Lagonda Rapiers

4 minute(s) of a 484 minute read

One of the things that made the Pre-select gearboxes so popular with English and European, Racing and Sportscar drivers was the ability to make virtually instant gear changes either up or down without lifting your foot off the accelerator pedal.

10-20-2018

The other thing that may take a little while to understand is the actual selection action of the cam and the strut together with the busbar.
That and what that huge "spring" is for?
Without having a gearbox on your work bench this can be difficult to follow the inter-conection between the three or four counting the Spring......
You have to remember Major Wilson devised all this in about 1914 so that totally unskilled Army recruits most of whom had never been in any form of mechanical transport, could get in and drive a tank with a minimum of training.
Re:- ENV, This refers to the gear cutting background to the originaly French Company and to the original skill of their machinists in cutting double helical gears such as those favoured by Citroen. These are the basis of the French car manufacturer's Double Chevron well known but rarely understood "Trade-mark".
Bj.
Hands up all those who knew where and how the famous Citroen "badge" came into being. Of course anyone who has dismantled an early 5CV rear axle will recognise this at once.
Who can tell us WHY?
Next question :- What does the "CV" stand for?

10-23-2018

The following is my earlier reply to SebastianBuick on the French Car part of this Forum. One or two of you may find it interesting?
 
Hello Sebastien
Thank you for your ongoing interest in our activities. Our plan follows that for our earlier trips. We will fly from Melbourne (Australia) to Paris (France) where we will spend a week soaking up the atmosphere. From there we will catch the train under the "chunnel" to London. From London we will either take a Train or Taxi to Bury St Edmunds  in Suffolk where we can collect the Lagonda Rapier from Cars Uk depot. David Brown at "Cars" will have done all the Paperwork to land the car in England. We have a number of friends living in Suffolk,  so we will spend a few days catching up with them before driving down to one of the Car-ferry ports to take a boat with the Lagonda to Guernsey, where we will spend a few days exploring the Island. Previously we have gone to Jersey the other main "Channel Island". From there we will take another Car-ferry to France. Once in France, Helen takes command. Our first activity will be the Fougeres Rally organised by out friend Patrick Rollet. This is a long weekend (4 day) event based in Normandy and sometimes the northern part of Brittany. After Fougeres our next event will be another Rallybased at Cadillac just south of Bordeaux. This is another weekend event exploring the wine country south east of Bordeaux. From there we will have the whole of France to explore. I am sure that Helen already has some plans and as she is the Navigator I go where she directs me. We are right now in the planing stage but we tend to go where the Lagonda takes us provided we end up at the coast somewhere we can take another Car-ferry back to England. We still have lots of friends to see and perhaps a VSCC event, most likely Prescott Hill Climb which gives a chance to say "Helllo" to a lot of "Old-car" acquaintances. By then our three months will have simply disappeared and it will be time to take the Lagonda back to "Cars" to be packed into a container for its voyage back to Australia. The only thing left is to make our way back to Heathrow to take another long plane ride back home to Melbourne Australia.
This follows almost exactly what we have done on each of our earlier, five yearly, holidays. The sadest part will be saying good-bye to all our English friends as it is unlikely that we will ever do another of these wonderful holidays. The final part is the six to eight weeks wait for the Lagonda to arrive home again. I will have given it one "service" while we are away and it will certainly be due for another by the time it is back in Australia.