I don't know if you are like me, familiar and unfamiliar with the Lincoln brand. The reason why it is familiar is because when I was a child, I often saw its extended version of the courtesy car on the road, and the extraordinary shape always made people can't help but stop and look at it a few times. The reason why it is strange is that I really don't know much about this brand. It was later learned that it came from the United States and was a luxury brand with a history of nearly a hundred years. Today, the Lincoln brand has officially entered China. But compared to its compatriot Cadillac, it is still much stranger to most Chinese consumers. This brand, which is both familiar and unfamiliar, is really curious, why does it have the same name as US President Abraham Lincoln? What is its relationship with Ford? In addition, what other wonderful stories does this brand have? As the Lincoln brand takes root in the Chinese market, we may wish to go back in time and understand its century-old development history.
Now when we mention American luxury brands, we can't always avoid Cadillac and Lincoln. In fact, both brands were founded by the same person, Henry Lealand. However, it is surprising that these two brands did not develop under the henri Leland family in the end, but sold to GM and Ford respectively, thus creating a very different fate of the two brands.
Henry Lealand was born in February 1843 to an ordinary family in Danville, Vermont, USA, to eight siblings. Because his father was a farmer and unable to support the family, Henry Leland began to leave his hometown at the age of 11, initially as an apprentice at a loom factory in Massachusetts.
Henry Lealand, who was sent to the Arsenal, was exposed to precision machinery for the first time, which laid the foundation for his future career development. After the war, he was unemployed for a while, and in order to survive, he temporarily worked dozens of jobs as a porter, cleaner and even a policeman, and finally, by chance, he was able to learn from a teacher at an ordnance factory in Massachusetts.
Henry Lealand, who came to Detroit, did not start in the automotive industry, but founded a company that produced machinery and equipment. In the 1890s, the company began producing steam motors and gasoline engines. However, Henry Leland's association with the automobile was purely accidental. In 1901, the legendary American automobile company OzMobil was in need of more engines because it was expanding its production line, so it approached Henry Leland.
The first order from OzMobil to Henry Lealand was not much, only 2,000 units were needed. Nevertheless, before the contract was officially signed, Henry Lealand decided to overhaul the engine supplied to Ozmobil, which was significantly more efficient, smooth, quiet, and more powerful.
After constant trial and error, Henry Lealand produced nearly half as many engines as the Dodge engines that were also supplied to Ozmobil at the time. But at this time, Lanthom Oz unilaterally refused to order for various reasons, which was undoubtedly a disastrous blow to Henry Leland's company. Because this engine has no other way but to sell it to OzMobil. Just when everyone was desperate, a turnaround occurred.
Henry Lealand discouraged the two investors from shutting down the company after the inspection, believing the factory to be quite advanced at the time, and offered the idea of letting them use Leland engines to continue building cars. The two investors accepted Henry Lealand's proposal. On August 22, 1902, the original Henry Ford Company was officially renamed Cadillac Company, and a century-old brand was born.
In 1701, Antony Mens Cadillac and 51 others, under the name of Louis XIV's Minister of the Navy, Count PonChatran, established Fort Punchatrand on the banks of detroit in the ideal settlement of the Great Lakes region, and gradually developed into a city, with Mr. Cadillac serving as the first mayor. Henry Leland renamed the company Cadillac, partly to celebrate detroit's 200th anniversary, but also to pay tribute to Mr. Cadillac.
Under henry leland, Cadillac's development quickly attracted the attention of the industry, including the wealthy General Motors Group. After nearly two years of tug-of-war negotiations, Cadillac finally accepted a general motors acquisition request in 1909. It should be noted that after becoming a part of General Motors, Henry Leland still managed Cadillac.
William Durant opposed Henry Leland because he did not want the war to affect cadillac's development. In a fit of rage, Henry Leland left cadillac, which he founded, to focus on the production of aircraft engines. The company that Henry Lealand founded in 1917 was called Lincoln, and perhaps he never imagined that the two companies he founded would become the most brilliant pearls in the history of the American automobile industry, and would glorify a hundred years and become legends.
