Lea-Francis

GB, 1904 – 1906; 1920 – 1935; 1937 – 1953; 1960

(1) Lea & Francis Ltd, Coventry, Warwickshire, 1904 – 1935

(2) Lea-Francis Cars Ltd, Coventry, Warwickshire, 1937 – 1960

Lea Francis started as bicycle manufacturers, like so many car makers, but unlike most of the rest, never went over permanently and consistently to Lea Francis cars. These Lea Francis cars appeared in fits and starts. The first appeared in 1904, in the shape of a 15hp Lea Francis car with a 3-cylinder horizontal engine, the oddest feature of which was its connecting rods over 3ft long. In the same year, however, Lea Francis stopped making their cars, and Singer the Cycle Company began building Lea Francis cars under licence and under the Singer name. R.H. Lea had in fact worked for Singer before branching out on his own. Thus began another famous car name. Lea Francis made motor cycles from 1911, and they concentrated on these until 1920. In that year two Lea Francis cars reappeared beside the motorcycles; assembled 4-cylinder touring Lea Francis cars of 11.9 and 13.9hp. Few of either were made. Then, late in 1922, the Lea Francis car company found its feet at last, with an equally conventional assembled light Lea Francis car. This Lea Francis car had a 1.074cc 4-cylinder sv engine of 8.9hp by Coventry-Simplex, replaced in the following year by a 10hp Meadows unit of 1¼ litres with overhead valves. A Lea Francis car with 7hp Bradshaw flat-twin engine came to nothing. There were 3 forward speeds and quarter-elliptic springs at both ends. The 10hp Lea Francis car was very popular, and was made until 1928. Like other Lea Francise cars to come, it was well made, dependable, and lively. The great moment came for the Lea Francis cars in the very important RAC Small Car Trials of 1924, in which the Lea Francis car made the best all-round performance. During 1925 a wider family market was sought with the 12/22hp J-type Lea Francis car. This Lea Francis car had a longer wheelbase, allowing more spacious bodies, front-wheel brakes, a 1½-litre 4EC Meadows engine to cope with the weight and a 4-speed gearbox. For the sake of comfort, semi-elliptic springs were substituted at the rear on the P-type Lea Francis car introduced for 1928, which also had a plate clutch and 4ED meadows engine.

The Lea Francis car firm’s first serious sports car was the L-type with 4ED engine, announced for 1925. The Lea Francis 12/40hp was one of the best assembled cars in Britain, and appealed more widely than the light Lea Francis cars. It was, indeed, current until the second cessation of car production in 1935. However, Lea Francis also made some more ponderous, less lively Lea Francis cars, without the same degree of success. From 1925 until 1929, the Lea Francis range duplicated some of the heavy 6-cylinder machines offered by Vulcan of Southport, with whom Lea Francis cars had been associated since 1922. The 18hp Lea Francis car was a 2¼-litre car with cantilever rear springs and overhead worm drive. This Lea Francis car was succeeded by A.O. Lord’s Type T, with its advanced but unreliable Lea Francis LFS-type, double ohc engine of 1.7-litres. There was also, in 1928, a 2-litre six Lea Francis car. These Vulcan/ Lea Francis cars ended with the demise of the Vulcan. However, an excellent Lea Francis car with a six was at last introduced for 1931: the Lea Francis Ace of Spades model, with their own 2-litre, single ohc engine. This Lea Francis car continued alongside the old 12/40hp until 1935, together with a new 18hp Lea Francis car, which was a 2¼-litre enlargement of the Lea Francis Ace of Spades. However, a really powerful Lea Francis car was also listed from 1928. This Lea Francis Hyper Sports was a quite different car, with its heavily-modified, Cozette-supercharged Meadows 1½-litre engine, low build and raked radiator. The sports-racing two-seater Lea Francis car could attain 90mph, though a coupé and a short open tourer could also be had by those who did not intend to enter competitions. The Lea Francis Hyper Sports won the 1928 Ulster Trophy race.

A new company introduced two entirely new Lea Francis cars for 1938. These Lea Francis cars were designed by Hugh Rose, who had been responsible for the Riley Nine engine and, like the Riley, had 4-cylinder power units with push-rod overhead valves operated by two high camshafts. The Lea Francis car had ceased to be an entirely assembled car. A 12hp and a 14hp Lea Francis car were available, with cubic capacities of 1½ and 1.6-litres. Both had a 4-speed synchromesh gearbox. A sports version of the 1½-litre Lea Francis car was also sold, thus maintaining the old tradition. These two ‘Leafs’ were good cars, and as they were new, up-to-date Lea Francis carmodels, they could be continued after World War 2. Most of those built in this period were Lea Francis Fourteens, which were heavier but had a bigger bore and a capacity of 1.8-litres. A tuned sports Lea Francis car of the 14hp arrived for 1948. At the end of that year, an export version of the 14hp Lea Francis car, with torsion-bar independent front suspension, was shown and this suspension was adopted for both the 14hp and for the new 18hp, with a 2½-litre engine, in 1950. The sports model of the 18hp Lea Francis car was a fine car, with 100bhp available. The Lea Francis cars for 1953 had hydraulic brakes, but that was the last year in which the Lea Francis car appeared as a competitive production car. By mid-1952, output had fallen to six Lea Francis cars a week. An expensive car of specialist appeal,  the post-war years were too hard for it. In 1960 a few prototypes of a new sports Lea Francis car, the Leaf-Lynx, were made, but it never reached production. The power unit of this Lea Francis car was a 2½-litre Ford Zephyr, there was independent front suspension and disc brakes were supplied, but the car was ill-favoured and ill received. No better luck attented the Lea Francis carfirm’s attempt to make the Nobel bubble-car.

