If the 1908 Ford Model T was made as cheaply as possible, the Rolls-Royce Silver Ghost was made with no expense spared. The Rolls-Royce cost seven times as much as the Model T and didn’t even come with a body.

The 1907 Rolls-Royce 40/50 “Silver Ghost” was described as the “Best Car in the World”, an epithet bestowed on it by the magazine Autocar:

“The running of this car at slow speeds is the smoothest thing we have experienced while for the silence the engine beneath the bonnet might be a silent sewing machine

…at whatever speed this car is being driven on its direct third, there is no engine as far as sensation goes, nor are one’s auditory nerves troubled driving or standing by a fuller sound than emanates from an eight day clock.

There is no realisation of driving propulsion; the feeling as the passenger sits either at the front or the back of the vehicle is one of being wafted through the landscape.”

Autocar 1908

The chassis was originally called the 40/50 and the power output was a rather relaxed 48 hp from just over 7 litres of capacity (the current Rolls-Royce Phantom V12 car develops 563 hp from 6.75 litres, nearly 12 times the power).

The gentle state of tune of the Rolls-Royce 40/50 made the engine delightfully flexible and the ability to drive almost everywhere in top gear was of great importance to Edwardian motorists, many of whom could not manage the “crash” gearboxes of the day and were unable to change gear on the move.

Claude Johnson, Rolls-Royce’s managing director realised that excellent though the new model was it needed to be brought to public attention if the newly floated Rolls-Royce Ltd was to succeed.

Johnson had an unerring eye for publicity. He used to balance a glass of water on the bonnet of the new 40/50 while the engine was taken up to 1,600 revolutions per minute, and not a drop would be spilled.

He would also balance a penny on the end of the chassis and the penny would remain where it was.

He then had an even better idea. He persuaded the factory to build a special “demonstrator.” This was chassis no. 60551, the 12th 40/50 to be made.

An open-topped Roi-des-Belges body by Barker was fitted which was specially finished in aluminium paint with silver-plated fittings.

On the dashboard was a plaque with the name that Claude Johnson had chosen: “Silver Ghost”. This actual car, registration number AX 201 features largely in the film “Those Magnificent Men in their Flying Machines”.

It is now considered the world’s most valuable car and is insured for around $35 million US dollars.

Silver Ghost was a name that was to resound down the years in the Rolls-Royce Hall of Fame, a name that at first referred to that particular car but eventually became applied to all 40s/50s.

Going so far up the market meant that the only individuals who could afford a 40/50 Silver Ghost were royalty, dictators, and the very wealthy.

Vladimir Lenin’s Rolls-Royce Silver Ghost was purchased on 11 July 1922. It cost £1,850 which included a 15% discount due to an Eagle aero-engines deal that the new Russian Government had signed with Rolls-Royce.

Because of Moscow’s deep winter snows the car was fitted with caterpillar tracks at the rear and skis on the front wheels so that the dictator could be driven from his Gorki mansion to the Kremlin.

His chauffeur was Adolphe Kegresse, also Tsar Nicholas II’s personal driver (the Tsar had two Silver Ghosts).

Lenin showed just how much of a Bolshevik he was by owning eight more Rolls-Royce cars. At the same time as the Russian people were dying of cold, Lenin installed heated garages for the Rolls.

Lenin’s crimes were many; when famine swept his native Volga region in 1891, killing 400,000 peasants he propagandised against charitable relief efforts from America because the spectacle of death might prove a ‘progressive factor’ in weakening the Romanovs.

Stalin and Brezhnev also owned Rolls-Royces. Wherever history was being made there seemed to be a Rolls-Royce parked around the corner.

The Ford Model T and the Rolls-Royce Silver Ghost shared much the same lifetime, being produced between the years 1908 to 1926, which enables some comparisons to be made. They both had four wheels and a petrol engine.

They could both carry four or five people.  But the chassis price for the 1921 Rolls-Royce American version was US $11,750 ($192,779 in today’s dollars), and the American car cost $300 or $4000 today.

