Crystal Palace Automobile Show, January 1903

The Lanchester Motor-Car Company show a number of handsome vehicles. The design here is novel throughout, or, rather, it differs from other designs, as the Lanchester car was one of the first English cars to be made. The engine is horizontal and is balanced in a most ingenious manner, the change speed gear is by epicyclic trains controlled by band brakes, the electric sparking is most ingeniously contrived, and the suspension is also of special type. To describe the mechanism of these cars would, however, be impossible without elaborate diagrams. They are notable for their easy running and absence of vibration.^[7]

All bodies were made by external coachbuilders until 1903 when a body department was set up, until 1914 most cars had Lanchester built bodies.^[5] In 1904, despite a full order book, the business ran out of money and The Lanchester Engine Company Limited was put into voluntary liquidation. After a period of management by a receiver the business was re-organised re-capitalized and incorporated as The Lanchester Motor Company Limited later that year.^[5]

The 1904 models had a 2470 cc, four-cylinder, water-cooled, overhead-valve engines featuring pressure lubrication, very unusual at the time, and were now mounted with the epicyclic gearbox between the front seats rather than centrally, resulting in a design with the driver sitting well forwards and without a bonnet. Six-cylinder models joined the line-up in 1906. The specification started to become more conventional with wheel steering as an option from 1908, becoming standard from the end of 1911,^[5] pedals and a gear lever replaced the original two-lever system of gear changing. George Lanchester was now in charge, Frederick having resigned in 1913. The engine was moved further forward to a conventional position in the sporting Forty, with a side-valve, 5.5-litre six-cylinder engine, but very few were made before the outbreak of World War I. A distinctive feature of the engine's valves was their use of leaf springs, rather than coil springs.^[8] Frank Lanchester ran the London sales office.

• Before 1914
• 1895
• 1899
• 1901 12 h.p
• 1903 12 h.p
• 1910 28 h.p
• 1912
• 1913 38 h.p
• 1914 40 h.p
• 1914

War

During World War I the company made artillery shells and some aircraft engines but some vehicle production continued with the Lanchester armoured cars built on the Lanchester 38 hp^[3] chassis for use by the Royal Naval Air Service on the Western Front.

Postwar

After the first World war the company adopted a single model policy and the Forty was re-introduced with a 6.2-litre overhead-cam engine in unit with a 3-speed gearbox still using epicyclic gears and a worm drive rear axle. It was very expensive, dearer than a Rolls-Royce Silver Ghost and to maintain production a smaller car, the Twenty One joined the range in 1924. This had a 3.1-litre, six-cylinder engine, with removable cylinder head, mated to a four-speed conventional gearbox and four-wheel brakes. It grew to the 3.3-litre Twenty Three in 1926. The Forty was finally replaced by the Thirty with straight-eight 4.4-litre engine in 1928. A further series of armoured cars was made in 1927, using a six-wheeled version of the Forty chassis.

For 1928 there was George's last design, a 4446 cc straight-8; only 126 were made before the economic depression effectively killed demand.^[9]

Olympia 1930

Twelve months after the Wall Street Crash these were the cars shown by Lanchester on their stand at the Olympia Motor Show in October 1930:^[10]

• 21 hp^[3] 6-cylinder landaulette by Maythorn, £1,775, chassis only £1,050
• 31 hp 8-cylinder limousine by Hooper, £2,300, chassis only £1,325
• 31 hp 8-cylinder 6/7-seater coupé de ville by Windovers £2,435

The engines were 3,330 and 4,440 cc respectively, with a wheelbase and track of:

• 6-cylinder: 11 ft 1 in (3.38 m) and 4 ft 8 in (1.42 m)
• 8-cylinder: 11 ft 10.5 in (3.620 m) and 4 ft 8 in (1.42 m)

• Conventional 1920s shapes before the sale to BSA Group
• 23 hp
• 30 hp