1977 Correspondence : 'A. Le Coq Moir'

[Richard Fridd]

From a letter, 'The late A. Le Coq Moir retired to Cape Town after an eventful career which included being shot down while flying during the first war, resulting in the loss of a leg. Incidentally, this charming old Scotsman's favourite trick was to hitch up one of his socks and secure it witha drawing pin tohis barely noticeable artificial leg. He spent a period in the Scotttish motor trade handling Chenard-Walcker and "yon wee Straker-Squire" before going out to India to spend many years promoting Tangye pumps. On route he callled at Turin where he ordered a Seventh Series Lancia Lambda tourer to take on to Bombay. He recalled meeting Vincenzo Lancia and discussing some minor modifications for colonial service. Whether they discussed the replacement of the celluloid in the sidescreens with fine mosquito netting, as was done, is not known, but it made a certain amount of sense in the climate! In this tourer he travelled throughout India, later taking it to England where it spent the war years, and finally bringing it out to Cape Town together with an Eighth Series saloon and a huge stock of spares and lancia literature. The collection still exists but in a position of some obscurity. Moir claimed that Lancia and his designers were inspired in the design of their famous front suspension by the recoil mechanism of the equally famous French 75mm gun of the Great War. He further maintained that Lancia had found great difficulty finding coil springs of the characteristic square section that would stand up to the demands of his suspension. He eventually found an Austrian arms manufacturer, whose name escapes me, who could supply him with satisfactory springs. I cannot vouch for the accuracy of this information and it is given merely to add to Lancia lore.'