AX 201, the original Silver Ghost is now valued at $35m, and a Ford T is around $10,000.

At least two of Lenin’s Silver Ghosts were converted to half-track drives by Kegresse. They both survive. Kegresse later worked for Citroën for whom he designed halftrack vehicles for use in the desert.

What was the Rolls-Royce Silver Ghost like to drive? As you climb aboard you notice a large, cranked windscreen with a view over the bonnet which makes it look surprisingly short.

The Grecian radiator constantly reminds you that you are driving a Rolls-Royce. On top of the unsupported upright steering column is a big, 4-spoke wheel with a polished wooden rim.

On that is a control cluster with two levers, labelled Fast/Slow and Early/ Late, and the Governor.

The plain-speaking Henry Royce thought that “early/late”, referring to the spark timing, was more understandable than the more usual “advance/retard”.  A plate on the scuttle reads: “Rolls-Royce Ltd., London & Manchester” and gives the car number as 551.

The driver has a snake-like bulb-horn and the front passenger is also provided with a Desmo bulb-hooter, mounted outside below the left elbow.

Outboard of the driver’s door, and between it and the spare tyre are the silver-plated gear and brake levers.

The gear gate is unusual, as 1st is forward and left but 2nd and 3rd positions are both down and back, then with a short movement forward into the overdrive top; the reverse is between bottom and top.

The hand brake operates the cable-applied rear-wheel brakes, which are fairly quiet. The foot brake is little used; it works on the transmission and is likely to bind in hot weather and lock the back wheels in a skid.

The accelerator pedal is to the right of the brake, unusually for those days- it was often between the clutch and brake pedals.

Beside the spare wheel, there is a Cowley speedometer reading from 10 to 80 m.p.h., with a little clock next to it. The engine is idling silently.

When you drive off the Ghost will perhaps feel rather lorry-like, with a heavy clutch and the odd crunch of gears, but the flexible engine soon gets you up to 30 mph which is a comfortable cruising speed even on main roads.

The ride is surprisingly good. The passenger sits high in a comfortable leather armchair and they have to maintain 1 lb. fuel pressure with a vertical floor-mounted bicycle-like plated air pump, watching the gauge that reads to 4 lb/sq. in.

This needs constant attention or else the engine will stop. Otherwise, you glide along in silence. This is the best of Edwardian motoring.                                                         

For a while, the “Silver Ghost” really was the most famous car in the world. Not everyone was an admirer, though.

Laurence Pomeroy of Vauxhall described the Rolls-Royce as a triumph of workmanship over design, by which he suggested they placed too much reliance on correcting errors other manufacturers would have avoided in the first place.

History of the Rolls-Royce Silver Ghost

The Rolls-Royce Silver Ghost was a luxury car produced by Rolls-Royce Limited from 1906 to 1926. Over its 20-year production run, it established Rolls-Royce as the ‘Best car in the world’, setting new standards in luxury, refinement, and reliability.

Name of Vehicle

The Silver Ghost name refers to the silver paintwork as well as the car’s smooth, quiet running.

Early models were officially called the 40/50 h.p. but the Silver Ghost name stuck after one particular car completed a non-stop endurance run, leading Claude Johnson to refer to it as ‘the silver ghost’.

How Many Were Made

Approximately 7874 Silver Ghost cars were produced between 1906 and 1926. Over 6173 of these were built in the Rolls-Royce Derby factory in England. The remainder were produced in Springfield, Massachusetts in the United States.

What Makes It Special

The Silver Ghost established Rolls-Royce as the undisputed manufacturer of the finest motor cars in the world. Key factors that made it stand out include:

• Refinement – The engine ran so smoothly and quietly that at speeds below 20mph it was difficult to tell if it was running at all. This led to the ‘silver ghost’ nickname.
• Reliability – The car set new standards in reliability and endurance thanks to detailed engineering and extensive testing. In 1907, a prototype Ghost completed a 15,000-mile non-stop run, cementing its reputation.
• Quality – The craftsmanship and materials were unrivalled. The coachbuilding was done by external coachbuilders who created beautifully crafted luxurious bodies for the chassis.
• Performance – It was capable of speeds up to 65-70 mph, very fast for the time. The ample 40/50 horsepower engine provided great flexibility and torque at low speeds despite its silence.
• Luxury – The well-appointed interior housed the latest innovations like electric lighting. The ride quality from the sophisticated suspension system was unmatched. It appealed to royalty, aristocrats, and the super wealthy.

