Lanchester Model History

United Kingdom · founded 1899

Pioneering British luxury marque (1899–1955) — an engineering trailblazer credited with the first marketed disc brakes, later absorbed into BSA/Daimler.

Models

Ten

Lanchester's first production car — a clean-sheet, twin-cylinder design that ignored horse-carriage convention.

Tonneau / phaeton · 1900–1905
Twenty

Lanchester's first four-cylinder car — an overhead-valve Edwardian tourer for the carriage trade.

Touring car · 1904–1911
Thirty-Eight

A large pre-WWI six-cylinder Lanchester — the firm's flagship until the First World War halted civilian production.

Luxury car · 1910–1914
Forty

Lanchester's post-WWI flagship — a 6.2-litre overhead-cam six built to rival Rolls-Royce, owned by royalty and maharajas.

Luxury car · 1919–1929
Twenty-One

A smaller overhead-cam six positioned below the Forty — a lighter, owner-driver Lanchester of the mid-1920s.

Luxury car · 1923–1926
Thirty

Lanchester's only straight-eight — a 4.4-litre overhead-cam flagship and the last car of the independent company.

Luxury car · 1929–1932
Eighteen

The first BSA-era Lanchester — a 2.5-litre six derived from the Daimler Light Twenty, with fluid flywheel and hydraulic brakes.

Luxury car · 1932–1940
Ten

The smallest and best-selling Lanchester ever — a 1.2-litre saloon sharing its chassis with the BSA Ten.

Compact car · 1932–1936
Light Six

A small six-cylinder Lanchester built by Daimler — a smoother, upmarket sibling to the four-cylinder Ten.

Compact car · 1935–1936
Fourteen Roadrider

A late-1930s six-cylinder saloon, near-identical to the Daimler New Fifteen, ended by the Second World War.

Saloon · 1937–1940
Ten (LD10)

Lanchester's post-war small saloon — a 1.3-litre four built by Daimler, with bodies by Briggs and later Barker.

Saloon · 1946–1951
Fourteen / Leda

A 2-litre post-war saloon (the Leda being the export version) — among the last Lanchesters before the marque was retired.

Saloon · 1950–1954

Other makes