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Author	Message
johnfromstaffs ◊ 2022-01-19 20:42	I think that’s a 1938 Lanchester Eleven. https://daimlerandlanchester.files.wordpress.com/2014/08/front2.jpg The other possibility is a 1938 Lanchester Fourteen Roadrider. Link to "en.wikipedia.org" -- Last edit: 2022-01-19 21:03:52
electra225 ◊ 2022-01-19 20:57	Is it a coupé ?
johnfromstaffs ◊ 2022-01-19 21:04	How could I know from this head-on mugshot? It doesn’t look like a Coupé does it? -- Last edit: 2022-01-19 21:06:36
pingis ◊ 2022-01-19 21:10	Today there are two Lanchesters registered in Sweden. One is a Lanchester 10 and the other one is a Lanchester Leda. It is a two door coupé. I wish I knew how to upload an additional picture.
johnfromstaffs ◊ 2022-01-19 21:21	That is neither of them. Lanchester Leda: Link to "commons.wikimedia.org" Lanchester Ten: Link to "en.wikipedia.org" Lanchester Ten: Link to "en.wikipedia.org" -- Last edit: 2022-01-19 21:27:06
pingis ◊ 2022-01-19 21:28	I tried to upload another picture here but didn't succeed. Hopefully you can see it here: https://imgshare.io/image/skarmavbild-2022-01-19-kl-211539.rCCPEu
johnfromstaffs ◊ 2022-01-19 21:40	1938 Lanchester Fourteen Coupé by Charlesworth. https://www.pinterest.co.uk/pin/528680443751343908/ These cars had a chassis and so could carry a coachbuilt body, like this. The position of the trafficator below the B pillar matches the subject picture, which is the only clue to its being a Coupé. -- Last edit: 2022-01-19 21:45:43
pingis ◊ 2022-01-19 21:46	My guess is that you have found exactly the car used in this tv-series. The car you linked to has got a Swedish license plate. Today that license plate belongs to a Yamaha Grizzly. This Lanchester was probably exported from Sweden after its tv appearance.
daimlere20 ◊ 2022-01-23 13:07	VAS487 - chassis no.34355. A rather lovely car which returned to the UK from Sweden c.2002. For many years the car lived in Pembrokeshire, and I use to see it fairly regularly. A perhaps unique survivor. The car is a Lanchester Fourteen Roadrider de-Luxe (LA14/2), a model that has little or nothing in common with the Fourteen Roadrider (LA14) it superseded.
dsl ◊ 2022-01-23 13:35	We've identified this vehicle using the details you provided LANCHESTER UNKNOWN 1938 Registration number: VAS 487 Body type: Coupe Colour: Black And Blue Date of first registration: August 2003 ✓ Taxed Tax due: 1 January 2023 Cylinder capacity 170 cc ( according to DVLA) Two auction listings in Nov 2020 within 2 weeks here and here give pictures and: "1938 LANCHESTER 14/6 'ROADRIDER' DOCTORS COUPE by Charlesworth of Birmingham. Registration: VAS487. 1527cc straight 6 engine (four stroke) with 4-speed pre-selector gearbox. This pretty car is said to be the only surviving Doctors Coupe by Charlesworth. Built in 1938 it was laid up at the beginning of WW2 with just 8000 miles registered, where it is believed to have slumbered until the late 1970s. Later exported to Sweden where it was run by a Deputy Chief of Police for a time, it returned to the UK in 2002" "Car Location: Carmarthenshire. Understood to be only 1 of 2 Charlesworth coupes and the only survivor, 62,240 recorded miles and registered in Sweden for c.25 years, discovered in a garage in 1970 having been unused since the 1940s" -- Last edit: 2022-01-23 13:53:31
daimlere20 ◊ 2022-01-23 13:44	The engine is actually 1,809c.c. The auction house have for some reason quoted the engine capacity of a Roadrider and not a Roadrider de-Luxe.
daimlere20 ◊ 2022-01-29 19:45	I thought Charlesworth were based in Coventry?
dsl ◊ 2022-01-29 20:00	^ Seems so - same factory in Much Park Street, Coventry throughout their life 1907-48 (or thereabouts) when bought out by Lea Francis. Well if you can't trust an auctioneer to get basic facts right, who can you trust these days?!?
johnfromstaffs ◊ 2022-01-29 20:55	Definitely Coventry, they did quite a few bodies for Alvis as well, some looked better than others. The number of errors, either intentional or not, made by car auctioneers in their stories is many, for they are legion. Alvis cars bodied by Charlesworth. Speed 20. Saloon and Coupé. Crested Eagle. Saloon. 3 1/2 litre. Saloon Speed 25. Saloon and Coupé. 4.3 litre. Saloon and Coupé. 12/70. Coupé. Seemingly nothing post war. It also seems there are some differences between my book and the site below, which also suggests that Charlesworth ended up by being bought out by Lea Francis, hardly a glorious ending! https://alvisarchive.com/charlesworth/ -- Last edit: 2022-01-29 21:36:00
