Britons are a conservative people. And what happens when such people get caught fire? Then you have problems. Not only the Germans noticed this when they wanted to annex the island. The Aston Martin Lagonda is the result of such a situation.
A prestige object for the rich and famous
The Aston Martin Lagonda is a full-size luxury four-door sedan produced between 1974 and 1990 by the British car manufacturer Aston Martin. A total of 645 were made. In sixteen years… The name is derived from the Lagonda brand that Aston Martin bought in 1947. There are two different generations, the 1974 original based on an extended Aston Martin V8, and the completely redesigned wedge-shaped Series 2 model introduced in 1976 along with subsequent evolution models.
The lifesaver
In the history of every high-end Italian and British car maker, we find a similarity that the various companies were at different times in various stages of an impending financial ruin. At Aston Martin it was that time again in the mid-2s. A strict attack strategy was chosen: "We are going to do something completely new!" Instead of the traditional 2 + 8 approach, Aston Martin bravely went for the full sized approach. And not only the idea was different. The Aston Martin Lagonda also looked very different from the traditional Aston Martins. Instead of the characteristic smooth curved lines, the Lagonda had sharp, angular shapes like a very large piece of origami folding. We also see that line pattern with the Lamborghini Countach, the Lotus Esprit and the DeLorean. Under the hood was a thirsty Chrysler V5300 with four Webers with 290 cc, 7 hp, later a 8 liter VXNUMX based on Aston Martin's own block and behind it a Chrysler TorqueFlite automatic transmission. And only the average oil heik could laugh about the fuel consumption.
For the rest it was all wood, luxury and leather
Plus that phenomenally revolutionary digital dashboard. Its development cost four times as much as the budget for the entire Aston Martin Lagonda. But then you also had something. A constant source of worry and misery. From a magazine back then: "The dashboard would be great if it worked."
That dashboard was the USP, the unique selling point
And just like was just as wrong an estimate as Operation Overlord. The idea was good. But the circumstances are not. The time and technology were not yet ripe for it. Just as for the touch controls and the multilingual speech computer. Because where now every muddy car is equipped with a mega display and is marketed as 'The ideal platform for your smartphone', the dashboard of the Lagonda was best comparable to the complexity of the Enigma machine. Only such an Enigma machine worked well.
All's well that ends well
Ultimately, most of those dashboards got to work because technology in that area evolved so quickly, and there are even people who have converted their Lagonda into ordinary 'old-fashioned' old-fashioned clocks and buttons. So now a Lagonda can be better than ever. At least if, like our fashion model that we at Gallery Aaldering, he comes from a warm dry land without rain and brine. Because the bodywork, which was a combination of steel and aluminum, reacted rather nastily to moisture.
More stories about Aston Martin through this link
Also interesting to read:
- The Aston Martin Lagonda: If the British do something wild for once
- The Aston Martin DB7: the unintended Aston budget
- Aston Martin Lagonda: as brittle as it is brilliant
Really still a very beautiful automobile!