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He was a rural kid from the Green Mountains of Vermont, a youngster coming up who enjoyed working with his hands, especially when those hands were controlling machine tools. He came into the auto industry very late in his lifetime, but in that short span of years, Henry Martyn Leland founded two of the United States' most storied automotive brands, marques that remain with us a century later. His lifetime paralleled the growth of the Industrial Revolution and its attendant transformation of American society.
Leland proved to be a transformative figure in the way any number of American products were manufactured. He was born in Barton, Vermont, not far from the Canadian border, in 1843. Like many Vermonters, the family operated a small farm. That provided the youngster with ample opportunities to experiment with agricultural equipment, such as it existed at the time. By the time he reached the age of 14, he'd left the farm to seek his fortune. That odyssey first took him to Massachusetts, where he trained to be a machinist's apprentice. At that time, the industry being most exposed to modern machining techniques was gunsmithing. As the Civil War approached, most firearms were still pieced together using the artisan method. Frequently, due to their lack of parts commonality, no two guns were exactly alike. That made repairs or parts replacement in the field nearly impossible. That was a problem for the Army, which demanded that rifles and other weapons be built en masse with interchangeable parts. Following his apprenticeship, Leland found a home at Colt, then a dominant supplier of military weapons. The lessons, skills and engineering instincts that he learned at Colt, and later at the Springfield Armory, remained with him for a lifetime.
It's worth revisiting the enormous impact that New England's firearms industry would have on the auto industry at the time of its birth. Leland, and many others, were disciples of the engineering disciplines forged by Eli Whitney, one of this country's great early inventors and industrialists. It was Whitney's creation of the easily repaired cotton gin that turned cotton into the great economic engine of the South. Whitney then branched out into making muskets for the government in Washington. His work on parts interchange literally transformed the making of guns, both at home and abroad. An army, or an individual settler, could now maintain stocks of parts that allowed rapid repairs to be made in the field. The worlds of armed combat and industrial manufacturing were changed eternally.
Leland was virtually alone during the auto industry's early years as having actually voted for Abraham Lincoln, in 1864. He tried to enlist in the Union Army but was rejected for being too young. When the war ended, Leland found himself laid off at Massachusetts's Springfield Armory. Unsurprisingly, though, he landed on his feet, finding employment with Brown and Sharpe of Providence, Rhode Island. There, Leland learned that close tolerances--at 0.001 inch, closer even than the gunmakers used--were the true key to parts interchangeability. Brown and Sharpe specialized in precision tools including sewing machines and hair clippers. Then in 1867, the manufacturer produced the first hand-held micrometers that compensated for wear and were accurate to a thousandth of an inch. Leland was obsessed with precision, and as a company manager in 1876, shepherded the invention of the Brown and Sharpe Universal Grinder. It's still considered one of the great advances in the machine-tool business. It essentially worked in the opposite way as a lathe, with the work traveling past the grinding wheel on a table with precisely controlled travel distances. During the 1880s, Leland supervised its upgrading with additional power and improved cooling.
By 1885, Leland enjoyed a reputation in the industry as a gifted engineer, production manager and efficiency expert. Brown and Sharpe appointed him national sales manager, and he began making frequent trips to Detroit, where starry-eyed men were experimenting seriously with self-propelled carriages. In 1890, Leland moved to Michigan permanently, and backed by a lumber magnate named Robert Faulconer, opened Leland, Faulconer and Norton; later on Norton would become a well-regarded early camshaft grinder. The new firm's specialty was gear grinding and the production of specialized machine tools. That brought Leland directly into contact with bicycle producers that would later end up building automobiles: Pierce of Buffalo, New York; Pope of Hartford, Connecticut. Among his innovations was improving the hardening of drive gears for chainless bicycles. During 1896, the firm went into the production of engines, both steam and internal combustion.
The first Lincolns were true luxury performance cars, albeit with indifferent styling. Leland was ultimately forced out of the company by Henry Ford.
That was Leland's true introduction to the nascent motor industry. He became a global legend for precision gear making. The firm began producing marine engines and eventually, came under the gaze of Ransom Eli Olds. The earliest Oldsmobiles developed a reputation for difficult gear-changing, and Olds asked Leland to build him a new, smoother transmission. Olds was thrilled with the outcome, and so asked the company to manufacture him a new engine, too. The single-cylinder gasoline engine produced 10 horsepower and extensively used interchangeable components. Although Olds opted not to retool his factory to produce that engine, the experience was invaluable for Leland.
In 1902, Leland was asked to help with the liquidation of the Detroit Motor Company, one of Henry Ford's earliest enterprises. Instead, he suggested that the firm be reorganized to produce luxury automobiles. Ford, who was already envisioning the Model T, took his leave. Leland suggested naming the car after the founder of Detroit, Antoine de la Mothe Cadillac. The first Cadillac arrived in 1903 and was an immediate success, its price notwithstanding. By 1908, Cadillac had five luxury models in its portfolio, all with fully interchangeable parts. That was revolutionary. Making a deal with the Royal Automobile Club, Leland sent three Cadillacs to London for a demonstration during which they were completely disassembled, the parts mixed up, and the cars put back together. For this accomplishment, the RAC awarded Cadillac the Dewar Trophy for design excellence. The longtime Cadillac motto, "The Standard of the World," was thus born.