Who Designed It?

The main people involved in designing and engineering the Silver Ghost were:

• Henry Royce – Co-founder of Rolls-Royce. He was the engineering brains behind the car, involved in the meticulous design and testing of the chassis, engine, and other mechanical parts.
• Charles Rolls – Co-founder who contributed design ideas, marketing skills and had the vision to realise Royce’s engineering excellence could be turned into the ‘best car in the world’.
• Claude Johnson – Businessman and promoter who led Rolls-Royce in its early years. He was the key driver behind the Silver Ghost model and convinced Royce to go ahead with production.

The Specification

The Silver Ghost had the following key specifications:

• Engine – In-line 6 cylinder, 7668cc displacement, overhead inlet, and side exhaust valves. The rated output was 48 bhp at 1,250 rpm.
• Transmission – 4-speed manual gearbox, with direct drive 3rd, overdrive 4th. Rear wheel drive via the open driveshaft.
• Suspension – Front, half-elliptic leaf springs. Rear, 3/4 platform cantilever springs.
• Brakes – Rear wheel drum brakes only, operated by hand or foot lever.
• Chassis – Long tapered chassis made from pressed steel and wood supports. The wheelbase was 142 inches.
• Body – Made by external coachbuilders. Typically 5-7 seats. Limousine and Tourer bodies are common.
• Dimensions – Length 14 to 15 feet. Width 5 to 6 feet. Height around 6 feet. Weight between 3600 lbs and 2 tons.

The Engine

The Silver Ghost was powered by a six-cylinder, 7668cc engine designed from scratch by Henry Royce. Key aspects:

• Inlet-over-Exhaust – The inlet valves were positioned above the combustion chamber, the exhaust valves on the sides.
• Aluminium Cylinder Head – Gave excellent cooling.
• Detachable Head – The head could be unbolted for easy maintenance and repairs, unusual for the time.
• Pressurised Lubrication – Oil was pumped to critical components for reliable lubrication.
• Extensive Testing – The engine design benefited from rigorous testing and refinement. The patented crankshaft vibration damper ensured the reliability of a component that regularly snapped on rival six-cylindered cars.
• Flexible Power – Abundant torque, especially at low rpm, gave effortless acceleration.

The Interior

The Silver Ghost interior represented the pinnacle of luxury in the early 1900s. Key features included:

• Luxurious Upholstery – The finest leather and wood veneers adorned the interior. Coachbuilders lavished great attention on their creations.
• Comfortable Seating – Deep buttoned seats with generous padding and springs provide unrivalled comfort, even on long journeys.
• Electric Lights – Electric lighting was still a novelty at the time. The Silver Ghost made great use of it to provide illumination at night.
• Comprehensive Instruments – An array of gauges and dials monitored all aspects of the car’s operation. Reliability was paramount.
• Intricate Detailing – From engine-turned aluminium dash panels to embroidered upholstery, no detail was overlooked. Customers could specify their own options.
• Amenities – Later cars had wind-down windows, map pockets, mirrors, heaters, and other amenities to pamper occupants.
• Custom Coachwork – Custom coachbuilders created limousines, coupes, tourers, and more. The Silver Ghost chassis was the perfect canvas for their imagination and skills.

How Many Are Left?

As a car produced over 100 years ago, the number of Silver Ghosts remaining is diminishing as time takes its toll. However, over 200 examples are believed to still exist. Of these:

• Around 180 are in the hands of private owners and collectors. They are highly sought after at auction.
• 20 or more are still road registered and driven on occasion. Well-maintained examples can still be used.
• A number are in museums like the Louwman Museum in The Netherlands which has an excellent collection.
• Some are undergoing or awaiting restoration by specialists. The challenging task keeps craft skills alive.

