Lincoln

US, 1909

Lincoln Motor Vehicle Co, Lincoln, Ill.

This Lincoln car was a high-wheeler with solid rubber tyres, using a 4-stroke, 2-cylinder air-cooled engine of 1.7-litres. Three Lincoln car-models were made, two with shaft drive and one with a single chain.

US, 1911 – 1914

Lincoln Motor Car Works, Chicago, Ill.

After the closure of the Sears venture, the Lincoln Motor Car Works made a high wheeler of similar design to the Sears for a few years. Most Lincoln cars were commercial vehicles.

AUS, 1919 – 1924

Lincoln Motor Car Co, Sydney, N.S.W.

The Lincoln car was an attempt to place on the roads of Australia a car embodying the best of standard components and Australian workmanship, the latter including the radiator design and body. A Continental 6-cylinder engine was used on the Lincoln car for power and the touring Lincoln car sold in 1923 for £A590 with wire wheels extra. The Lincoln Motor Co of Detroit, Mich., requested the Lincoln car company to drop the Lincoln name in 1923, but it is not recorded that the Australian Lincoln car company did so.

US, 1920 to date

Lincoln Motor Co, Detroit, Mich.

After Henry M. Leland’s resignation from Cadillac in 1917, he evolved another big sv V8 which came on the market under the name of Lincoln in 1921. This Lincoln car had a capacity of 5.8-litres and developed 81bhp. Cylinder heads were detachable and full-pressure lubrication was adopted at a time when many American makers pinned their faith to splash systems. Over 70mph was possible with the Lincoln car and it was not excessively expensive at $4.300, but the style of the bodies did not match the quality of the mechanical components, and Henry Ford acquired the Lincoln car company after it had encountered financial difficulties in 1922. Both Leland and his son Wilfred resigned a few months later for the Lincoln car company , but Ford retained the traditions of quality, adding aluminium pistons from the time of his takeover. Lincoln cars were much used by both gangsters and police, the latter driving tuned versions capable of over 80mph and equipped with front wheel brakes, a luxury not available to the general public on Lincoln cars until 1927. President Coolidge bought a Lincoln car in 1924, establishing a link between the Lincoln car marque and the White House: Franklin D. Roosevelt’s Sunshine Special was one of the last 12-cylinder Lincoln car Ks, Harry S. Truman ordered an open Lincoln Cosmopolitan in 1950 and John F. Kennedy bought a Lincoln Continental in 1961.

Lincoln cars sold steadily in limited numbers – nearly 9.000 Lincoln cars in 1926. Engine capacity went up to 6.3-litres in 1928. 1931 Lincoln cars had a 12ft 1in wheelbase, downdraught carburation and 120bhp engines, but in 1932 there came a new 7.2-litre Lincoln KB-type V12 with vacuum booster brakes. This Lincoln car was joined the following year by a smaller 6.2-litre Lincoln KA-type 12 at $2.700, and all subsequent Lincoln cars made up to 1948 were to have 12-cylinder power units. In 1934 both Lincoln cars gave way to a 6.8-litre Lincoln K with aluminium cylinder heads, and a top speed of nearly 100mph. The Lincoln car Division could not, however, support itself on the dwindling prestige-car market, and for 1936 they offered a popular V12 Lincoln car, the 4.4-litre, 110bhp Lincoln Zephyr. Unitary construction was adopted on Lincoln cars; other characteristics were a synchromesh gearbox, headlamps faired into the front wings, a fastback style and an alligator-type bonnet. The brakes, however, were mechanical, and Ford’s traditional transverse suspension was used on Lincoln cars as well. It cost $1.320 and the engine of the Lincoln car was used in Anglo-American hybrids of the period: the Allard, Atalanta and Brough Superior. 1938 Lincoln Zephyrs had a dashboard gear change. Hydraulic brakes followed in 1939, and column change in 1940. Meanwhile the Model K Lincoln car had at last been dropped; sales for the combined 1939 and 1940 seasons had been 120 of these Lincoln cars and the black-bordered emblems on the last models were symbolic. To balance this, a new Lincoln car-product had been launched in 1939, the Lincoln Mercury. There were also some relatively inexpensive prestige Lincoln cars – Edsel Ford’s Zephyr-based Continental coupés and cabriolets, with 4.8-litre engines. Options on the Lincoln car in the last pre-war seasons included overdrive, a fluid coupling, and power-operated hoods and windows. No entirely new Lincoln cars appeared until 1949, when a change was made to Ford’s new styling and coil-spring independent front suspension for the Lincoln cars, while at the same time the 12-cylinder engine was replaced by an sv under-square 5½-litre V8. Manual transmission was dropped finally from Lincoln cars in 1951, and 1952 models swept the board in the touring-car class of that year’s Carrera Panamericana, the winning Lincoln car averaging 90mph. 205bhp ohv engines were introduced for 1953, and the 1956 line of Lincoln cars consisted of the 6-litre 285bhp Lincoln Premiere and Lincoln Capri, as well as a revived Lincoln Continental at $10.000 made in very limited numbers. Dual headlamps were adopted for the 1957 Lincoln cars, and 1958 Lincoln cars had unitary construction – this was the year of Lincoln-Mercury Division’s disastrous Edsel. After 1961 the Continental became the staple Lincoln car, and unusual body style being a 4-door convertible of a type not offered by the American motor industry for some years; this was discontinued in 1968, when Lincoln cars had 7.571cc 340bhp engines and front disc brakes (standardized in 1966 on Lincoln cars). This short-wheelbase Lincoln Continental III luxury 2-door hardtop introduced during the year reverted to the separate chassis and the traditional radiator grille. List price of the Lincoln car was $6.585. The company also built a $500.000 Lincoln car, a bullet-proof Lincoln Presidential limousine on a special 13ft 4in chassis.

