In single-family ownership for 50+ years; restored in the mid-1970s and has covered 28k miles since; veteran of many Continental tours; just recommissioned following five years in storage; a rare top quality motorcar that runs very nicelyGenius is a much over-used word but the Lanchester brothers displayed it in spades.

Prolifically inventive, George and Frederick filed hundreds of patents between them as they designed and constructed from scratch all the components needed to build Britain’s first ever petrol-powered four-seat passenger car, a feat they achieved in 1895.Over the next 30 years they pioneered innumerable features that we now take for granted including turbochargers; fuel injection; disc brakes; epicyclic gearing; detachable wire wheels; stamped steel pistons; piston rings; hollow con rods; the torsional vibration damper and the harmonic balancer.

Indeed, Autocar once wrote that of the 36 primary features in modern motorcars, Frederick alone was responsible for 18 of th...