Lot Ended
Description
1938 Earls Court Motor Show car; extremely rare Corsica-bodied Sports
model, one of only three made; four owners, the current for 47 years; never
restored; always well-maintained and in regular use; vast history file; an
absolute gem
Like many car
companies, the Coventry firm of Lea-Francis started life making bicycles,
building their first motorcar in 1904. Throughout the
1920s they concentrated on building fine small sports cars such as the highly
successful P- and S-Type Hyper models fitted with the excellent 1.5-litre
Meadows engine. At their peak they were turning out 1,000 cars per year but
trouble was never far below the surface.
Despite
considerable competition success and a reliable and robust product range, a
desire to produce their own engine caused a financial downward spiral from which
the company could never quite recover.
Production
in the early 1930s had dwindled to barely double-figures, with no cars at all
leaving the factory in 1936. The bones of the company were then purchased by two
former Riley employees, George Leek and Hugh Rose, who rejuvenated Lea-Francis
and moved production to a new factory in Much Park Street (recently vacated by
Triumph) and announced a fresh range of models for 1938.
The all-new engine was initially available as a 12- or 14-hp
four-cylinder unit with high camshafts and short pushrods in similar vein to the
well-proven Riley design. These new cars were warmly received by press and
public alike and continued in production until 1939 when the factory was
converted to support the war effort, production resuming once the hostilities
were over.
Inspired by a one-off built for London
Lea-Francis agent Charles Follett, with a Carlton body and a tuned 13hp engine,
the 12.9hp Sports was unveiled at the Earls Court Motor Show in October 1938.
The sweeping coachwork was by Corsica of Cricklewood with two seats at the front
and room for two more on the 'mother-in-law' seat concealed in the tail.
It was powered by a four-cylinder twin high-camshaft 1,683cc engine
of the company’s own design (which in its post-war form was developed into a
Connaught Formula 2 engine). Producing around 90bhp and 120lb/ft, it was allied
to a 4-speed Standard gearbox with synchromesh on 2nd, 3rd
and top and could cruise comfortably at 60mph with another 15mph
available when required.
The car you see
here is the actual Earls Court show car (chassis no. 115) and is the first of
only three made although a single Corsica-bodied Coupe was also built. While all
three Corsica-bodied Sports still survive (the other two are in America) the
Coupe has long since disappeared.
Copies of the
build sheets show that it left the Much Park works on 22nd September 1938 destined for London. It
seems like they rushed to get it finished in time because it didn’t go undergo
the usual pre-delivery factory road testing regimen until the end of November,
well after the Motor Show.
Registered as FLX 191 in April 1939, it was first owned by the rather
splendidly named Mr HTL Loftus-Tottenham of London, who bought it from Charles
Follett Ltd of Mayfair (their plaque is still on the dash). It then had two
further owners, Mr AG Saxty and Mr BC Walker, both motor traders in the Ascot
area, before our vendor acquired it in October 1978 and he has cherished it
ever since.
It comes with a vast file
of documents which will take the next owner many happy hours to digest and
we won’t even scratch the surface of its long history here. Suffice to say that
it has never been restored as such, just kept in tip-top running order, although
it did have a £35 respray in 1963, followed by another rather more expensive one
in 2002 when the bodywork was also sympathetically repaired.
An aeronautical engineer by profession, the owner has largely
maintained the car himself, with expert assistance by Barrie Price of
Lea-Francis Cars when required, with many dozens of invoices on file for upkeep.
Always in regular use, the owner reports that: “Despite the aluminium alloy body
panels it weighs 1 ton 4 cwt (1,240kg). Nevertheless, the highly efficient
engine makes it go quite well and it has been extensively rallied in VSCC events
with some success”. He tells us that 60mph is a comfortable cruising speed and
it will do 80mph if pushed.
The car's
original engine (no. 51A) had been scrapped in the early 1960s due to frost
damage, so when our vendor acquired the car it had already been fitted with a
post-war 14hp Sports engine. As he wished to use the car competitively on VSCC
events, this had to be replaced with a pre-war engine to meet the regulations in
force at the time. The VSCC later relaxed this eligibility requirement so it was
subsequently fitted with another post-war 1,767cc Lea Francis 14hp Sports engine
(no. 4699) which is still in the car today, along with a lightened flywheel
and a few other performance enhancements (the V5C still records the original
engine number and 1,628cc capacity which is
incorrect).
It originally had Andre
Telecontrol friction shock absorbers but these proved too harsh for a car like
this so the owner long ago replaced them with a set of hydro-mechanical dampers
like those fitted to Lea-Francis saloons and DHCs of the time. The Andre
pressure gauges and adjusters on the dashboard to the right of the steering
wheel were left in place for cosmetic reasons, as were the under-bonnet
reservoirs.
As with so many gentlemen of his
generation, our vendor has kept a detailed log of every drop of fuel put into
the car and every journey made in it (including several tours of the Continent),
from the day he bought it until June 2022 when the book runs out of pages,
shortly after which he gave up driving.
He has
also amassed a vast amount of literature over the years and we could have spent
all day photographing the wonderful assortment of period brochures, engineering
drawings, blueprints, dyno sheets, press cuttings, correspondence and historic
invoices that come with this car – they are museum pieces in their own right and
we have reproduced just a fraction of them here.
Somewhat confusingly,
there are also copies of the build sheets for one of the other two
Corsica-bodied cars made (chassis 129) and a VIN plate for another
pre-war LeaF (chassis 75) that donated its engine to this car before being
replaced by the post-war engine currently fitted. By a bizarre coincidence, this
pre-war engine was formerly in the other LeaF elsewhere in this sale (Lot 18).
There is even an old MOT issued in July 1961,
the year this test was first introduced on a compulsory basis, something we have
only ever seen a couple of times before in the 20 years we have been hosting
these sales. The vendor has also amassed a large quantity of spares over the
years (including some Blydenstein Racing cams) which will be made available
to the winning bidder if desired, although these will need to be collected from
the Hertfordshire area.
Very little used in the
last few years due to our vendor’s advancing years (it would be rude to say how
old he is, but he was born before this car was made), this exceedingly rare and
handsome LeaF has been starting promptly and running well as we have driven it
around on site, with healthy 40psi oil pressure.
It seems
tawdry to put a monetary value on a car like this, but this is an auction after
all, so we have given it what we consider to be a sensible estimate. We have
sold half-a-dozen post-war Lea-Francis Sports (14hp and 2.5-litre) in
the last 10 years or so and they usually make £30k+ but this pre-war
Corsica is in a different league for rarity and provenance. .
We only hope that it goes to an appreciative new
owner who will continue to cherish and preserve it, as our vendor has these last
five decades.
PS: It may interest bidders to note that on 3rd Aug we
were contacted by a Northumberland gent who formerly owned one of the other two
Corsica Sports models for many years (chassis no. 129 - now in
America). He still has a quantity of spares for that car, including a
set of wire wheels in good condition, which he would be happy to sell to
the next owner of this car.
Consigned by James Dennison – 07970 309907 – james.dennison@brightwells.com