, 1896 to date

(1) Daimler Motor Syndicate Ltd, Coventry, Warwickshire, 1896 – 1904

(2) Daimler Motor Co (1904) Ltd, Coventry, Warwickshire, 1904 – 1910

(3) Daimler Co Ltd, Coventry, Warwickshire, 1910 to date

The Daimler Motor Syndicate was formed in England in 1893 by F.R. Simms to exploit Gottlieb Daimler motor patents, but it was not until 1896 that the Coventry factory became active as part of H.J. Lawson’s empire. Though Daimler himself was a director until 1898, the English and German Daimler concerns pursued their separate ways. In the first two years cars were mostly imported, and early English Daimlers were 2-cylinder machines, largely on Panhard lines, with automatic inlet valves, tiller steering, tube ignition, 4-speed and reverse gearboxes, chain drive and solid tyres. Prices ranged from £368 for a pheaeton up to £418 for a ‘Daimler private omnibus’. 1899 saw the first 4-cylinder car, a 3-litre machine rated at 12hp; this Daimler had wheel steering, and the Hon. John Scott-Montagu became the first British driver to compete in a continental race on a vehicle of British construction when he drove one Daimler in the Paris-Ostend that year. King Edward VII, while still Prince of Wales, took delivery of his first Daimler in 1900, thus forging a connection between the Daimler company and the reigning house which lasted until the 1950s. Design policy was very uncertain for the next few seasons, but in 1902 there was a chain-driven 1.8-litre twin Daimler, as well as fours of 2.4 and 4½-litres’ capacity with tubular, Panhard-like radiators. These Daimler cars retained stand-by tube ignition. The fluted radiator and 3-piece bonnet, both to become Daimler hallmarks, were introduced in 1904, the year in which the Daimler company went over to large and powerful chain-driven fours with mechanically-operated side valves and coil ignition, which ran in such events as the herkomer Trophy Trials. The 9¼ litre ‘Daimler 35’ was typical, but there were even bigger versions of over 10½-litres, and Daimler advertising made much of sprint wins on the Continent and in the USA as well as at home. Some of these Daimler cars were made under licence in Italy as the De Luca.

1909 saw a complete volte face with the adoption of Charles Yale Knight’s double-sleeve valve engine and underslung worm drive, and the Daimler cars of the next 23 years were smooth, and silent, but not capable of high performance. They also changed little in appearance, since Daimler, unlike most luxury-car makers, built their own bodywork. Poppet valves were dropped altogether after 1909. By 1914 the Daimler company’s range extended from a 4-cylinder 3.3-litre ‘Daimler 20’ with rear-axle gearbox at £430 for a chassis up to a very large 7.4-litre 6-cylinder ‘Daimler 45’. Electric lighting and starting were standard on the bigger cars. The purchase of Daimler by BSA in 1910 made no difference to the cars, though the BSA itself became merely a cheap Daimler.

After World war 1, 4-cylinder cars were dropped (apart from a short-lived ‘Daimler 20’ in 1922) and the same solid conservative machines were offered in a range of fearsome complexity. There was a 1½-litre six in 1923 and front wheel brakes arrived with the 35hp model in 1924, becoming universal late in 1925, when light steel sleeves were adopted and outputs went up. The immense and stately 12-cylinder 7.1-litre Daimler Double Six was introduced in 1927; 12-cylinder Daimler cars were used by the Royal Family and persisted in a variety of capacities from 3.7 litres until 1938, the last ones using poppet valves. In 1927 the company offered 23 separate Daimler car models (exclusive of body styles), using five engines from 1.9-litres to 7.1-litres, and twelve wheelbase lengths from the 9ft 9in of the owner-driver ’Daimler 16-55’ up to the 13ft 7in of the Royal model of the Double-Six, which cost £1950 for a chassis alone. In 1930 Daimler pioneered the fluid-flywheel transmission with column selector which was used on all Daimler models from 1932 to 1956. The Lanchester company was acquired in 1931 and the make downgraded into another species of inexpensive Daimler cars for sale. In 1933 the influence of Launce Pomeroy Sr was reflected in a 1.8-litre 6-cylinder ‘Daimler 15’ with overhead valves for the owner-driver at £450, and this was followed by a series of ohv sixes and straight-8s, some of them with fixed cylinder heads. Independent front suspension appeared on 1938 versions of the ‘Daimler 15’. In 1939 there were three sixes and two eights, the top of the range being the 4½-litre 32hp limousine.

After World War 2 the 2½-litre Daimler DB.18 (descended from the ‘15’) was revived and there were two limousine models with hypoid final drive, a 4-litre six and a 5½-litre eight. A certain lack of direction punctuated the early 1950s, which saw the short-stroke 2½-litre ‘Daimler Conquest’ saloon and its 100mph variant, the ‘Daimler Conquest Century’, and also a sports two-seater. The company was reorganized in 1956, in which year automatic transmission was available as an alternative to the fluid-flywheel gearbox. The 3.8-litre 6-cylinder ‘Daimler Majestic’ of 1958 had automatic transmission and disc brakes as standard equipment and a year later came the Turner-designed V8 2½-litre Daimler SP250 sports car, a 120mph machine which broke away form traditional Daimler appearance and sold for £1.395. A synchromesh gearbox was standard. A pair of 4.6-litre V8s with traditional bodywork joined it in 1960, in which year the company was bought by Jaguar. A 2½-litre saloon using the small V8 Daimler engine in a Mk II jaguar body was introduced for 1963, and gradually Jaguar influences took over. The 8-cylinder Majestic Major saloon was replaced in 1967 by the Daimler Sovereign, a Jaguar 420 down to its dohc 6-cylinder engine, and a year later there was a new Jaguar-based limousine using the 4235cc power unit and a Vanden Plas body. The last V8 Daimlers were made in 1996, and inevitably the 1973 season brought a Daimler version of the 5.3-litre V12 XJ6 Jaguar, designated the Double Six; a long-chassis version had trim by Vanden Plas.

Source: Georgano, encyclopedia of motorcar; HON, MCS

The information is written with the greatest of care. However, if you have any suggested amendments please contact us at office@prewarcar.com