On 20 October 1976, Aston Martin bet its future on a model so radical that it risked returning the company to the mire from which it had only just risen.
That car was the Lagonda saloon, and 50 years ago it was taking its first public bow at the British motor show in London, less than two years after Aston Martin had been plucked from receivership. Strikingly low, indulgently long and wide, with a razor-sharp wedge profile, the Lagonda bristled with daring levels of technology never before seen in the car world.