Category Car Of The Month History

Vincenzo Lancia was a successful racing driver for Fiat up to 1908, who started
his own car factory in 1906.

Lancia became quite famous with the inovative Lambda launched in 1922, which
was the first car with a unitary body, independent suspension, shock absorbers,
unit construction and a V4 engine. A number of these cars were imported into
South Africa, where they had a particularly good reputation for fine engineering.

Flaminia Coupe and Cabriolets with coachwork by Carrozzeria Touring fetch very
high prices and are particularly sought after.

Lancia was well known for it’s rally successes all over the world and was the
preferred rally car for a number of years. In 1969 the company was taken over
by Fiat.

Adam Opel started a sewing machine factory in 1863 and expanded to include bicycles
in 1897. Following his death his five sons decided to include the manufacturing of
motorcars by aquiring the Anhaltische Motorwagenfabrik von Friedrich Lutzmann.
They launched the first Lutzmann based car in 1898. However, following a disagreement
with Lutzmann, they switched to manufacture the French Darracq under license with the
name Opel-Darracq.

In 1902 they launched their first car under the Opel name. They continued to launch
various size models with one to six cylinders motors. By 1914 they offered a range of
engines from the 1392cc to the huge 10200cc.
They soon realized, that to run a profitable company they would have to automate their
production and concentrate on an affodable small car which...

Started by Lionel Martin and Robert Bamford dabbling with race cars in 1913, so
the first proper Aston Martin only appeared in 1919. After a bumpy start the company
ended in bankruptcy in 1924 and was then acquired in 1925 by W.S Renwick.

The company was struggling and changed hands a few more times till it was aquired
by Sir David Brown in 1947. At this stage the company became fairly successful
with their DB series models. What really put them on the world map is when the
DB5 was featured in the 1964 James Bond film Goldfinger.
Following further finacial turmoil the company changed hands again during the
1970’s and was eventually bought by Ford in 1994 who dramatically ramped up
production till they decided to sell the company again in 2006.
After further turmoil, Mercedes-AMG agreed...

Sir Herbert Austin decided, after several years with Wolseley, to start
manufacture his own car. This he achieved with the launch in April 1906.
While Austin offered a number of different models, their compact Austin
Seven launched in 1922 with a 696cc (later increased to 747cc) four
cylinder motor became an instant success. Production lasted till 1939, by
which time a remarkable 290’000 units had been sold.

Various other models followed, but in 1959 Austin managed to come up with
another winner, the 848cc Mini. A sports version was launched with the name
Mini Cooper, on which the engine size was upgraded slowly to peak at 1275cc.
Production of the Mini stopped in 2000.

In 1952 the company launched the by Donald Healey developed Austin Healey
sports car which was to achieve some 74000 ...

Ettore Bugatti was working at various car factories as automotive engineer, when he
decided to build his own car. While working for Deutz he developped the Type 10
prototype. In 1909 Bugatti started small scale production near Strassburg in France,
with the Type 13, which used a four cylinder 1327cc engine.

His success started in 1924 when he presented his Type 35 with an 1991cc eight
cylinder motor. Bugatti made a name for himself with compact and lightweight
racing cars with engines sporting 16 valves, which were very successful, so there
was a constany demand for them.

In 1930 Bugatti started building the now famous Type 41 Royale with a 12700cc
engine and a rearkable length of 6.4m. Bugatti was very artistic and he designed
most of his cars with a distinct and elegant style not seen ...

Ferdinand Porsche, a great engineer and entrepreneur, born in 1875, developed a
number of small prototype cars with 4 cylinder boxer motors during the early 1930’s.
This lead to him receiving an order from Hitler to develop a small people’s car. Porsche
delivered the first three prototypes in 1936 and 30 more test vehicles followed, which
were assembled by Mercedes-Benz. Hitler was instrumental in getting the new factory
built in 1938 and the first Volkswagen cars were supposed to be ready in 1939.

This did not happen due to the start of the Second World War in 1939. All car factories
were immediately ordered to build military vehicles, which lead to the production of
the Kübelwagen, a military adaption of the Volkswagen.

Three months after the war, in May 1945 the British facilitat...

Ferdinand Porsche, born in 1875 is without doubt one of the greatest engineers in the
developments of the motorcar. He was the lead engineer in many famous projects, the
best known are the Austro-Daimler Prinz Heinrich, the Mercedes-Benz 38/250, The
Auto Union Grand Prix with 16 cylinders and of course the legendary Volkswagen.

During the war years he was involved in the construction of military vehicles, which
caused him to be jailed in France for two years. During this period he assisted Renault
with the development of the 4CV with the rear motor.

On his release he moved to the Austrian town of Gmünd, where he with the help of
his son Ferry and one Karl Rabe developed the first car named after him, the Porsche
356, which was initially equipped with a 1086cc four cylinder boxer motor...

Panhard et Levassor were both young engineers which inherited the company they
worked for after the death of the owner Tod Perins in 1886. Levassor’s friend Sarazin
owned the Licence to build the German Daimler motors, but died in 1887. Levassor
then married his friend’s wife. She allowed him to use the Daimler license to supply
engines to other manufacturers such as Peugeot etc. Later they decided to produce
their own rear engined cars, which were launched in 1891. Soon after this Levassor
developed the new system of placing the engine in front and rear wheel drive, with
the transmission in between. This innovative solution was quickly adopted by many
other car manufacturers. One of the first to copy this was Maybach for the 1900
model Mercedes...

André Citroën was born on 5th February 1878. He successfully managed the Mors
car factory, before starting out with his own car factory named after him. The first
10 HP Type A  Model was launched in 1919. The 1925 B10 Model was the first all
steel body car made in France.

Probably the most famous of all, and strongly influenced by the 1933 Ford design,
the 7A Traction Avant (front wheel drive) was launched in 1934. Due to financial
problems, the company was taken over by Michelin at this time. The Traction Avant
was sold with various upgrades right up to 1961.

After the war people did not have much money, so Citroën decided to produce an
affordable economy model. 1949 they launched the revolutionary 2CV with a 375cc
2 Cylinder Boxer Motor.

Another motoring milestone was the almost sp...

Dr. (Eng.) Carl F.W. Borgward was the founder and owner of the Borgward group
in Bremen, West Germany.  Born in 1890 in Hamburg-Altona and trained as a fitter
and turner, he later studied mechanical engineering. Wounded in World War 1, he
returned and bought a share in a small manufacturing business. This he then took over
and turned it into an automotive component manufacturer for radiators and fenders.

In 1924 he started making three-wheeler 200cc 2-stroke delivery vehicles which
became quite successful, and led to the Goliath light commercials. His business was
growing and in 1929 he also bought shares of the ailing Hansa-Lloyd company at a
discounted price, which also gave him control of the company.

In 1931 he launched the first Goliath passenger vehicle, the three-wheeled Pionier,
...