The sight of a Lanchester car in Australia is about as common a winning Lotto ticket. Yet, there it was, a 1932 Lanchester golf coupe sitting there among the Jaguars at the All British Car Day held in Brisbane. It is magnificent, the body finished in brown and the mudguards, roof and wheels in a matching cream.

It is owned by Trevor Johnsson who points out the body is all-Australian, built by well known Melbourne coach builders, Martin and King, of High Street, Malvern. For a 1932 model the body is advanced, showing signs of streamlining and aesthetic appeal ahead of it's time. Yet there are still some hangovers from the past. The massive headlamps are still add-ons and not integrated into the mudguards and the grill is still a large vertical opening topped off by a signature bonnet emblem, just above the `Lanchester' name.

Lanchester is now an obscure brand lost in time. Yet, like many other makers, it has a fascinating story. It was no doubt one of the earliest, if not the first British brand. It started operations in 1895 based at Armourer Mills, Montgomery Street, Birmingham. There were three Lanchester brothers, Frederick playing the most significant role as an influential engineer, and George and Frank Lanchester. Unlike many other vehicles of this period, the first Lanchester was designed from the ground up an as an automobile, not as a horseless carriage powered by an engine.

By 1901 Lanchester had built several cars and these were offered for sale. The bodies were constructed by outside coachbuilders until around 1903 when Lanchester started it's own in-house coachbuilding department. A year later the company was in turmoil and did not have enough money to keep trading and receivers were brought in. This resulted in a new entity, Lanchester Motor Company being formed and needless to say a major re-organisation.

For some years the company produced four and six cylinder engines. Frederick resigned in 1913 and during WW1, the company moved into war production building armoured cars, artillery shells and aircraft engines. After the war George Lanchester took over design and engines included a 6.2 litre overhead cam unit, a 3.1 litres six, a 3.3 litre six and a 4.4 litre straight eight in 1928.

Like many other car manufacturers, the Great Depression spelt disaster and by 1931 bankers called in Lanchester's overdraft of $76,000. This forced a merger with British Daimler, owned by BSA, and George was retained as senior designer and Frank as sales director. In most mergers there is a pecking order and Lanchester was to play second fiddle to Daimler as the cheaper brand. The first vehicle to emerge after the merger was the Lanchester 15/18, powered by a 2.5 litre, six cylinder over head valve engine.

In rolling chassis for this is the basis for our featured Lanchester golf coupe. It was probably brought to Australia as a chassis and engine with Martin and King designing and fitting the coachwork to a buyers needs. The car was fitted with hydraulic brakes and a Daimler fluid flywheel. There were only about 2660 Lanchester 18s built between 1932-39 with two further six cylinder engine variants. Further Lanchester models were rolled out up to and after WW2, but production numbers were limited, ensuring the brand was on limited time. The final car was called the Lanchester Sprite of which 10 were built, but did not reach production stage. This was 1956 and the Lanchester name, like so many others, simply faded away. In 1960 Daimler was also in decline and was taken in by Jaguar. There is some irony that Jaguar used the Daimler name in the same way Daimler used Lanchester. Badge engineering is where a company produces one car but re-badges the car under the name of another marque. Jaguar did this with Daimler as Daimler had done with Lanchester in the late 1930s and late 1940's.