Aston Martin Lagonda – the future dressed in leather
William Towns’ wedge-shaped luxury car made the dashboard the star of the show.
When Aston Martin unveiled the new Lagonda in 1976, it looked as though it had arrived from another decade. Behind the low nose, British coachbuilding craftsmanship met digital daring – a combination that still makes this one of the motoring world’s most distinctive luxury cars.
By Cecilia WahlReporter · Luxury cars and car designTranslated from Swedish with the help of AI.
A luxury car that refused to blend in
The Aston Martin Lagonda Series 2, unveiled in 1976, was no tentative extension of the marque’s sports car range. It was a four-door luxury saloon with an almost defiantly low nose, long, flat surfaces and a cabin that promised an electronic future. Designer William Towns created a car in which the ruler seemed to have had the final say. The meeting of this strict geometry and Aston Martin’s traditional craftsmanship is the model’s great appeal.
The name had a much longer history. Aston Martin had bought Lagonda in 1947, and the badge carried memories of large, lavishly appointed British cars. A four-door Lagonda based on Aston Martin’s V8 model had already been unveiled in 1974. It was built in very small numbers and should not be confused with its wedge-shaped successor.
The new car followed a financially difficult period for Aston Martin. There was therefore more at stake than a desire to complete the model range: the Lagonda was to show that the small company could still spring a surprise. Buyers were offered an alternative to Rolls-Royce and Bentley, but without their more formal design language. This was British exclusivity for those who would rather prompt questions than nods of approval.
A body drawn with a ruler, a cabin crafted by a saddler
Towns drew a continuous wedge rather than a traditional saloon with clearly separated volumes. The narrow grille sat low down, the headlights were concealed in pop-up units and the bonnet stretched out as a vast, almost unbroken plane ahead of the windscreen. The angular wheelarches reinforced the impression of a body carved from a single block.
Its dimensions were imposing, but its low stance made it visually different from other prestige saloons. The Lagonda looked less like a drawing room on wheels and more like an object from an architect’s drawing board. The relationship between the long nose, straight sides and relatively low roof remains more important to its appearance than any individual piece of decorative trim.
Inside, soft leather and wood met electronic instrumentation. The contrast was deliberately dramatic: materials rooted in an older British coachbuilding tradition surrounded displays and touch-sensitive controls. Instead of familiar round dials, the driver was presented with glowing digits. The dashboard became not just a place to operate the car, but its biggest talking point.
The cars were built in Newport Pagnell with extensive handwork. For a buyer in this price bracket, the individual combination of colours and materials was part of the commission, not an insignificant detail. Documentation of the original specification therefore matters a great deal for today’s collectors’ cars: a tastefully retrimmed cabin is not automatically a cabin faithful to the original.
Electronics ahead of a familiar V8
Beneath the radical exterior lay a far more traditional layout: Aston Martin’s large V8, with rear-wheel drive and a three-speed automatic gearbox. The Lagonda was intended for fast, long-distance journeys with several people aboard, not as a four-door racing car. The long body and lavish interior made comfort and arrival as important to the experience as speed.
The electronics, by contrast, represented a genuine leap in development, and a troublesome one. The early instrumentation and controls required extensive development work, which contributed to the lengthy journey from unveiling to customer deliveries. A collector today therefore needs to understand which version of the instrumentation a car actually has, not simply the year in which it was registered.
The model evolved during production. The Series 3 gained fuel injection, while the Series 4, unveiled in 1987, gave Towns’ basic shape softer transitions and fixed headlights in place of the pop-up units. The instrumentation also evolved. The editorial team has not road-tested the car; its intended role, however, is clear: a distinctive long-distance saloon that made technology part of the luxury.
Exclusivity with a workshop bill
Production of the wedge-shaped Lagonda ended in 1990. Around 645 examples were built in total, making it rare even compared with many other hand-built luxury cars. When new, it was among the most expensive saloons on the market. The price paid for the craftsmanship and low production volume, but also for the opportunity to choose something radically different.
Today, a purchase should begin with the history. Working instruments, well-preserved leather, a sound chassis and documented specialist work are more important than an enticing price tag. Check particularly whether the electronics have been repaired, modified or replaced; the solutions can affect both usability and originality. Any valuation must be tied to the individual example. The Lagonda’s exclusivity remains, but so does the responsibility of preserving its unusual engineering.
Sources
- Aston Martin, Lagonda
- David Dowsey, Aston Martin: Power, Beauty and Soul (2007)
- Andrew Whyte, Aston Martin and Lagonda (1984)
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