Our Aston Martin Lagonda Goes To a Supercar Festival

Founder’s Blog July 2025 

Firstly, I start with sad news: John Davies who recently donated his pristine Mk 1 Capri to us passed away on June 29th after a long illness. I was privileged to meet John who owned the Capri from new and I sincerely hope that the Classic Car community in a better place has welcomed its most worthy new member. 

On a lighter note, I was delighted to be invited to be a special guest at a recent event at Kaaimans International who sell exotic cars from an equally exotic location at Tollerton Hall just outside Nottingham. 

My part in the proceedings was to be interviewed in front of a live audience by TV personality and car buff: Paul Cowland and talk about …yes you’ve guessed: Cars and more cars. 

But what car from the museum was appropriate to park alongside millions of pounds worth of Lamborghinis, Ferraris, Astons and McLarens? Only one!  It had to be the Lagonda! Probably the most Marmite of all the cars at Ambergate: for me it’s a masterpiece of 70s madness with its folded paper wedge shape and completely mesmeric array of digital instruments and switches. It is also powered by that wonderful big V8 which guzzles fuel with no regard for cost or the planet.  My wife thinks its just ugly and huge: a view shared by plenty of our visitors.  

The big question was would this 45 year old car behave on a very hot day involving a slow drive through Nottingham? My test drive the day before the big journey was going well: most of the instruments were working, the windows all went up and down, the air con looked too complex to play with especially as the fusebox conveniently mounted on top of the dash has more fuses than my house!  So having taken the big car up to the A38 and down to Alfreton and back, I was feeling confident …until the engine cut out just as The Hurt Arms came into view. Graham and Luke soon arrived in the trusty Escort van and my diagnosis was that she was out of fuel (the fuel guage allegedly gives you the % left in the tanks but ours just glints LED signals at random).  Fuel was gurgled into the right filler flap and all was well…ready for the 60 mile round trip the next day. 

With Ian Gardecki acting as wing man in the Jag, we arrived at Tollerton Hall with no drama and I parked up adjacent to a McLaren Senna. It was very hot and the big electric fans earned their keep but the water temperature guage digitally informed me that all was well. 

The return trip in the dark was much more fun: the huge pop up headlamps popped up and along with the spotlights (the touch sensitive switch does not respond to OFF), provided great light. As we left Nottingham, I let the revs rise to a (digitally displayed) cruising velocity of 80mph. Landing at Ambergate, preceded by a quick call to Houston for clearance was undramatic and reluctantly I put this wondrous machine away. 

The heat continued for the next few days and the contrast between the effortless wafting of that huge Lagonda and the buzzy joy and roller-skate ride of my Frogeye Sprite was like comparing an Ocean Liner to a Jet ski. That’s the joy of Classic Motoring: astonishing variety but always Classic Driving Pleasure! 

P.S.  Most of you will know that I am currently off work but I would like to thank everyone for an overwhelming wave of good wishes and a reassurance that although I am not on all cylinders, my engine and its pesky ECU are still intact.