![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.adrianflux.co.uk\/influx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/06\/1976-aston-martin-lagonda-1600x1200-image-1.jpeg\" "\\"1976-aston-martin-lagonda-1600x1200-image-1\\"")
<\/a><\/figure>\nConsidering the oil crisis of the time, a hand-built, four-door luxury saloon with a 5.3 litre V8 engine tucked under its elongated bonnet (the car measured almost five metres in length) may seem like strange logic. But luxury is what Aston Martin always sought to provide and so their rescue strategy was to offer more of the same. Only now in even more limited numbers.<\/p>\n
Designed by William Towns, who also styled the DBS, the Lagonda was in production between 1974 and 1990 during which time they produced just 645 cars over four series. Each one took over 2000 man-hours to build, equating to one car produced per week. The Series 2 was launched at the 1976 London Motor Show. Deliveries didn\u2019t begin until 1979.<\/p>\n When the Lagonda went on sale in the United States in 1982, its exclusivity was its unique selling point, with an advertising campaign that featured the car alongside a bottle of vintage Rothschildwine, a \u2018Tastes of Refinement\u2019 headline and adcopy that began, \u2018Certain of the finer things in life are sufficiently rare they can be enjoyed only by a fortunate few\u2026\u2019<\/p>\n Journalists in the US were blunter. \u201cFerrari performance and Rolls Royce luxury at a price you can\u2019t afford\u201d said a 1982 review. And talking of the price, a 1977 Lagonda retailed at \u00a324,570, while a 1980 model would have left you with little change from \u00a350,000 at the time.<\/p>\n But the Lagonda\u2019s price tag wasn\u2019t the only reason that the car was adroit at leaving the public with their jaws agape. The low profile styling, the145mph and 280bhp by way of the 5.3L dual-overhead-cam V8, each with a builder\u2019s plaque attached stating the name of the man responsible for assembling the engine were attention-grabbers. The pop-up headlights, unique at the time, hinted at the technology concealed within.<\/p>\n And it was once inside the Lagonda that you really entered another world. A digital dashboard with displays and touch-button technology, which operated the headlights and just about everything else, seemed positively space age and indeed, the Lagonda was the first production car to use computer management.<\/p>\n But developing electronics in the 1980s was an expensive business (reportedly Aston Martin exceeded their budget for the Lagonda by a whopping 400% largely due to the electronics) and the money you put down didn\u2019t guarantee reliability. Or anything close to it.<\/p>\n So what is the Lagonda\u2019s rightful place in automotive history? A bold statement, conceptually ahead of its time, hinting at a future full of possibility, its wings clipped by technology still in its infancy or a mere design folly, an ugly toy for the uber-rich equipped with a box of electronic tricks, none of which seemed to work?<\/p>\n In the end it\u2019s probably just a matter of taste.<\/p>\n\n\t\t<\/a><\/figure>\n<\/a><\/figure>\n