MEADOWS ENGINE

It should be remembered that the Meadows engine underwent continued development over a period of some 14 years. The engine was originally supplied to Invicta, as a 3 litre and was then bored out to 4.5 litres, in which form it powered both the High chassis cars, and the Low chassis S Types.

In the early days the crankshafts were supported by two bolt main journals, and engine R.P.M. was limited to 3200. At this time the engines produced only about 102 B.H.P. and the standard S Type Invicta had a top speed of around 90 M.P.H.

Raymond Mays in conjunction with Peter Berthon and Jack Crump of the Meadows Company carried out considerable development work in 1931 and succeeded in achieving 155 B.H.P. running on methanol. This development work allowed Mays to be highly successful with the "White Invicta" including taking the Sports Car record for the Shelsey Walsh hill climb, beating Carraciola's previous record.

After the demise of Invicta in 1933 the Lagonda Company took over the engine and under the guidance of W.O.Bentley the engine was continually developed in a series of sanctions. The most significant improvement was the "Beefing Up" of the crankcase and the fitting of 4 bolt main bearing caps. This modification allowed the safe engine speed to be increased to 3800 R.PM, which in turn gave a top speed of slightly in excess of 100 M.P.H. But the engine never achieved more than 135 BHP running on petrol.

In 1992 Simon Bull asked us to develop the engine of his Invicta. His brief was quite simply to produce as much power as possible without loosing either reliability or flexibility. It was also stipulated that only design technology and metals that were available before the war should be employed. In the cars first season of racing in 1993 with Martin Stretton driving it won the Ford Trophy in the V.S.C.C. and numerous other races and Hill Climbs. At this time it was producing 200 B.H.P. and 285 Ft Lb. of torque.

Over the winter further development was carried out and the engine is now producing 230 B.H.P. and torque in excess of 260 Ft Lb. from 2000 R.P.M. to over 4200 R.P.M. peaking at 312 Ft Lb. The car has lapped Millbrook at 118 M.P.H. and has achieved over 125 M.P.H. on a 3:2 axle ratio. Although now retired from racing, Simon's car is used regularly in London traffic as well as for long distance continental touring when it is cruised on autobahns at 100 M.P.H. It has proved itself to be completely reliable and has only required routine servicing.
 
The well known 1936 Fox & Nicolls Lagonda team car EPE 97 is now developing 200 BHP after a complete mechanical rebuild by us. The lower BHP figure is accounted for by the fact that our brief was to retain the original exhaust system and two carburettors. In its first year it set up the fastest lap on all three days of the Coy's Cup at Siverstone and was only closely beaten into 2nd overall. The following week it was driven out to the Nurburgring in Germany where it competed in the "Old Timer Grand Prix" and was only beaten by an Alfa Monza and an 8c Alfa. Since then it has been raced continually and very successfully for several years

We have now rebuilt several tuned engines for standard M45 Lagonda's that produce a consistent 190 BHP and torque of 250 ft/lb. from under 2000 RPM to 4000 RPM peaking at 268 ft/lb. This has been achieved using the original two carburettors and with only the modified exhaust manifold to hint at the "Wolf in Sheep's clothing". We will be delighted to discuss your requirements be it full race engine, various stages of tune or just the purchase of parts.