Rare Rides has featured a couple of fine Lagonda sedans previously. First was the 1980s rectangle designed by William Towns, which miraculously remained in production from 1976 to 1990. Next was the Lagonda Taraf, a super sedan intended only for the oil-flush UAE market.
Today we bring you the genesis of the Aston Martin Lagonda sedan line, the Rapide.
The Rapide was developed during David Brown’s ownership of Aston Martin. If you recall, Brown also saw the development of the Rover Metro into the luxury Aston Martin Frazer Tickford Metro. In the early Sixties, Mr. Brown owned Aston Martin and the deceased Lagonda brand. Though he purchased the Lagonda marque in 1948, Lagonda had faded away in 1958. The company made a very small number of coupes post-WWII, with Aston Martin engines.
The Rapide was a luxurious, V12-engined car at Lagonda in the Thirties, and Mr. Brown decided it was that name which should revive Lagonda. Design work was handed off to Carrozzeria Touring, the sedan based on the contemporary DB4 coupe. Though it shared a basis, the sedan’s 196-inch length was considerably longer than the 177 inches of the DB4. Touring applied a split grille design with three sections to the Rapide, and quad headlamps additionally separated Lagonda from Aston Martin’s corporate styling. It took three years to develop the Rapide, and the large sedan entered production in 1961.
An early super sedan, Rapide used an enlarged straight-six of 4.0-liters that was notably more potent than the 3.6 found in the DB4. Featuring dual overhead cams, the 4.0 would later see use in the DB5 and produced 236 horses in Rapide implementation. That made for a very quick-for-1961 run to 60 of 8.9 seconds. The Rapide debuted other features used in the later DB5: a de Dion rear suspension, and a body composed of a magnesium-aluminum alloy. Most Rapides were automatic and routed their power through a three-speed Borg-Warner unit, though a select few were ordered with a four-speed manual.
Extremely expensive, the Rapide was around £5,000 when it was new. That figure was 25 percent higher than a DB4, and twice the price of a Jaguar MKX or E-Type. Between 1961 and 1964, just 55 examples were produced. Aston Martin would not make another sedan until the Lagonda of 1974 mentioned above. And that was well after the conclusion of David Brown’s Aston/Lagonda ownership.
Today’s red over tan Rare Ride is presently at auction and ends bidding tomorrow. Current ask is £70,000 and it isn’t at its reserve. Probably not even close.
" data-medium-file="http://theautomotivearchaeologist.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/rare-rides-the-1959-goggomobil-dart-tiny-roadster-sans-doors-3.png" data-large-file="http://theautomotivearchaeologist.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/rare-rides-the-1959-goggomobil-dart-tiny-roadster-sans-doors.png" class="aligncenter wp-image-1755302 size-large" src="http://theautomotivearchaeologist.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/rare-rides-the-1959-goggomobil-dart-tiny-roadster-sans-doors.png" alt width="610" height="343" srcset="http://theautomotivearchaeologist.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/rare-rides-the-1959-goggomobil-dart-tiny-roadster-sans-doors.png 610w, http://theautomotivearchaeologist.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/rare-rides-the-1959-goggomobil-dart-tiny-roadster-sans-doors-2.png 75w, http://theautomotivearchaeologist.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/rare-rides-the-1959-goggomobil-dart-tiny-roadster-sans-doors-3.png 450w, http://theautomotivearchaeologist.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/rare-rides-the-1959-goggomobil-dart-tiny-roadster-sans-doors-4.png 768w, http://theautomotivearchaeologist.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/rare-rides-the-1959-goggomobil-dart-tiny-roadster-sans-doors-5.png 120w, http://theautomotivearchaeologist.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/rare-rides-the-1959-goggomobil-dart-tiny-roadster-sans-doors-6.png 800w" sizes="(max-width: 610px) 100vw, 610px">Today’s Rare Ride is an obscure variant of an already obscure microcar. The Dart you see here was an Australian-designed and built version of the Glas Goggomobil.
We’ve featured Glas cars in two installments of Rare Rides twice previously. The first example was a luxurious 2600 V8 coupe, followed up late last year by the much more mainstream 1304 shooting brake.
The car underneath this roadster body is perhaps the most well-known Glas, the Goggomobil. A very small city car, the Goggomobil was the first car produced by Glas and went on sale in 1955. Available in several body styles, the Goggomobil lacked an exciting roadster variant. The Glas is worth a Rare Ride of its own, so we won’t delve too far into it today.
The story of the Dart began at Buckle Motors, a large Australian car dealership chain. Bill Buckle the senior established his dealership selling Triumph and Talbot cars in 1927. The business grew steadily, and Buckle’s son, Bill Buckle Jr., convinced the management of Buckle Motors to build its own sports car. The idea was inspired by a visit to the London Motor Show in 1953, where many a fiberglass sports car was on display. Management agreed, and Buckle’s first car was the Buckle 2.5 Litre, manufactured in New South Wales and based on a Ford Zephyr. We’re racking up the Rare Rides entries today.
After the 2.5 Litre, Mr. Buckle realized that import taxation could be avoided if a chassis was imported to Australia instead of a complete vehicle. With this in mind, he knew the car he wanted to use and went off to Bavaria to strike a deal with Glas. Glas agreed to send Goggomobil chassis across the sea to Australia, and the Dart was on its way.