Parts availability and the dedication of owners have kept more Silver Ghosts on the road than might be expected. Many will remain pristine museum exhibits and investments, reminding us of the pioneering early days of Rolls-Royce.

The Hispano Suiza is a little-known car name now, but in its heyday, the H6 model wrested the title of “The Best Car in the World” away from Rolls Royce’s Silver Ghost.

Hispano Suiza was famed for its aluminium V8 aero engines which powered around half the Allied aircraft during World War One. After the conflict, seeking new markets, the company unveiled a remarkable luxury car at the 1919 Paris Auto Show: the H6.

The engine borrowed design features from the company’s aero engine and the quality of the rest of the H6 car surpassed anything else on the market. But why was there a stork sitting on the bonnet?

The Hispano Suiza H6 Production Years

The Hispano Suiza H6 was made between 1919 and 1933. Only around 2,700 were built.

• Technical Specifications of the 1919 Hispano Suiza H6:
• Engine: single aluminium cylinder block, six steel lined cylinders, a bore of 100 mm and a stroke of 140 mm sweeping a capacity of 6 1/2 litres, a single overhead camshaft, and a seven-bearing crankshaft machined from a single billet of steel with full pressure lubrication.
• Power output: 135 bhp at 3500 rpm.
• No magneto, instead it had twin coil ignition, twin plugs per cylinder providing redundancy. Three-speed gearbox, with right-hand change. Spiral bevel final drive in the rear axle.
• Powered brakes by mechanical servo on all four wheels – a world first – with a handbrake on the rear wheels.
• The suspension was semi-elliptic leaf springs front and rear. Wheelbase 3.69 m.
• Tyre Size 935 x 135 (source uniquecarsandparts).

Who Made the Hispano Suiza Cars?

“Hispano Suiza” simply means “Spanish-Swiss” in Spanish.

The name refers to the founders of the company; Spanish artillery captain Emilio de la Cuadra, who began making electric cars in Barcelona, and a Swiss engineer, Marc Birkigt, who Emilio de la Cuadra hired in Paris to design and build the new petrol (gasoline) engines.

Several car models were built before the First World War. Birkigt was an inspired designer and then drew an aero engine design for the Spanish and French air forces which foreshadowed the very best car engines of today.

King Alfonso XIII of Spain was the Hispano-Suiza designer Marc Birkigt’s patron, and his country’s last monarch. He enjoyed beautifully made fast cars.

The 1919 Hispano Suiza H6

The huge success of their Hispano Suiza HS 8A aero engine made enormous profits and an enviable reputation for the manufacturer.

After the First World War, there was a slump in orders for military aero engines so Hispano Suiza capitalised on its profits and image by going into luxury car production. Rolls-Royce followed a similar trajectory.

Drawing on his aero engine experience Birkigt designed an aluminium engine for the H6 car of six cylinders in a row, using an aluminium cylinder block, a single overhead camshaft, and a crankshaft made from a single piece of billet steel.

There was full pressure lubrication, unusual at the time, and it had twin coils instead of a magneto, and twelve sparking plugs, ensuring aircraft-like reliability.

The 6 1/2 litre H6 car engine developed 135 bhp using a single Solex carburettor: nearly as much as the original Hispano Suiza aero engine.

A new factory in France built the chassis, and the H6 coachwork and interiors were also created in France.

From the “cigogne volante”, or flying stork on the radiator to the 25-gallon fuel tank in the rear, this stunningly beautiful car was truly a Grand Tourer, or “une veritable grande routière”.

It cost a staggering £1,600 in the UK, a sum which could buy nine Morris cars.

In France, it was 110,000 Francs, and there you could have ten Citroens for the same money. And this was just for a bare chassis: the body then had to be added. It was thus the most expensive car in the world.

Art Déco was immortalised in the 1919 Hispano Suiza H6 in the intricate metalwork of mascots, headlights and engine vents, and in the colours and textures of the upholstery and furniture.

