Het wereldwijde magazine en verkoopplatform voor liefhebbers van klassieke auto’s, door liefhebbers.
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A LeaF for the Works
We rarely see a Lea-Francis up for sale but when one does, we sit up and take notice. This one will be auctioned by Historics on September 1st at their Brooklands sale. So maybe it's no coincidence that this Lea Francis (or LeaF as they are often affectionately referred to) also has a bit of Brooklands history. It's the first open Sports model produced by Lea-Francis after the company was reformed in 1937 and was supplied to the company's agent, Charles Follett, who had a two-seater body with dickey made by the Carlton Carriage Co. In August 1938, Follett raced the LeaF at Brooklands winning the 'The Second August Long Handicap Race'. After the race the LeaF remained as a 'works' car registered to the company until 1940 although it was never raced officially by them. Regularly maintained after the war the Lea-Francis is still in essentially 'un-restored', original condition and showing a few nicks and dents. To us this looks perfectly acceptable, but if you are out for for a possible next year's Pebble Beach candidate, you could consider this concours winning 1911 Rippon-bodied Rolls Royce Silver Ghost, also offered by Historics on September 1st. Hmmm, not bad either.
Gepubliceerd:
woensdag augustus 22nd, 2012
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Reacties
Onbekend
23 Augustus 2012, 07:07
Onbekend
23 Augustus 2012, 02:56
I find this report interesting because for nearly 20 years I owned a 1936 Derby Bentley that had originally been supplied through Charles Follett. His company specialized in commissioning rather stylish coachwork and my Bentley had a special Park Ward 'streamlined' saloon body- one of only three made. The Carlton Carriage company had a fine reputation of making open coupe bodies like the one on this Lea Francis. I currently have a 1934 model Talbot and the that company's brochure illustrates two hansom Carlton- made open coupes that were promoted by them as 'special coachwork'. Unfortunately the old Talbot company was soon to go out of businesss and Mr Follett would not have made a living selling Lea Francis cars in tiny numbers: his largest contract was with Alvis- another quality car company, but a thriving one in the 1930's.
Lees verder
As Rolph Cook wrote, Charles Follett wouldn't have made much money selling Lea-Francis cars pre-war but post-war he was the London sales and service agent, still maintaining our cars after LeaFs had stopped making them in 1953.