Lincoln – Henry Martyn Leland, also known as “Uncle Henry” was the founder
of both Lincoln and Cadillac, the two foremost American auto brands. He started
work as a shoe shine boy aged eight. Ten years on, in 1861, he worked as a
designer. During 1890 Leland started a machine factory in Detroit, where he
also built engines for the Oldsmobile Company. He soon started another factory,
The Cadillac Motor Company next door. This company was acquired by General
Motors in 1909.
During 1917 Leland also started his own aircraft engine factory, for which he soon
received an order for 6000 units. But he soon ran out of orders, as the war only
lasted two years.
Leland, now 77, decided to start The Lincoln Motor Company with his son. The
first luxury car with a 5.4 litre V8 engine was sold late in 1920. Although well over
3000 cars had been sold, they found themselves in financial difficulty and so they
had to sell the company to Henry Ford in1922 who was prepared to pay them $8
million. Ford appointed his son Edsel as company president, who continued to
build the cars by hand. He sold 5’512 cars the first year and this increased to
reach 8’858 cars by 1926.
During 1933 a 12 cylinder 7.2 litre engine was introduced. This car sold for $2’700,
very high price considering that Ford offered a V8 sedan for $500. 1924 president
Calvin Coolidge decided to purchase a Lincoln and since then Lincoln cars have
been used for US presidents. Despite this free publicity, sales were low, till Dutch
designer John Tjaards conceived the less expensive Lincoln Zephyr.
It had an attractive self supporting body with a 4.4 litre V12 engine. Much cheaper
production methods were used and during 1936 14’994 cars were sold. This peaked
at 29’997 cars in 1939. This was superseded by the Continental with the spare wheel
mounted on the boot.
In 1942 Lincoln switched to producing army vehicles of which 145’000 Jeeps were
built plus 25’332 tank engines and 24’929 engines for the B-24 bombers.
Leave a reply