Lagonda V12 Le Mans Works Team Car

This Lagonda V12 is the class winner at Le Mans in 1939.

"I want to take the V12 to Le Mans next year." Those are more or less the words of Lagonda boss Alan Good as he storms into the office of his technical director Walter Owen Bentley around Christmas 1938. Bentley then has six months to build a racing car around Lagonda's new twelve‑cylinder engine. He snaps back: "Winning is impossible. We are going to try to finish the race, and we will win the year after that." Bentley modifies the V12 and raises the original 180 hp to 206. He saves weight by using lighter steel and by drilling holes in the chassis rails, which are covered with aluminum plates. Because of its starting number, the car gets the nickname "Old Number 5". Arthur Dobson and Charles Brackenbury form the driver team. Dobson gets off to a good start but is put in his place by the French Bugattis and Delages. Around four oclock in the morning the Lagonda is running in sixth, but then moves up to third place behind the Delage of Gerard/Monneret and the Bugatti of Wimille/Veyron, holding that position to the finish. A sister car in private hands finishes fourth. "Old Number 5" does win its class. The car completed 239 laps, a distance of 3,200 kilometers, achieved an average of 133 km/h, and was officially clocked on the Mulsanne Straight at a speed of 223 km/h. After the war the cars were sold to Charles Brackenbury. The car then passed through several more owners before it was acquired by the Louwman Museum.