Model Review – 1935 Lagonda Rapide
by Richard Loveys
Starter model of the Le Mans winner.
T
he 1935 Le Mans 24-hour race had 58 cars entered, and 37 of them were British – mainly in the smaller engined classes. There were nine Singers and seven each for Aston Martin and MG. Two of the cars were 4½-litre Lagonda Rapides, which The Motor’s race report, in the issue dated 18th June, noted were painted red. Due to an extraordinary mistake the Alfa Romeo team was informed with 20 minutes left that it was in the lead and slowed its car after it overtook the Lagonda of John Hindmarsh and Luis Fondes; unfortunately this was not the case and the Lagonda was still nearly a lap ahead and went on to win the race. The other Lagonda finished in 13th place. The subject of this model review is the winning Lagonda which was built from a Starter kit that was one of its series of Le Mans-winning cars. The kit was bought in 2000 for £30.55, it appears that neither the kits nor the factory-built models are still in production. You might be lucky and find one with a specialist model dealer or for sale on Ebay. Several pictures of the car have appeared in various publications and these were helpful in showing some of the details necessary to make the model.
The main components in the kit were made
from well-moulded resin that did not need too much work before being ready to paint. Some moulding ‘flash’ was removed and the toe-board was tidied up a little. Pedals and the handbrake lever were made from scrap material and fitted along with the gear lever supplied in the kit. The transfers for the instrument panel and racing numbers were excellent. It was difficult to fit the one-piece exhaust pipe and silencer assembly as the rear portion fouled a rear spring. The offending portion was sawn off and replaced with a piece of metal tube bent
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Packaging of the kit.
slightly to shape. The four cycle wings on the car were attached to the body with stays, these were included in the kit in the form of copper wire and accurately-made photo-etched sheet metal strips which needed to be bent into shape; they all fitted neatly into the holes provided. The wheels were well-made with photo-etched
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