Lagonda Rapiers

3 minute(s) of a 484 minute read

I will now have just over 1 month to wait for my re-lined (Asbestos Free) bands to return from the UK. Only then can I start to re-assemble this, the wide ratio, gearbox.
Tomorrow morning we start the VSCC (4 Day) Alpine Rally. Some proper motoring in a proper car.  
 
Meanwhile I have to be extra careful only to mention "British" cars here.
Yes! For those who do not know and probably will never see one, the LAGONDA is a British car!
Yes! Having started in 1898 they are STILL in production!

11-7-2018

Meanwhile we have just returned home at the end of the VSCC Alpine trial. This FIVE day event covered some 2,000 Miles. Of these about a third was over gravel roads and some extreme mountain country.  Attached are just three of the half dozen maps that we used. The thing about maps of Australia is that where there is nothing shown is because there is nothing there. In total we would have covered almost 2,000 miles we would have used some 70+ Imperial Gallons of 98 octane petrol.Filling up each morning and topping up through the day if & when there was the opportunity. Very few, if any, of the place names shown on the route would have had a petrol station. Remarkably I did not have to add any oil to the Rapiers (2 gallon) sump. Topping up the radiator took about 1/4 to 1/2 pint of water filling it to the top. Most of this would have gone out the overflow as the motor warmed up. The Lagonda Rapier would have averaged between 20 and 24 MPG.  Sometimes we did not get out of 3rd Gear  for miles.
Our route is hi-lighted in orange. I do not have any photographs on my camera and I will have to wait before I will have any from Helen's I-Pad.
She was kept busy navigating. While there are not all that many roads shown on the map, sometimes the difficulty is working out which track through the bush is actually the road. Some of these tracks finish in a logging camp, at other times they just finish.  There were 34 cars entered of these 30 started and 30 finished. The smallest car was the MG L type and our Lagonda Rapier was next smallest.  Shown as an entry, the Land Rover towed a tandem axle trailer as the recovery vehicle. It was not required! In places the road was only wide enough for one car. in other places there were up to 100 ft drops off the side of the road with no guard rail or edge marking.