Lagonda had been making luxury motor cars long before David Brown appended the marque to his newly acquired Aston Martin business shortly after WWII.

It was founded in 1906 in Staines, Middlesex by an expat American from Springfield, Ohio who named the company “Lagonda” after the indigenous settlement in his home town.

In 1925, Lagonda launched the first of its sports touring models, the 14/60 (14 referring to the fiscal or taxable horsepower and 60 to the brake horsepower).

It had a four-cylinder, twin-cam, two-litre (1,954cc) engine with hemispherical combustion chambers.

Two years later, the 2 Litre Speed model was introduced with a higher output engine, having raised the compression ratio to develop 70 bhp and, with a lighter body, to reach 80 mph.

Already modified from the 14/60 to mount the engine further back, the chassis received another modification in 1929 to better suit long distance sports car races.

This Le Mans-derived model became known as the “low-chassis” version...