The Lanchester Motor Company Limited was a car manufacturer based until 1930 at Armourer Mills, Montgomery Street, Sparkbrook, Birmingham, England. It operated from 1895 to 1955. The company was purchased by the BSA Group at the end of 1930 and its activities merged with those of Daimler on Daimler's sites. Lanchester thus became part of Jaguar in 1960. The rights to the Lanchester brand now belong to Tata Motors of India, which purchased Jaguar from the Ford Motor Company in March 2008 though it has been dormant since the last Lanchester rolled off the line in 1955. The Lanchester Motor... Company Limited is still registered as an active company and accounts are filed each year though it is currently marked "non-trading". This business was started by the three Lanchester brothers, Frederick, one of the most influential automobile engineers of the 19th and 20th century, George and Frank as the Lanchester Engine Company Ltd and registered in 1899. Work on the first Lanchester car had been started in 1895, significantly designed from first principles as a car, not a horseless carriage, and it ran on the public roads in February or March 1896.
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