Source: Georgano, encyclopedia of motorcar; TRN

The information is written with the greatest of care. However, if you have any suggested amendments please contact us at office@prewarcar.com

Overland

US, 1903 – 1963

(1) Standard Wheel Co, Terre Haute, Indiana, 1903 – 1905

(2) Overland Co, Indianapolis, Indiana, 1905 – 1907

(3) Willys-Overland Co, Toledo, Ohio, 1908 – 1963

The makes Willys, Overland and Willys-Knight are inseparable, if only ecause of their confusing nomenclature. The original product of the Standard Wheel Co, as Overland cars were originally called,  was a tiller-steered single-cylinder runabout with solid tyres which differed from most of its contemporaries in having its engine mounted in front under a real bonnet. This Overland car sold for $595. This Overland car had grown up by 1905 into a wheel-steered 1.3-litre twin, still with planetary transmission, and the company changed its style and moved to Indianapolis. Financial difficulties In 1907 brought John North Willys, and Elmira, N.Y. automobile dealer into the picture, and under his ownership a $1.250 4-cylinder Overland cars was produced, this having a pedal-controlled planetary transmission in the Ford manner, separately-cast cylinders, and a transaxle. There were two sixe-cylinder Overland cars in 1909, an Overland car at $2.000, and the 45hp Willys costing $250 more. Both the Willys name and multi-cylinder engines disappeared in 1910, and production of 4-cylinder Overland cars was concentrated in the old Pope factory at Toledo. During these years Willys continued to distribute the Marion, for which he had held an agency in the Elmira days. High-tension magneto ignition was used on the 1912 Overland cars, which included a 3.2-litre 2-speed Overland Model 58 at $850, a 3-speed version (Model 59 Overland car) with conventional gearbox at $900, and two bigger 4 Overland cars at $1.200 and $1.500 respectively. By 1914 Overland cars had moved into the ranks of the best-sellers with the 79 series Overland car at $950, a 4-litre car which helped to sell 80.000 Overland cars that year. 1915 saw a sv Overland 6 at $1.145, with the group moving up into second place behind Ford in the sales race. Willys-Knight, still a young make, was placed eighteenth: and in 1916 a second Willys 6, with 5-litre engine, joined the range, to remain there for three seasons. Willys-Knight had a V8 on a 10ft 5in wheelbase for $1.950 in 1917, but in 1919 4s Overland cars only were being made, the chassis L-head Overland car having made its appearance at the low price of $495. The 4-cylinder Willys-Knight had 3.3-litre engines and sold around the $1.400 mark.

In 1920 Willys Overland Crossley Ltd was formed in England with works at Stockport: this was a subsidiary of Crossley Motors Ltd, and assembled Overland cars for the British market. It originated nothing save in 1924 version of the Overland car powered by a 1.802cc Morris-Oxford engine. Overland cars continued to sell well in America, the Overland Model-92 ‘Redbird’ appearing in 1923 and helping to push the year’s sales up to 196.000 Overland cars. Sixes were back in the Overland carprogramme for 1925, the Overland car being a straightforward 3.3-litre sv machine selling for $895, while Willys-Knight’s Model-66 had a 60bhp 3.9-litre unit and front wheel brakes, and cost $1.845. It supplanted the sleeve-valve 4s the following year, and 1926 also saw the first of Overland cars 2.2-litre 4-cylinder ‘Whippet’ series, priced at $625: these Overland cars repeated the success of the 1919 type. ‘Whippets’ had front wheel brakes in 1927, in which year a companion 2.4-litre 6 Overland car was listed, as well as a smaller and cheaper Model-70 Willys-Knight. This could be bought for only $1.145 in 1928 – a record year both for the group and for the Knight-engined machines, which found 55.000 customers. Other Willys-Overland car products during this period were the Stearns-Knight and Falcon-Knight. The Whippet Overland car was restyled for 1929. The Whippet was now a Willys rather than an Overland car, and in 1931 the 4-cylinder cars were dropped. Sales also slumped, and the sleeve-valve Willys-Knights were allowed to die out with the 87bhp Model-66E of 1932. From 1933 to 1936 the Overland car company struggled through a receivership, making only a 2.2-litre sv 4, the Overland Model 77, with some pretensions to aerodynamic shape and a low price of $445, but this Overland car was brought up to date in 1937 with new styling and synchromesh. The Overland car acquired hydraulic brakes in 1939, reverting briefly to the name of Overland cars: both name and styling of the Overland car were different again by 1941, when the Overland car went under the designation ‘Willys-Americar’, with roomier bodywork, hypoid final drive, and a list price of $705.

During World War 2, Willys-Overland cars, along with Ford, were responsible for series production of the famous 4x4 Bantam inspired ‘Jeep’, and Willy-Overland cars continued its manufacture to civilian account after the War, licences being sold to Hotchkiss in France and Mitsubishi in Japan among others. 

Source: Georgano, encyclopedia of motorcar; MCS

The information is written with the greatest of care. However, if you have any suggested amendments please contact us at office@prewarcar.com