THE array of upmarket wheels on the starting grid in the late 1940s was amazing with most of the great names from before the Second World War all elbowing for a slice of an expanding peacetime market.
One such was Lea Francis, founded by Richard Henry Lea and Graham Inglesby Francis in Coventry in 1895.
Originally a maker of cycles, the firm entered car manufacturing in 1903 and motor cycles in 1911.
In the 1920s the company began to acquire a sporting image with famous cars like the supercharged Hyper and the Ace of Spades.
The company was re-formed in 1937 under the chairmanship of George Leek with other ex-Riley men such as R.H. Rose who designed a new engine for Lea-Francis which had a similar layout to the Riley 12/4.
After the cessation of hostilities production kicked off with updated vehicles based on the pre-war designs.
But the sporting image of the company soon began to shine through again with the Lea Francis Sports, a very individual car with flush headlamps, cut away doors, humped scuttle and rear-wheel spats.
Rather than being an out and out sports car, this was more of a fast cruiser with sweeping styling designed to turn heads.
Launched in 1947 with a 1.5-litre 12hp engine, this model, known as the 12 was replaced with the 14 with twin-carb performance.
Much of the car was similar to its saloon counterpart but the chassis was shortened by a foot to enhance the car's sporting stance.
Under its fashion-statement skin there was still quite a lot of old-tech features including beam axles and mechanical brakes.
But the real breakthrough for this model came in 1949 when the 2.5-litre model was unveiled.
This featured the same chassis, but the body was three inches wider with fuller doors and winding perspex windows.
It also gained hydraulic brakes and was truly capable of 100mph, being manufactured until 1954.
Lea-Francis production ceased after 1960 when the strangely styled Lynx model failed.
The motor manufacturing parts of the company passed into the hands of the Receiver in 1963 leaving Lea-Francis to continue with its engineering business.
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