Lea-Francis

Lea-Francis was a British motor manufacturing company that began by building bicycles.

R. H. Lea and G. I. Francis started the business in Coventry in 1895. They branched out into car manufacturing in 1903 and motorcycles in 1911. Lea-Francis built cars under licence for the Singer company. In 1919, they started to build their own cars from bought-in components.

In 1976 Barrie Price began work on a hand made new car which was to be an expensive Lea-Francis Nostalgia type tourer powered by a Jaguar running gear, recalling the same cars Lea-Francis was known for in the 1930s. Price's firm, A.B.PRICE LIMITED, has continued to provide service and spares for the surviving cars since 1980 and has also built a number of retro Lea-Francis modern motor cars to special order, reviving the "Ace of Spades" name to their unique hand built model. These have a handsome aluminium body shell composed of a number of U.K.-made components, being produced as a two-seat coupé and a convertible. Both versions are powered by Jaguar Cars mechanicals and are produced at an average of 12-14 cars annually with a price tag at 20000 GBP. A.B. Price sold Lea-Francis Ltd. and all its assets in July 2019.

In 1998 it was believed that the Lea-Francis name might yet be seen again on the road when a new Lea-Francis sports car by the name of the 30/230, designed by James Randle, was shown at the Motor Show. Only a prototype was built before the project had to be abandoned.