3rd July 2019
Although Fred was not really interested in racing, the powerful 40 h.p. chassis of the 1920s led several individuals to use the cars for records attempts, especially at the iconic Brooklands racing circuit.
Cars with a large 6.2 litre engine, streamlined, lightweight bodywork and names like ‘Hoieh-Wayaryah-Gointoo’, ‘Softly-Catch-Monkey’ and ‘Winni-Prap-Praps’ (because of the noise its engine made) were high profile celebrities of the time, racing against the likes of Malcolm Campbell.
Just 30 years after the first ever cars were produced, these amazing machines were able to average around 100mph over many hundreds of miles, testing components like high-speed tyres to their limits.
Frederick Lanchester’s legacy is worldwide. Learn more about our archive, how the Indian Maharajas favoured the Lanchester cars over Rolls Royce & how the Peaky Blinders series took inspiration from the influential members of the Lanchester family. Coventry University’s Lanchester […]
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Today we celebrate the 153rd birthday of the engineer, scientist, inventor, author, poet and possibly the first ‘ingeniator’ – Fred Lanchester. On October 23rd 1868, in Lewisham Octavia and Henry welcomed Fred Lanchester into the world and alongside his brothers […]
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NASA’s Perseverance rover, having survived its own hair-raising landing on Mars, has released a unique machine that is set to become the first vehicle to undertake powered flight on another planet. The Ingenuity helicopter didn’t have far to travel (about […]
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