All 1970 Lincoln carmodels had concealed headlamps an perimeter frames; that year’s production of 58.771 Lincoln cars was well below Cadillac’s level, but appreciably ahead of Chrysler’s prestige Imperial. By 1973 cylinder capacity was 7.359cc, and improvements on the Lincoln car for the year were mainly concerned with safety. Most expensive Lincoln car was the Lincoln Continental IV, basically the 1972 revision of the Continental III with a Rolls-Royce style grille. Prices for this Lincoln car ranged from $7.322 for the Continental 4-door sedan to $8.774 for the Continental Mark IV coupé.

Source: Georgano, encyclopedia of motorcar; GNG, GMN, MCS

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

O.M.

Italy, 1918 – 1934

(1) SA Officine Meccaniche, Brescia, 1918 – 1928

(2) O.M. Fabbrica Bresciana di Automobili, Brescia, 1928 – 1934

The Officine Meccaniche (OM cars) was a locomotive-building firm that absorbed Züst in 1918, and continued the production of that firm’s 4.7-litre sv 4-cylinder 25/35hp until 1923. Alongside this, however, they introduced their own design OM cars, with conventional sv monobloc engines, detachable heads, 12-volt coil ignition, thermos-syphon cooiling, and single-plate clutches. The OM cars were the work of an Austrian named Barratouché and changed little with the years, so much so that it is true that only one OM car theme reached the public – first as a four, and then as the famous 2-litre 6-cylinder OM Superba. The OM carcompany showed, but did not market, a 3-litre straight-8 OM car development in 1928. First of the OM car series was the OM 465, a 1.327cc four rated at 12/15hp in Italy. Output of this OM car was 18bhp and there were three forward speeds. In 1921 came the 1.410cc OM 467, and a year later this OM car gave way to the 1½-litre OM 469, available from the start with 4-wheel brakes and (until 1925) with straight bevel back axle. Initially developing a modest 40bhp, this OM car was giving 60bhp in single-carburettor touring form by 1926, and sports model OM cars were capable of 75mph. Competition successes of OM cars included the 1925 Tripoli GP, 4th at Le Mans in 1925 and 1926, and a victory at Minoia and Morandi in the first Mille Miglia of 1927.

In 1926 OM cars built a dohc straight-8 OM car for the 1.500cc Grand Prix Formula, but its 3-speed gearbox was against it, and the best showing of this OM car was a 2nd place in the 1927 European GP. The OM 665 was extensively modified for the British market by Rawlences, the concessionaires in London, and OM cars appeared with dual ignition, 12-plug heads of Ricardo type, 4-speed gearboxes of ENV make with right-hand change, and Dewandre servo brakes. In 1929 Rawlence produced an ohv conversion of the OM car with three carburetors and dual ignition that ran in the TT and the Double-Twelve. This OM car was catalogued in England, though never in Italy, where in the same year some works-built supercharged 80bhp sv OM cars appeared with raked radiators and underslung frames, followed by improved 1930 OM car versions on which capacity was increased to 2.350cc. This OM car was nog offered to the public, though standard 1930 OM cars had 2.2-litre engines; this size persisted until 1934 and supercharged sports editions of OM cars were also listed.

Though OM cars could still race to some purpose (there was a 2nd with an OM car in the 1931 Mille Miglia), the emphasis of OM cars was shifting towards commercial vehicles powered by Saurer diesel engines made under licence, and in 1930 the stock of private OM cars on hand was sold to the Esperia concern, run by two former OM car executives, Coletta and Mangano. It seems unlikely that they built any vehicles, and when Fiat acquired OM cars in 1933 the private cars were doomed.

Curiously, a new design for the OM car was announced in 1934; this one, the OMV or Alcyone, had synchromesh, hydraulic brakes, and overhead exhaust valves, but though the OM car did the round of the shows, this OM car was not made in series. A 1½-litre ohc four designed by Olivio Pellegatti did not even get off the drawing-board. O.M. still exist as makers of trucks, tractors and railway rolling-stock, but since 1968 they have been a sezione of Fiat.

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