Description
This 1934 Twin-blown Lagonda Rapier was formerly part of the Jolyon Harrison collection and campaigned at Harewood Hill Climb by Jolyon and his works driver/ mechanic during the 2018 season, finally taking a class record. After this highly successful outing, the Rapier was offered for sale. The new owner has proceeded to campaign the car at Nürburgring Classic in 2019 & 2022, as well as using the car for track days when work commitments allowed.
Constructed by Australian Ross Stewart to enter 1100cc class, Ross ‘sleaved down’ the larger capacity block, giving a 62mm bore with a 90mm stroke providing 1087cc. To extract the maximum possible power from the Rapier engine was the task, two-stage supercharger was adopted using a specially designed and manufactured blower drive case, bolted to the front of the cylinder block. Using the maximum boost pressure of 28psi, the last rolling road figures showed boost at 22psi and 180BHP; with not much weight to carry to this amount of power - this is one seriously quick car.
The usual Lagonda Rapier ENV75 preselector gearbox would have suffered with this amount of power, so a Riley 12/ 4 crash gearbox with close ratio gears has been used. With all that power, good brakes are a necessity and so these consist of hydraulically activated twin-leading-shoe units, inside Alfin 13" drums. New rear have been recently fitted in by the vendor. The rear axle has an LSD and new stronger ½ shafts to replace the ones which broke shortly after purchase, and the car comes complete with a spare set.
To keep the driver as low as possible, without doing an offset driving position as used in the MG Bellevue and Dobbs Riley, a step-down gear case is attached to the rear axle, allowing the desired low driving position. The attractive 1930s styled aluminium coachwork with head rest like you would see on a 4CM Maserati or Austin 7 works monoposto, is well made and easy to dismantle, making it an easy racing car to maintain.
Reluctantly offered for sale to help fund the restoration of one of his other pre-war cars, viewing is at our Foxfields Farm showroom and world-wide shipping is available, or alternatively consider our long-term storage and race support package.
Tom Hardman Ltd in partnership with our onsite workshop can offer full wrap-around support for race enthusiast and their cars, with our storage facilities and full mechanical pre-race prep and light restoration capacity. With transport and logistics covered by our team, you can access all the events in the UK and Europe with ease. Please enquire for more details.