Henry Lealand was a loyal supporter of President Lincoln, who joined Lincoln's Squadron at the outbreak of the Civil War and subsequently voted for lincoln when he ran for president, showing that Henry Lealand had great admiration for President Lincoln. Therefore, after he founded the company that produced aircraft engines, he used Lincoln as the company name to pay tribute to this great man.
The biggest highlight of the L-model is the V8 engine with an angle of 60 degrees, which Henry Lealand believes runs more smoothly than the 90-degree angle engine used by Cadillac. The L-model's engine proved to be really better, with a maximum power of 82 horsepower and a top speed of 113km/h, matched with a 3-speed manual transmission.
In fact, at the beginning of the production of the L-model, everyone was still enthusiastic about it. When people hear that Henry Leland, a brilliant engineer, wants to produce a top car, they are quite expectant. Henry Lealand used the most advanced technology of the time, and every detail was meticulously crafted. The Model L sold for as little as $6,100 at the time, 16 times the price of a Ford Model T.
Lincoln was at a disadvantage, and after the L model sales did not improve, the company lost nearly $100,000 a month, and dealers cancelled orders. Even more deadly, a House Special Inquiry Committee that examined violations of defense contracts during World War I made Lincoln's situation even more dire. They pointed out that Lincoln was in arrears with $9 million in taxes, and although it was ultimately determined to be $1.5 million, Henry Lealand was still unable to raise the amount. In November 1921, Henry Leland had to declare Lincoln Company bankrupt and would be auctioned off.
In Lincoln's history, Edsel Ford was an important figure who helped Lincoln out of his predicament and joined the Ford family. But all this is far from being as simple as everyone thinks.
When he heard that Lincoln was about to be auctioned, Edsell was very happy, and immediately went to his father to buy the company with superb technology and super prestige. However, Henry Ford poured cold water on him, indicating that he was not interested in Lincoln. But Edsell did not want to lose this hard-won opportunity, and even invited his mother to help persuade him.
The trick worked, and with the persuasion of the two, Henry Ford finally agreed to the request. In January 1922, Henry Ford announced that he was going to buy Lincoln, and Henry Leland was excited to learn of this news, and looked forward to setting sail again with Ford's support.
On the morning of February 4, 1922, the auction officially began, Lincoln's initial starting price was $5 million, and the federal judge who later monitored the auction raised the price to $8 million to protect the interests of creditors. Ford's representatives were the first to shout out a price of $8 million on the spot, and no other company on the scene offered a second higher price, and Ford easily acquired Lincoln as he wished.
When the news of the Ford acquisition reached the Lincoln plant, everyone cheered and prepared to make another big splash in the auto market. When Henry Ford came to the factory, he was greeted with thunderous applause from the workers. Apparently, he was seen as a savior. Nothing was happier than Edsell, who finally had the opportunity to realize his dream. Everything seems to be going in a good direction, but for Henry Leland, the real nightmare is about to begin.
After Ford's acquisition of Lincoln, Henry Lealand and Henry Ford had major disagreements over autonomy and shareholder responsibility, and the authoritarian Henry Ford immediately issued an "expulsion order", which was only 4 months away from the original friendly relationship.
After the acquisition of Lincoln Motor Company, Edsell was appointed Lincoln's first chairman, and Edsell, who was very design-oriented, was once enthusiastic, saying: "My father built the most popular car. I, on the other hand, want to create a classic that can last for a hundred generations. But in reality, he knew very well that Lincoln's true voice was always controlled by Henry Ford. Otherwise, he would have thought of a way to keep Henry Lealand, whom he admired so much.
Before the acquisition of Lincoln, Henry Leland and Henry Ford had already intersected. At the first Detroit Auto Show in 1901, Henry Leland's engines were running side by side with Dodge's engines, and under normal circumstances, Henry Leland's engines should have performed better, but Henry Leland was surprised to find that the two engines were the same speed. Soon the truth was revealed: Henry Leland had a belt brake installed on his engine. It was Henry Ford who discovered and told Henry Leland about it. This time for the two people can only be said to have a one-sided relationship, there is no conflict of interest.
