Lanchester Motor Company
Lanchester Motor Company Logo
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| Private | |
| Industry | Automotive |
| Fate | purchased by BSA group 1930 |
| Successor | The Daimler Company Limited |
| Founded | (business) Birmingham 1899 |
| Founder |
Frederick Lanchester George Lanchester Frank Lanchester |
| Defunct | dormant since 1955 but currently listed as 'active' |
| Headquarters | (to 1930) Armourer Mills Birmingham, England |
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Number of locations
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(to 1930) Works: Armourer Mills Sparkbrook Birmingham Showrooms: 88 Deansgate Manchester 95 New Bond Street London |
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Key people
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(to 1930) Founders Trevor Hamilton Barnsley Whitfield brothers Pugh brothers J S Taylor |
| Products | Motor vehicles |
| Parent | (after 1930) The Daimler Company Limited |
| Owner | Tata Group through Jaguar Land Rover |
|---|---|
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Discontinued | 1955 but company still exists |
| Markets | Automotive |
| Previous owners | Lanchester (1895–1930) BSA Group (1930–60) Jaguar Cars (1960–66) British Motor Corporation (1966) British Motor Holdings (1966–68) British Leyland (1968–84) Jaguar Cars (1984–89) Ford (1989–2007) |
The Lanchester Motor Company Limited was a car manufacturer located until early 1931 at Armourer Mills, Montgomery Street, Sparkbrook, Birmingham, and afterwards at Sandy Lane, Coventry England.
Lanchester was purchased by the BSA Group at the end of 1930, after which its cars were made by Daimler on Daimler's Coventry sites. So, with Daimler, Lanchester became part of Jaguar Cars in 1960. The rights to the Lanchester brand now belong to Tata Motors of India, though Lanchester has been dormant since the last Lanchester rolled off the line in 1955. The Lanchester Motor Company Limited is still registered as an active company and accounts are filed each year, although as of 2014 it is marked as "non-trading".
This business was begun by the three Lanchester brothers, Frederick, one of the most influential automobile engineers of the 19th and 20th centuries, George and Frank who together incorporated The Lanchester Engine Company Limited in December 1899 retaining the financial support they had previously received from the two brothers, Charles Vernon Pugh and John Pugh of Rudge-Whitworth. Others who took directorships included the Whitfield brothers, J. S. Taylor and Hamilton Barnsley – a master builder who sold the business to BSA-Daimler in 1931.
Work on the first Lanchester car had been started in 1895, significantly designed from first principles as a car, not a horseless carriage, and it ran on the public roads in February or March 1896. It had a single-cylinder 1306 cc engine with the piston having two connecting rods to separate crankshafts and flywheels rotating in opposite directions giving very smooth running. A two-cylinder engine was fitted to the same chassis in 1897 and a second complete car was built alongside it. This led on to the first production cars in 1900, when six were made as demonstrators. These had two-cylinder, 4033 cc, horizontal air-cooled engines, retaining the twin crankshaft design. Steering was by side lever not wheel. The gearbox used epicyclic gearing. The first cars were sold to the public in 1901. In 1902 Lanchester became the first company to market disc brakes to the public. They were mechanical and on the front wheels only. The discs were very thin and made of a very soft metal like brass. Although probably leaving much to be desired, they completely fit the definition of a disc brake, and beat all others to market by many years.
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Wikipedia