Lanchester 40 hp

The Lanchester 40 hp was a luxury passenger car built by the British Lanchester Motor Company from 1919 to 1929. After the First World War Lanchester adopted a one-model policy, and George Lanchester designed a large car meant to rival the best of its day. Its chassis kept pre-war roots, with rigid axles on leaf springs and brakes on the rear wheels only until four-wheel brakes with a hydraulic servo driven from the gearbox arrived in 1924. The six-cylinder engine drew on wartime aero-engine practice, with a block cast in two halves of three cylinders, a fixed head, an overhead camshaft and dual magneto and battery ignition. Most cars carried aluminium bodies built by Lanchester, and in 1929 an eight-cylinder car replaced the model.