Another "What car is that" thread

[Saabnut]

My friend sent me this picture entitled "Mantovanni" and asked what car it was.  I have no idea but thought the windscreen looked Bentley. Anyone know what it is?

 

[hairnet]

Daimler?

 

[Crackers]

1957 Lagonda 3-Litre Sports Saloon. 

[brownnova]

Lagonda? 

[brownnova]

Damn @Crackers beat me to it! 

[sutty2006]

Reg still works for it. 
 

never seen “not taxed for on road use” before. Normally it’s SORN’d or in red.

[quicksilver]

2 hours ago, sutty2006 said:

Reg still works for it. 
 

never seen “not taxed for on road use” before. Normally it’s SORN’d or in red.

'Not taxed for on road use' is some sort of ancestral SORN-type thing. It was discussed here a few years ago and nobody has ever got to the bottom of precisely what it means but it's something to do with keeping vehicles that have been off the road for a very long time alive on the DVLA computer. That implies this Lagonda still exists somewhere but hasn't seen the road in years, probably as part of a static collection.

[Dick Longbridge]

Last V5 for the car was issued in 2009, so it's definitely still around. 

This suggests Mantovani was photographed in 1954 with the car. The car appears to have been registered in 1957 though, so someone muddled their dates up. Interesting all the same. 

https://www.theneweuropean.co.uk/mantovani-great-european-lives/

[LightBulbFun]

4 hours ago, sutty2006 said:

Reg still works for it. 
 

never seen “not taxed for on road use” before. Normally it’s SORN’d or in red.

 

1 hour ago, quicksilver said:

'Not taxed for on road use' is some sort of ancestral SORN-type thing. It was discussed here a few years ago and nobody has ever got to the bottom of precisely what it means but it's something to do with keeping vehicles that have been off the road for a very long time alive on the DVLA computer. That implies this Lagonda still exists somewhere but hasn't seen the road in years, probably as part of a static collection.

it goes back to the fact that when, a vehicle was computerised, from its RF/VE60 Buff logbook to a V5, it HAD to go into a tax class and it HAD to be taxed, thats just how the computer system worked (until about 1998)

this created a problem for if you had say a project you had been working on for 10 years and you wanted to V5 but had no intention of actually taxing it and insuring it for the road yet at that time, or you had a bunch of vehicles in reserve/store (looking at you heywood), which you very much would want to make sure you had a V5 for, but again where to remain off the road

so they needed a way to be able to computerise vehicles like this without forcing people to pay for tax they dont need, but would satisfy the requirements of the computer system

so they created the "NOT LICENSED" (yes spelt with an S the DVLA cant spell LOL) taxation class, this was as you imply, literally the free parking of taxation classes, the vehicle was on the back end taxed to satisfy the system, but on the front end just showed "not taxed for on road use"

and it would on the V5 in the taxation class line literally say NOT LICENSED, because there was (still is) litreally a £NIL rate taxation class called "NOT LICENSED" in the same way you have the "HISTORIC VEHICLE" Taxation class or the "ELECTRIC" taxation class

 

in theory you could change your vehicles taxation class into the NOT LICENSED taxation class and it would suddenly ping up as not taxed for on road use, but I dont think anyones tried

(because good luck trying to explain to someone that "NOT LICENSED" is a taxation class in the way that when you try and say Model 70, that Model is part of the name so that they should write Model: Model 70, but they always just write Model: 70 so you end up with an "Invacar 70")

its fun to note that it is still a thing, but you rarely see it these days on post buff logbook vehicles, due to the fact that, the old school buff logbook to V5 scheme has been closed since 1983 (unless your dealing with a Northern Ireland buff logbook) 

these days its pretty much only used for the INF85 scheme and other special case setups

 

[horriblemercedes]

22 minutes ago, LightBulbFun said:

 

so they created the "NOT LICENSED" (yes spelt with an S the DVLA cant spell LOL) taxation class

 

"NOT LICENSED" is correct. Licence is a noun but license is a verb.

"He has a licence to kill"

"He is licensed to kill"

[lesapandre]

The 4-door was introduced in 1954 and sold up to 1958. Made in tiny numbers.

Those tiny numbers have been further slimmed because the Lagonda 6-cylinder engines in them are the same as used in the contemporary DB Aston Martins - though the engine was Lagonda designed by a team led by W O Bentley. It was David Brown (DB) who bought both companies and created the marriage. 

Thus the engines have been robbed from the more staid Lagondas to either engine existing Astons or create specials and the Lagondas have been scrapped or linger on in storage engineless.

I think the photo is taken in central London on the South Bank - it's the revetment of the elevated approach to old London Bridge (which was demolished in the 60's - the one now in Arizona) which is in the background. The new existing  bridge open in 1972.

The whole area to the right is now built on - it's the site of the National  Theatre. The only thing surviving from that photo is possibly the car - and the bridge which is now 1000's of miles away.

Mantovani himself lasted to 1980.

 

[Saabnut]

Thanks all.