The second intersection of the two came in 1902, when Henry Ford used a group of investors interested in the automotive industry to form Henry Ford Corporation, with Henry Ford as the company's chief engineer. Still, he has a divergence of opinion with investors. Henry Ford believes that racing cars should be produced first to raise the company's profile, while investors believe that civilian cars that cost around $1,000 should be produced. Both sides were stubborn and neither side backed down, and eventually investors chose another way to express their dissatisfaction with Henry Ford — a new engineer. The engineer was Henry Leland, and Henry Leland's arrival directly forced Henry Ford away.
No one knows whether Henry Ford's "expulsion" of Henry Lealand after the acquisition of Lincoln was a "personal vendetta", but the story between the two contemporaries is as wonderful as a TV series. In contrast, Henry Leland's final fate is more tragic.
After taking charge of Lincoln, Edsell put all of his energy into the design of the new high-end sedan. From body paint and cabin leather upholstery to engine development, Edsel is craftsman-crafted. After months of hard work, Edsell and the engineers finally completed the design of the new car. But when he gave Henry Ford the blueprints and plans of the design with great anticipation, he was disappointed again. Henry Ford's refusal to invest in the production of the Lincoln brand made Edsell very sad.
When it came to building the Model K, Edsell subdivided the work, with some people responsible for the design of sedans, some specializing in convertibles, and some specializing in limited edition research and development. According to statistics, of the 1502 K series models produced in 1932, there are 20 different shapes. Such a wide variety of models was rare in those days, and it was hailed as the prettiest American luxury car of its time.
The Model K was most proud of introducing a special edition of the Model K for President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1939 called the Sunshine Special. "Let the busy president enjoy a moment of sunshine" is the original intention of the designers, in addition to its wheelbase of more than 4 meters, the total length of the body is 6.55 meters. It is fitted with armored doors and bulletproof glass, as well as armrests designed for guards to stand next to the car.
The British royal family also had a fondness for the Model K, and in April 1939, the convertible version of the Model K became the royal car for members of the royal family to visit Canada, and it led the Royal Convoy on a one-month cruise across the entire Canadian border. The car was then selected for three royal parades and was eventually collected by detroit's famous Calrail Museum.
In fact, the story of the president of the United States with the car dates back to 1899, when William McKinley became the first president in history to ride in a car, when his steam-powered car was dominated by F.O. Kennedy. Stanley) Company manufacturing. Ten years later, President William Howard Taft converted the White House's horse farm into a garage, allocating $25,000 to buy cars and hire drivers.
Lincoln's association with the White House first appeared in the 1920s, when President Warren G. Harding became the first U.S. president to attend an important occasion by car. Prior to this, President Harding had often taken a car to go camping with Henry Ford and Edison, and their means of transportation was a Lincoln car customized for outings.
In the 1930s, Ford's rivals had very complete product lines. GM's brands include Chevrolet, Pontiac, Buick and Cadillac, and GM Chrysler also has Plymouth, Dodge and Desoto, etc. Ford Prince Edsell realized that there must be a luxury car cheaper than the K-model to compete with its opponents.
Pierce-Arrow Silver Arrow introduced many of the controversial designs of the time: recessed door handles, headlights/fenders that joined the body, and streamlined shapes. The model deeply touched Edsell, who was extremely sensitive to design, and interestingly, the Pierce-Arrow Silver Arrow appeared at the 1933 Chicago Show.
It was not easy to accomplish his ambitions, and due to the Great Depression, Ford lost a total of $120 million between 1930 and 1933, and Edsell struggled with design management, knowing that to keep the company's models alive and creative, he had to form his own professional design team. So, despite the limited conditions, Edsel set up an independent design department. The design department initially had only 24 full-time designers and a few apprentices, plus other support staff, and the entire team was only about 50 people.
Speaking about working with Edsell, Gregory once wrote: "Although I did the work of designing the car with a pen, in fact, Edsell's design talent gave me a lot of inspiration, and he guided me to design the good Ford, Mercury and Lincoln models. Our cooperation is very tacit. ”
On April 29, 1937, Eugene Bob George, one of Lincoln's chief designers, filed a patent for Lincoln Zephyr's design. This model subverted the immutable concept of car design at the time, and the streamlined front design was the focus of attention in the following years. In the economic downturn of the 30s, the arrival of the Zephyr rekindled enthusiasm for luxury cars.
