Lagonda M45 / M45R Rapide History

Introduced at the 1933 Olympia Motor Show, the M45 used a 4,467 cc six-cylinder Meadows engine capable of pushing the open tourer close to 100 mph — a genuine performance claim for a British road car of the era. Fox & Nicholl, Lagonda's competition agents, prepared short-chassis cars for the 1934 RAC Tourist Trophy, finishing fourth, fifth, and eighth.

The competition derivative M45R Rapide scored a celebrated if controversial outright victory at the 1935 24 Hours of Le Mans, driven by John Hindmarsh and Luis Fontes — the only Le Mans outright win in Lagonda's history. The win came just as the company's finances collapsed; the receiver was called in that same year, the firm was bought by Alan P. Good (who outbid Rolls-Royce), and he brought in W. O. Bentley as chief designer.

Approximately 53 M45R Rapides were built. The M45 itself ran from 1933 through 1936 in regular production, with the Rapide variant closely associated with the 1934–35 period.