So, what was an early Cadillac like? Truth be told, it looked a lot like the original Ford, which debuted in 1903, even to the point that both were called the Model A. Did Henry Ford actually design the initial Cadillac? That's open to conjecture to this day. Both of them followed early Oldsmobile practice in using a horizontally mounted single-cylinder engine with the cylinder head positioned to the car's rear. A two-speed planetary transmission was also employed. The man who actually drove the very first Cadillac was industry pioneer Alanson Brush, with Leland's son Wilfred as a co-driver. Leland was insistent almost to the point of fanaticism on interchangeability, a characteristic that was part of Cadillac's image from the very outset. Specialized limit gauges were fabricated that allowed assemblers to immediately get a go-no-go on using a specific part without having to do repeated micrometer checks. That, in turn, sped up the production process. Leland's own standard for wrist pins, to use one example, is that every single one had to be accurate to within a half-thousandth of an inch, a level of commonality previously unknown in the auto industry.
Leland always considered himself more of an engineer than a business leader. After William Durant pulled together his holdings to found General Motors in 1908, Cadillac's major shareholders expressed an interest in selling out to Durant (for $5.6 million), Leland acquiesced, although he did remain on board as Cadillac's president and general manager. He insisted that no matter who owned Cadillac, it would continue to build the nation's finest premium cars. To that end, he ordered the company to adopt electrical starting and lighting in 1912, a two-speed rear axle in 1914 and for 1915, an innovative series of L-head V-8 engines that powered the entire Cadillac line. Eventually, however, Leland and Durant had a falling out over the future of Cadillac and, at the age of 74, Leland walked out in 1917.
Henry Leland strove to build an even better automobile. Flush with severance cash and stocks, he immediately founded the Lincoln Motor Company (named for his hero, Abraham Lincoln, who he'd helped re-elect in 1864), at first to build Liberty aero engines under license for the aerial battle over Europe. As far as a road car, he envisioned one with 70 MPH capability, more than 80hp and full-pressure lubrication. The first Lincolns, the L-Series, arrived in 1920, looking mostly like a larger Model T Ford, albeit at 10 times the price. The new Lincoln reached the market just in time to see it battered by a global postwar recession. Just a few more than 3,400 of the costly creation were built in its first year, whereupon the board of directors swiftly put the company into receivership.
It was too bad, because even though its styling was initially uninspired, the Lincoln was a strongly engineered automobile. Despite weighing more than 2.5 tons, the heavy Lincoln was a spirited performer thanks to the 60-degree, 357.8-cu.in. L-head V-8 that Leland had designed after his engineering experiences at Cadillac. It made the early Lincolns a heavy favorite among both gangsters and police during the Prohibition era, which helps to explain Lincoln's early adoption of four-wheel mechanical brakes.
Regardless of all that, Leland's old adversary, Henry Ford, reentered the picture when Lincoln went into receivership. Smelling an opportunity to acquire a premium nameplate on the relative cheap, Ford rushed in and offered $8 million to buy Lincoln. Only $336,000 of that total went to Leland--a bit of retribution for the dissolution of the Detroit Motor Company, perhaps?--and by some accounts, Ford stiffed the Lincoln stockholders on a promise that they would recoup their initial investment in Lincoln. The resulting legal battles went on for years. In 1931, Leland wrote letters to the stockholders, personally apologizing for the fact that Ford hadn't compensated them as promised. He died, heartbroken, a year later in Detroit.
Recent
Photo: Barrett-Jackson
Big Easy Barrett-Jackson
The inaugural Barrett-Jackson auction in New Orleans saw 356 cars change hands raking in a total of $21.6 million. The no-reserve auction featured a broad array of high-performance American cars with representation from all the major marques. Among them was a 1970 Oldsmobile Cutlass W-31, which was thought to be one of 1,352 made. The W-31 Cutlass featured its numbers-matching 350 V-8 paired with its numbers-matching three-speed automatic transmission. The air-induction system was complete, and it was finished in bright red exterior complemented by a white bucket-seat interior. Inside, the Cutlass also featured a “his and hers” shifter, AM/FM radio, and 8-track player. When the bidding ended, the W-31 rode off to its new owner on its Super Stock II wheels for $47,300.
One of the finer Mopars at this auction was a 1972 Dodge Charger with the 440 Magnum engine. It underwent a thorough restoration and is one of 785 models built that year outfitted with the U-code 440 four-barrel. The restoration included new sheetmetal finished in a gold and black paint scheme trimmed with a new black vinyl roof; all other exterior trim parts were said to have been replaced, including the windshield wipers, mirrors, grille, headlamps, spoilers, door handles, and tail lamps. The 440 was paired with an automatic transmission and another option included the 26-inch radiator. Inside, the black dash and seat upholstery were restored to new condition and paired with brand-new carpeting and headliner. Most interior parts were also replaced including the steering wheel, visors, mirror, door panels, sill plates, and pedals. The meticulously restored Charger changed hands for $79,200. Full results from Barrett-Jackson’s first New Orleans auction are now available at barrett-jackson.com.