In Ford's history, in 1957, a station wagon called Edelsey was introduced, a car specially produced by Henry Ford in memory of his son Edsell. However, it was later known that the huge investment in the Edsel model ended in failure. If you want to count the most proud works of Edsel's life, it must be Continental.
After finding Gregory, Edsel commissioned him to design a sedan inspired by what he had seen on the European continent. In less than an hour, Gregor used crayons to sketch on transparent contour paper, and a classic was born in his hands. When Edsell saw the drawings, he immediately fell in love with the car's design.
In March 1939, the first Lincoln Continental was officially born. Edsel was on vacation in Hobby Sand at the time, and when the car arrived in front of Edsell, he was fascinated by it. Immediately drove it up for the first time. It is reported that along the way, nearly 200 people came to ask Edsell whether he accepted the order, I am afraid that even he did not expect Continental to be so popular, so he immediately called Gregory and asked them to produce Continental immediately.
Speaking about its predictions for future design trends, the magazine wrote: "What is being anticipated right now is the car Lincoln will launch next year. It also mentions: "A few inspirations for the design of future models can be found in Lincoln Zephyr. ”
In October 1939, the Lincoln Continental was officially launched, and it sold for $2850, somewhere between the Zephyr and the Model K. Continental's hot sales made Edsell very proud, and he even found a spokesperson for Continental, who is the movie star Mickey Rooney. Mickey Rooney is a good friend of Edsell, and Edsell believes that Mickey Rooney will make this wonderful model remembered by more people.
● Opened a dedicated production line for Continental
The production conditions of the first Continental were very limited, and at that time it could only be attached to zephyr's production line. However, many places in Continental are done by hand, not only to meet the numerous customization requirements, but also to provide customers with many interior options. Based on the enthusiastic public response to the Continental, Lincoln set up a special production line for it on September 20, 1940, and planned two models, sedan and convertible.
In the first two years of the Continental's launch, more than 5,000 units were sold, a figure that is insignificant compared to Ford's other models, but its impact is by no means reflected in these numbers. In 1951, the Museum of Modern Art in New York selected 8 of the most iconic luxury cars to be exhibited in the "Art of Excellence Only" theme exhibition, and the Lincoln Continental Coupe was honored with the top spot.
In 1939, World War II broke out. In the early stages of the war, the war was mainly carried out on the European continent and had not yet spread to the United States. As for whether to enter the war or not, the United States was divided into two major factions, of which Henry Ford and Sloane both advocated not participating in the war. However, with the outbreak of Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, the United States was officially involved in World War II.
Lincoln was founded as a company that supplied Liberty aircraft engines for World War I, and after two decades of transformation, Lincoln became the world's premier high-end luxury car brand. But after the outbreak of World War II, the production of all civilian cars in the United States was forced to stop.
Equally remarkable compared to these important war-ready facilities was the fact that women were involved in the production in large numbers at that time. During the war, thousands of women were actively involved in all walks of life to keep the country functioning properly. By November 1943, Lincoln and Ford employed a total of 204,000 people, 30 percent of whom were women.
After nearly four years of production, Lincoln finally revived the production line for luxury cars. At that time, as far as the brand and the whole world were concerned, Lincoln's best era was coming.
Full text summary:
As a century-old brand, the Lincoln brand is legendary from its inception to its development. Imagine that if Henry Leland had not been patriotic and led the team to set up a company to contribute to the motherland, I am afraid that there would be no Lincoln brand in the world, and he may have been good and finally Cadillac. Of course, the excitement of the history of automobile development may also be much less impressive. Heaven always seems to love to joke with Henry Lealand, as the founder, he did not run Lincoln for a long time, and after being acquired by Ford, henry Lealand's treatment added a bit of sadness to his legendary life.
Both Cadillac and Lincoln, although Henry Lealand "left" them shortly after their birth. But they have not lost the "wealth" left by Henry Lealand, which is the exquisite craftsmanship of quality and the perfect pursuit of model design. After Henry Lealand left, Ford Prince Edsell took over his class well, the Lincoln Zephyr and continental became classic models in automotive history, and the Sunshine Special became the presidential car. At a time when people thought the best of Lincoln was coming, World War II broke out, and even more sadly, Edsell, who devoted his life to Lincoln, unfortunately fell ill with cancer... What kind of challenges Lincoln will face next, let's talk about it next time.
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