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See Homepage. This page: A black and white photograph of an L-series Connaught road car of the late 1940s.
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Connaught L2 (MPH 998).

In regard to motoring, think of Connaught and often thoughts will turn to the Lea-Francis-powered Connaught A-Type single seat Formula 2 cars of the early/mid-1950s, and not perhaps to a road car. Yet a few Connaught road cars were produced by Continental Cars of Send, Surrey, in the late 1940s, using a lightly tweaked 14hp Lea-Francis car chassis, enveloped in a tubular steel frame (by Leacroft of Egham) clad by a swooping aluminium body. The result was the car shown below, the Connaught L2.
The engine used in the L2 was also sourced from Lea-Francis, although unlike the chassis, the 1767cc engine was significantly modified with high-lift camshafts, dry sump, and four Amal carburettors taking the place of the standard LeaF's pair of SUs, and other mods all designed to give the lightweight L2 a useful turn of speed.
(Please click the thumbnail to view the full-size image.)
Connaught L2
Two versions of the car were planned, the L1 "Sportsman's Roadster", and the L2 "Competition". The former would have retained the original SU carburettor setup and standard gear ratios, for example, whereas the L2 was spec'd more with competition in mind. As it turned out, only the L2 version would actually go into (limited) production.
The first L2 was registered MPH 329 in October 1948. In 1950 a revised car, the L3, was put on sale, featuring revised suspension as a result of changes made by the chassis' manufacturer, Lea Francis. In all, it's believed that just 14 L-series cars were produced, six of which were L2s as in the photograph above. The history and, where applicable, the fate, of all the L-series cars is known - apart from that of car registered MPH 998, which just happens to be the subject of this page. Apparently it went to the USA and nothing has been heard of it in recent times.
My thanks to Justin for the use of this photo (of a photo) on OCC. His father worked for the firm, so was able to take a number of interesting photographs during his time at Continental Cars.
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