First Fall Mecum Indy
<p>Mecum Auctions hosted its first-ever fall auction in Indianapolis and the new three-day event reported more than $19.5 million in total sales with 567 vehicles finding new homes. The top sale of the auction was a 1967 Shelby G.T. 500 fastback powered by a 428-cu.in. engine with a four-speed manual transmission. The four-year restoration of Shelby number 00706 included a new engine build including replacement cylinder heads and block. The bodywork included using early-style steel-frame fiberglass hood and trunk and was finished in the factory dark blue hue with white Le Mans stripes. Inside, the upholstery was restored adhering to factory specs. All chrome and glass were original except for the windshield, and the carburetors and fuel pump had incorrect date codes. Other points of interest included a rare Parchment Comfortweave interior, Kelsey-Hayes wheels and spare, plus the original heads were a part of the sale. When the bidding ended, the G.T. 500 sold for $275,000.</p><p>Also selling was this 1970 Chevrolet Chevelle SS convertible. It underwent a frame-off restoration that included new bushings, power steering hoses, and brake lines. The Chevelle was powered by the correct LS6 engine, which was paired with a M22 four-speed transmission and had the correct Holley carburetor, aluminum intake and distributor. The convertible top and well were also new and the convertible included a refurbished parchment interior complimenting the Fathom Blue paint finish. The Chevelle changed hands for $115,500. Full results from Mecum’s Fall Indy auction are now available at <a href="https://www.mecum.com/auctions/indy-fall-special-2023/lots/?auction%5B0%5D=Indy%20Fall%20Special%202023%7C1696464000%7C1696636800&configure%5Bfilters%5D=&configure%5BruleContexts%5D%5B0%5D=pin_items">mecum.com</a>.</p>
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1:18-Scale 1969 AMC AMX
HEMMINGS • 800-227-4373 X 79550 • HEMMINGS.COM/STORE • $114.99
American Motors’ “Big Bad” colors were serious head-turners for 1969, and the blue, orange, and green hues available for an additional $34 on AMXs and Javelins weren’t suitable for those who prefer to blend into the crowd. AutoWorld has recreated a special Big Bad Green ’69 AMX with a 390-cu.in. V-8 and four-speed manual in 1:18 scale (item AMM1313). The full-size version of this car was a 2014 MCACN Leading Lady Award winner and received a Gold Level Score at the American Motors Owners National Convention. The collectible diecast features a realistic undercarriage with body-color overspray, as well as a detailed engine bay with chromed air cleaner and rocker covers and legible decals. The trunk lid opens, and the interior sports a wood-rim wheel and accurate-appearing door panels. This new addition to the Hemmings Store is sure to please the AMC fan in your life.
Holley Pub Glass Assortment at Summit Racing
HOLLEY PUB GLASS ASSORTMENT • SUMMIT RACING EQUIPMENT • 800-230-3030 • SUMMITRACING.COM• $18.99
While we’d never condone drinking and driving, it’s a pleasure to hoist a cold one in the comfort of our own home or garage. We muscle car fans can now enjoy our favorite beverages out of glasses adorned with the stylish logos of some of the automotive industry’s most famous and respected high-performance parts firms. Summit Racing Equipment carries six pub-glass assortment sets–each containing four traditionally shaped, 16-ounce drinking glasses bearing colorful logos–celebrating the historic brands under the Holley umbrella. This set, item HLY-36-454, features the Accel, Mallory Ignition, modern MSD, and the vintage MSD logos. The other sets bear logo art from Hooker Classic, NOS, Holley, Hurst, B&M, Flowmaster, and more.
CAMARO SPECIAL EDITIONS • CARTECH PUBLISHING • 800-551-4754 • CARTECHBOOK.COM/CT658 • $36.95
Standing out in a sea of motoring mediocrity and SUV sameness, every Camaro built since production began for the 1967 model year has been a special car. Some of Chevrolet’s pony cars have been a bit more special than the rest, though, and those are the cars this new title from CarTech celebrates. The 11 chapters and 192 pages of the softcover Camaro Special Editions (ISBN 9781613254912) - authored by automotive historian Matt Avery - take Bowtie fans through many of this car’s most significant limited-run variants, both factory- and dealer-built, and those from specialist aftermarket firms. In it you’ll find Z28s, ZL1s, COPOs, Indianapolis Pace Cars, Yenkos, Callaways, SLPs, and many more. Each amply illustrated section contains descriptions of unique features and option codes, and many include charts containing specifications, colors, and production numbers. Still more information can be accessed by scanning the QR codes (printed website links pull up the same) throughout this book, bringing more than 70 additional “virtual” pages of content. It’s a great resource for Camaro fans.
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