Lanchester’s controversial double landaulet

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This photograph was found in our continuously growing file ‘Crazy Cars’. And we must admit we didn’t know much about the wacky double landaulet depicted. But as often in these days of the worldwide web, the answer wasn’t far away. Just a few mouse clicks learnt us this was a 28hp Lanchester of 1910 vintage. It’s a strange creature for sure with its body that seems to have been put together using different bits and pieces, while the long wheelbase made its overall appearance even more awkward. Still, the big Lanchesters of these days were meant to beat the Rolls-Royce Silver Ghosts (balloon car, anyone?) of its era and priced at £750 they weren’t much cheaper either.

The internet is a great appetizer, but when you want to dig a little deeper it’s still the book shelve to go to. And as we'd now become hungry to the subject, it’s there that we went. The Autocar praised the 28hp in 1908 when it wrote: “It holds to the road like a racing car”, which seems hard to believe when you look at it now, but then the demonstrator used wasn’t the double landaulet version. Then we found a comprehensive article about that actual model in a 1970s issue of Automobile Quarterly (thanks to the index – where would one be without?). The author wrote: “To fully appreciate the vehicle, one should begin at the front and work carefully back.” And that’s what he does, starting with the history of the Lanchester, describing several of the peculiar mechanical solutions that Frederick Lanchester came up with and ending with the styling ideas giving birth to this particular oddity. Lanchester wasn’t happy with the bodies built by coachbuilders and thus decided to do all of that in-house. Again, the designs were born from a firm belief in creating the best: “The characteristic and controversial styling of the car’s front – with its lack of bonnet – derived from the location of the front seats. Both driver's and passenger’s legs rested alongside the engine, permitting especially commodious accommodations throughout the car.”

Unfortunately, and unlike the Silver Ghost, the 28hp didn’t become the success hoped for by Lanchester. Few were sold and even fewer survive. One was sold at the Goodwood Revival in 2004 and another one at the Louwman Museum in The Netherlands, both can be seen here. There must be more around though. Feel free to enlighten us.

But still hungry for more information we found another snippet on the worldwide web regarding a later model with even a wackier body, which is worth sharing here. Seen on the last picture attached, this car was known as the Coach Car as it was commissioned by the Maharaja Jai Singh Prabhakar of Alwar, India. Quote: “The Lanchester 40HP was introduced at a Motor Show in London in November 1919, it was a direct competitor to the Rolls-Royce Silver Ghost, and cost slightly less. It was a more modern car than the ageing 'Ghost' and with a top speed of 80mph, it was faster. It is believed that Alwar family may have sold the car in the 1970s or 80s, the current location is unknown.” Now… Who knows..?

Words by Jeroen Booij. Pictures from the archive.

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