HOW DOES AN EARLY LAMBDA COMPARE?

Like the majority of Lambdas, Walter Heale’s 1925 Fourth Series UK car is not as it left the factory. It was modified in 1936, with 2ft removed from its chassis, reducing its wheelbase from 3100mm to 2490mm. Julian Jane of Vintage Sports-car Club fame made the chop, which suggests the car was to be used for trialling or hillclimbing in period.

Heale has only recently acquired the 2.1-litre car with a four-speed ’box (upgraded from its standard three-speed), and is keen to swap the rugged-looking Blockleys for a correct set of beaded-edge tyres. He’s also less than enamoured by the colour combination and will probably see to that, too. But in every other respect, this is a highly authentic early-series Lambda.

There’s a spartan purity about the cabin, compared with the Eighth Series cars. The earlier layout has just three beautiful dials – speedometer, clock and a Le Nivex fuel gauge calibrated to 15 gallons – all set into an aluminium dashboard with various switches, including a headlight-dip lever, positioned around the central ignition pod.

The Autocar’s first 1923 Lambda test car weighed 1065kg and, with its abbreviated length, I’m guessing that this one is closer to 800kg, so it’s no surprise that it feels sprightly from the off. If anything, gears can be changed even more quickly than in the later models, although with this car’s improved torque-to-weight advantage you tend to let it lug away, even up hills.

The steering is nicely weighted, but while its significantly shorter wheelbase makes this Lambda keen to turn in, its control over awkward surfaces suffers a touch and can lead to some entertaining moments during cornering. But there’s no separate-chassis waywardness, and for a near-century-old car it inspires far more confidence than it has any right to.