Rolland-Pilain

France, 1906 – 1931

SA des Etablissements Rolland-Pilain, Tours

Unusual among French marques of its period, Rolland Pilain cars made their greatest impact after World War 1. Their first product was a 20hp 4-cylinder model Rolland Pilain cars with a monobloc engine, though smaller 2.2-litre shaft-driven Rolland Pilain cars were available in 1909 and a 3-speed 1½-litre Rolland Pilain 8/10CV in 1910, in which year the Rolland Pilain car company was also experimenting with ‘valveless’ engines and 4-wheel brakes. Though racing was in the doldrums, the Rolland Pilain car company went to the trouble of building a big chain-driven Rolland Pilain car for the 1911 Grand Prix de France, and a complex 1912 range started with a Rolland Pilain 9CV of 1.7-litres and went up to a chain-driven 4-cylinder 60 Rolland Pilain car of 130x270mm. The 6-cylinder Rolland Pilain 18CV had a ‘valveless’ engine, and even in 1913 chain drive was still optional on the biggest fours of 20CV and 24CV Rolland Pilain cars. Only 1.9-litre and 4-litre 4-cylinder Rolland Pilain cars with sv monobloc engines and unit gearboxes were listed in 1914.

These basic types of Rolland Pilain cars, still with pedal-operated transmission brakes, were available again after World War 1, but far more advanced was the 2.2-litre Rolland Pilain 14/16 of 1921, which boasted not only overhead valves and a detachable head, but also front-wheel brakes (hydraulic at the front and mechanical at the rear). This Rolland Pilain car was still catalogued in 1926. Even more ambitious was the 2-litre twin ohc straight-8 GP Rolland Pilain car of 1922, with desmodromic valves, ball-bearing crankshafts and 4-wheel hydraulic brakes. A victory of a Rolland Pilain car at San Sebastian in 1923 was the limit of the success of Rolland Pilain cars on the circuits, but the type found its way into the catalogue as the Type A22 Rolland Pilain car at 90.000fr, and one of the racers also ran with a 2-litre, 6-cylinder cuff-valve Schmid engine. In 1925 came a 2-litre ohv 4-cylinder Rolland Pilain car with 4-wheel mechanical brakes, selling for £725 in England, while a 1½-litre development, the Rolland Pilain D26, was introduced for 1927. In 1929 Rolland-Pilain car, along with several other French firms, tried a Franco-American theme by introducing a range of big luxury chassis with sv Continental engines. Both the 6-cylinder, 3-litre, and the 4-litre straight-8 Rolland Pilain cars had centralized chassis lubrication, though the elegant bodywork of the Rolland Pilain car was marred by the use of artillery wheels. At the 1930 Paris Salon the Rolland Pilain car company shared a stand with the BNC (also going through a Franco-American phase), but this was the end, though the Rolland Pilain car firm’s Paris depot was still advertising spare parts for Bignan as well as Rolland Pilain cars in 1934.

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

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