" data-medium-file="http://theautomotivearchaeologist.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/rare-rides-the-1959-goggomobil-dart-tiny-roadster-sans-doors-8.png" data-large-file="http://theautomotivearchaeologist.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/rare-rides-the-1959-goggomobil-dart-tiny-roadster-sans-doors-1.png" class="aligncenter size-large wp-image-1755304" src="http://theautomotivearchaeologist.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/rare-rides-the-1959-goggomobil-dart-tiny-roadster-sans-doors-1.png" alt width="610" height="321" srcset="http://theautomotivearchaeologist.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/rare-rides-the-1959-goggomobil-dart-tiny-roadster-sans-doors-1.png 610w, http://theautomotivearchaeologist.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/rare-rides-the-1959-goggomobil-dart-tiny-roadster-sans-doors-7.png 75w, http://theautomotivearchaeologist.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/rare-rides-the-1959-goggomobil-dart-tiny-roadster-sans-doors-8.png 450w, http://theautomotivearchaeologist.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/rare-rides-the-1959-goggomobil-dart-tiny-roadster-sans-doors-9.png 768w, http://theautomotivearchaeologist.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/rare-rides-the-1959-goggomobil-dart-tiny-roadster-sans-doors-10.png 120w, http://theautomotivearchaeologist.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/rare-rides-the-1959-goggomobil-dart-tiny-roadster-sans-doors-11.png 1249w" sizes="(max-width: 610px) 100vw, 610px">Buckle himself designed the fiberglass roadster body, which consisted almost entirely of smooth edges and lacked doors. Of note: At least one (above) had doors added after the fact to improve usability. It seated only two people and had a very small canvas roof to keep out the rain. There was no trunk as the engine was in the rear, but there was storage in the nose, accessed from inside the passenger compartment. The design entered production in 1959 and was again built in New South Wales.
A very lightweight vehicle, the Dart weighed just 761 pounds. It had an overall length of 120 inches, and a width of just 54 inches. Power was provided by one of three two-stroke two-cylinder engines, in 300-, 392-, or 400-cc displacements. Power ranged from 14 to 18 horses. All shifted their big power through a four-speed manual.
The Dart project was a mild success, and about 700 examples were made by the time the project completed. Though the Dart was the company’s most successful offering, Buckle would go on to build a Goggomobil-based van, and a take on the Mini called Mini Monaco. Today the business is called Bill Buckle Auto Group and sells Toyota, Subaru, and Volkswagen vehicles to the Australian populace.
Today’s Rare Ride is one of about 100 estimated to exist in present times. A lovely orange and grey example, it’s in excellent condition and located in Germany. Yours for $59,665.
Today marks the second time we’ll feature a Ferrari 599 on Rare Rides. While our first example was a standard GTB with a very questionable color palette, today’s 599 was transformed by Italian coachbuilder Zagato into a very different-looking car.
Rare Rides is no stranger to Zagato-bodied vehicles and has featured the company’s designs on olderFerraris, newer Aston Martins, a Lancia, a Nissan, and an Alfa Romeo. Today’s Ferrari marks the first convertible Zagato seen here. The GTZ started out in life as a 599 GTB, Ferrari’s GT offering that was available from model years 2007 through 2012. Designed by Pininfarina, the 599 had a traditional V12 upfront, driven wheels at the rear, and questionable styling in the middle. Time will tell if the 599 becomes a design classic, but those are tall odds.
Zagato has a history of dabbling in Ferrari styling that dates back to the late Forties with the 1100 Panoramica Zagato, though many of its Ferrari designs never made it past the drawing board. Fortunes changed for Zagato more recently, as wealthy collectors once again began to seek out bespoke designs for their high-end sports cars, no longer satisfied with boring and basic factory looks.
And so it was with the 599, as a customer approached Zagato with a request for a retro-look aftermarket edit. The resulting design was the Nibbio and intended to recall coachbuilt sports cars from the Fifties and Sixties. The 599’s creased front end was fully restyled, replaced by smoothness and rounded vintage-style shapes. Those smooth lines concluded in a high, simplified rear deck area, with a double bubble in the roof for coupe versions. That particular detail was moved to the trunk lid on the Spyder, as Zagato would rework either body style of 599. Owners needed only provide their 599 of choice, as well as the requisite funds.
The Nibbio project was very limited in production, and Zagato built six Spyders and nine coupes. Each one was a custom order, so no two were quite the same in their color theme. Today’s example was not finished until January 2020 and was based on a low mileage 2009 GTB from Switzerland. It was auctioned in February 2021 and was expected to bring around $1.9 million.
Rare Rides has featured a couple of fine Lagonda sedans previously. First was the 1980s rectangle designed by William Towns, which miraculously remained in production from 1976 to 1990. Next was the Lagonda Taraf, a super sedan intended only for the oil-flush UAE market.
An early super sedan, Rapide used an enlarged straight-six of 4.0-liters that was notably more potent than the 3.6 found in the DB4. Featuring dual overhead cams, the 4.0 would later see use in the DB5 and produced 236 horses in Rapide implementation. That made for a very quick-for-1961 run to 60 of 8.9 seconds. The Rapide debuted other features used in the later DB5: a de Dion rear suspension, and a body composed of a magnesium-aluminum alloy. Most Rapides were automatic and routed their power through a three-speed Borg-Warner unit, though a select few were ordered with a four-speed manual.
