Lanchester Day 1984
Lanchester Day 1984 was organised by the “Lanchester Register” section of the Daimler and Lanchester Owners Club. It was held at the Coventry Lanchester Polytechnic on Sunday, April 29th. A glorious day saw Mrs George Lanchester, Mrs Marjorie Bingeman (Frank Lanchester’s daughter), and many other members of the Lanchester family enjoying the fine selection of cars present.
The beautiful collection of Veteran Lanchesters opened the secrets to the Lanchester worm transmission, crankshaft damper, wick carburetter, tiller steering etc, and the equally original Lanchester coachwork styles which include the tonneau, open coupe, topedo tourer and limousine.
The Vintage line-up also had examples of every model produced, as magnificent as ever. An unusual show-stopper here was the massive 1929 Lanchester 40 hp armoured car from Dorset. An equally unique car was a petrol-electric cycle car, produced in the 20s as a private venture between Dr Fred and George.
With the rally supplemented by Lanchesters built from 1931 onwards and Daimlers from 1895, the reserved area was an impressive sight.
An alternative attraction was the indoor exhibition, organised by the Polytechnic staff. This comprehensive set-up showed the many facets of Lanchesters’ original designs and inventions, covering pioneer aircraft and car development, mathematics, optics, science, warfare strategy, poetry, model-making etc. etc.
Mrs George Lanchester unveiled a stone plaque to christen the Polytechnic’s “Lanchester Library”, which houses many Lanchester documents and details. After lunch, escorted admirably by the Police, the cars snaked through Coventry on a road-run, led by a 1910 28 hp limousine carrying Mrs George. All returned to a concours prize-giving, before Mrs George mentioned that she had not driven a Lanchester since 1924! Making Photographers run for their lives, she roared down “the straight” in a Veteran Lanchester, swinging it round just short of a brick wall, and coolly returned to the “pits”. She and everyone else had a great day. C. CLARKE