dsl ◊ 2022-01-30 01:45	johnfromstaffs wrote Seemingly nothing post war. It also seems there are some differences between my book and the site below, which also suggests that Charlesworth ended up by being bought out by Lea Francis, hardly a glorious ending! https://alvisarchive.com/charlesworth/ That site starts its account with "The late Nick Walker wrote in 2004…… " with the final para being "The company’s last known bodies before they moved to aircraft work in 1940 were the Daimler Dolphin saloon prototype and a Phantom III Rolls-Royce for King Farouk of Egypt (possibly a contract picked up from Hooper’s). After World War II they tried to rebuild their coachbuilding business, winning the contract for the three prototypes of the Invicta Black Prince. Unfortunately this very advanced car proved too expensive for the market in 1947 and Invicta collapsed. The next job proved to be Charlesworth’s last, a new six—light saloon from Lea-Francis, their near-neighbours in Much Park Street. Once again, this never went beyond the experimental stage, but this time the outcome was different: Lea-Francis decided they needed their own bodybuilding facilities, and obtained them by buying out Charlesworth." I've got the same para in a 2007 book by Nick Walker, but with an extra postwar sentence "There was a Humber Pullman saloon in 1946, and also some DB18 and DE27 Daimlers."
Animatronixx ◊ 2022-01-30 02:35	Just to add something that books don't mention: Reall Coachbuilders of Windsor (? working from memory) used the Charlesworth name from 1963 for their Princess funeral coaches, possibly because nobody else did it and a traditional name always insinuates quality. I have pictures of one, incl. a pic of the coachbuilders' plate, and can show these tomorrow in case of interest.
dsl ◊ 2022-01-30 02:53	^ Go for it! My 2007 Nick Walker book has an entry for R.E.A.L Carriage Works Ltd, founded before 1929 by R.E. Allman in Chiswick, West London, mainly making bus bodies, then moved a bit westwards to Ealing, and did some car bodies in 1930s across wide range of makes. After WW2, another move westwards to Slough (which is Windsor under its weekday name), with only one postwar car mentioned - a 1947 HRG - but commercial activity continuing through to the 1960s at least.
johnfromstaffs ◊ 2022-01-30 09:45	If you had read my statement correctly, “seemingly nothing post war” was applicable only to Alvis.
Animatronixx ◊ 2022-01-30 16:51	@dsl: Ah, Walker's A-Z of British Coachbuilders! Yes, it's actually the company you mentioned, even though I wasn't expecting that: Someone in the Lesser known coachbuilders group wrote (...) in 1921 when when a Mr R.E. Allman set up the R.E.A.L Carriage Works, Kew Bridge, Chiswick, London W.4 ., later moving to Popes Lane, Ealing, London W.5. After going in to voluntary liquidation in 1936 it re emerged as Reall (Coachbuilders) Ltd., 468-74, Bath Road, Cippingham, Slough, Bucks., building mainly hearses but did dabble in building some coach bodies. The firm ceased trading in 1966 after being taken over by an engineering company in Aldershot. Anyhow, here are the pictures of the 1964 Princess by Reall trying to be Charlesworth: I can do better as I have first hand material from the company about their princess hearses, but right now I have no access to all that. Once I can provide them, I will post an update (if I don't forget about it...)
dsl ◊ 2022-01-30 17:43	AnimatronixX wrote @dsl: Ah, Walker's A-Z of British Coachbuilders! Yup - that's the one - a charity shop bargain .... Looking forward to the extra info
Animatronixx ◊ 2024-07-09 20:51	dsl wrote Looking forward to the extra info @dsl: It took a while (particularly to find it, as it was misplaced in my folders), but here is the extra info and the Reall Coachbuilders advertisement I was talking about.
dsl ◊ 2024-07-10 12:50	It was worth waiting for . Now all we've got to do is find one ....

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1938 Lanchester Fourteen Roadrider De Luxe Coupé Charlesworth [LA14/2]

1938 Lanchester Fourteen Roadrider De Luxe Coupé [LA14/2] in Torsten och Greta, Mini-Series, 1983 Ep. 4

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