Car for sale

Lea Francis 2.5 Litre Sports ‘Deluxe’

The rarest of the big engine post-war British sports cars with only 85 examples built
Very fast hand built 2.5 Litre engine aluminium bodied production car of the highest quality
Unique “De Luxe” model produced by the factory with walnut dashboard and door cappings, rare early Lucas indicators and several other special features
Much documentation including an extremely rare original owner’s manual and sales brochure
Beautiful video available

This Lea Francis 2.5 Litre Sports, chassis number 5200, was sold new in 1951 in the UK with registration number LLH 211 and is the only existing ‘Deluxe’ version, distinguished from the regular model by a beautiful walnut dashboard and door cappings, larger door handles, rare period Lucas indicator units (rather than the trafficators of the regular model) and chrome grilles over the side bonnet air vents.

In 2014 the car was bought by the current owner who at the time lived in the UK. Although the paintwork, dashboard and upholstery were excellent, the car was technically in rather neglected state and the new owner set out to do an engine-out restoration which took about a year to complete. Although as much originality as possible was preserved, some vital improvements were made such as a complete rewiring, free-flowing exhaust manifold and re-designed s/s exhaust system, an electric Kenlowe fan, new carpets, ‘double duck’ hood and tonneau cover and, above all, a modern yet perfectly fitting 5-speed gearbox replacing the original, which was notoriously noisy and actually not adequate for the very powerful 2.5 Litre engine. This conversion significantly improves both handling and performance of the car, enabling better acceleration and a high top speed without unduly overrevving.

The current owner took the car with him in 2022 when he moved to the Netherlands where it received a Dutch Classic Car registration. In the same year this Lea Francis participated in the Concours d’Élégance Paleis Soestdijk in the class “Gentlemen’s Sportscars of the 1950s and 1960s”.

The current owner (who previously owned and restored two other Lea Francis 2.5 Litre sports) has maintained and perfected the car to a very high standard. Everything works as it should; the car is in excellent road-ready order and comes with the original jack and wheel nut wrench (as well as modern ones) and original grease gun.

Furthermore, this gorgeous Lea Francis 2.5 Litre Sports ‘Deluxe’ has an extensive history file filled with historic documents and invoices as well as an extremely rare original owner’s manual, original sales brochure, numerous invoices for parts and work, laminated service and oil charts and diagrams for the electrical wiring and grease/oil points.

Lea Francis 2.5 Litre Sports

The 2.5 Litre Sports was the last genuine Lea Francis Ltd. production car built by this legendary marque from Coventry, for many decades the British center of car manufacturing. After several years of producing bicycles, Lea Francis Ltd. built its first motorcar in 1903 and continued to be a highly successful automobile marque (also regularly competing with racers such as the Lea Francis supercharged “Hyper” of the late 1920’s) until WW2 when the company switched to manufacturing for the war industry.
A post-war attempt to re-enter the automobile market with comfortable saloons and a high quality sports car was modestly successful with the introduction, in 1946, of the 1.8 Litre cars but a further development of the sports model with a newly developed powerful 2.5 Litre engine (producing 108 bhp which can propel the car to speeds of 100 MPH) and independent front suspension proved to be too expensive to keep up with the competition, in spite of the Lea Francis’ quality and durability which was superior to that of its main (mass-produced) rivals such as the Jaguar XK120, The Austin Healey and the Aston Martin DB2. Especially the aluminium body (only a small number of early Jaguar XK120’s were also equipped with aluminium coachwork which proved to be too expensive and Jaguar soon switched to steel) and the fact that the Lea Francis was hand built, meant that manufacturing the car became too costly and at the time only the Aston Martin had a higher purchase price.

As a result only 85 examples of the 2.5 Litre Sports were built but the quality of the Lea Francis was superior. Of those 85 cars 74 are still known to exist of which 54 are road worthy. This 87% survival rate exceeds that of any post-war British production sports car. Three of these cars are currently in Europe, one in France, one in Germany, and this one in the Netherlands. Other 2.5 Litre Sports can be found in the UK, Australia and the USA, which originally imported a small batch of cars – some even in LHD configuration. Today a dedicated UK based Lea Francis Owners Club stocks parts for the many models that Lea Francis built over the years, including for the 2.5 Litre Sports.

Video

Check out this stunning video shot by Frame Studio:

Interested?

Are you interested or have questions? Please do not hesitate to contact us! You can also listen to the driving and engine sound of the Lea Francis 2.5 Litre Sports ‘Deluxe’ on the site of ClassiCarGarage. Also take a look into our Swallow Doretti for sale.