This style had emerged in France just before the First World War, taking cues from the bold shapes of Cubism, the primary colours of Fauvism and soon the exoticism of Egyptomania: King Tutankhamun’s tomb was excavated in 1922. 

Egyptian styles had become popular for women’s fashion too: they flung out their Edwardian mother’s corsets, bustles and dresses and ditched their complicated long hairstyles and hats.

What they wanted now was short, bobbed hairstyles, silk pyjamas and short drop-waisted dresses. And the car they wanted to be seen in was the Hispano Suiza H6.

As a result of the car’s technology and fashionable looks, Hispano Suiza H6 owners included Picasso, King Alfonso of Spain and the flying ace André Dubonnet.

The car inspired a best-selling novel, L’Homme à l’Hispano by Pierre Frondaie, in which an impoverished gentleman is given a luxury car by friends and passes himself off as wealthy, attracting a lover. It inspired two films which added still further to the car’s reputation.

As well as having an advanced engine the H6’s brakes were remarkable at a time when most brakes were terrible: there were huge alloy drum brakes on all four wheels and they came with power assistance: a first in the motor industry.

This worked from a mechanical servo drum clutched from the transmission, so all the time the car was rolling there was power assistance available.

This braking system was licensed to Rolls-Royce who used it, amazingly, until 1976 on the final series of the Phantom VI (it was not used on the monocoque Silver Shadow in 1965 and its successors).

It was even cleverer than it looked, anticipating modern electronic anti-lock brakes. If the rear wheels locked up during heavy braking, power assistance was lost until the wheels unlocked and started revolving again. Autocar magazine said this:

It does not matter whether the wheels are locked over or whether the car is travelling at high speed, there is no deviation and no uncertainty, the car merely drawing up as though grasped by an invisible hand’.

Autocar, May 1920

The H6 wasn’t perfect; it had only three gears and a crude cone clutch, and hill starts were tricky. To some, the stork mascot on the radiator cap looked like a depressed seagull.

But all considered the Hispano Suiza H6 was as beautiful, well made and advanced as its predecessor, the Rolls Royce Silver Ghost.

And yet today this is a car only remembered by the most discerning car connoisseurs.

Which Engine was in the Hispano Suiza H6?

The Hispano Suiza had a very advanced engine and it has a fascinating predecessor: an aircraft engine. Back in 1912, a “Kaiserpreis” had been offered for the best German aero-engine by Prince Henry of Prussia, and the Daimler company had entered a 7-litre 6-cylindered Mercedes engine with lightweight ‘upperworks’.

These were forged steel cylinders closely surrounded by metal water jackets, with overhead valves seated directly in the cylinder heads operated by an overhead camshaft.

They had copied this method of construction from a French Panhard engine of 1903 and the Antoinette 8V. The power was 84 hp, and the whole thing weighed only 313 lbs (142 kgs).

This DF80 was used in the successful Mercedes racing car of 1914 (one of these was bought by Henry Royce, and he copied the Mercedes engine in turn for his Rolls Royce Eagle aero engine. As is usual today, everyone was copying everyone else).

Marc Birkigt was also watching closely and thought he could do better. Instead of welding expensive and leaky water jackets around each cylinder like Mercedes, he proposed a one-piece cylinder block made of aluminium, with four cylinders formed by steel liners.

This made an immensely rigid and lightweight engine, and his design has gone on to become the accepted norm for modern car engines.

Like Mercedes, Birkigt used a single overhead camshaft over the line of cylinders. Furthermore, to make the Hispano Suiza HS 8A aero engine he placed two of these four cylindered cylinder blocks on a crankcase at 90 degrees, forming a V8 engine of 12 litres and 140 bhp. The power eventually was increased to 330 bhp.

Incidentally, Birkigt hadn’t invented the V8 engine, that was Levavasseur, who in 1903 had patented a fuel-injected eight-litre V8 engine, a machine now so identified with American muscle-car culture of the sixties it might come as a surprise that it was invented by a Frenchman!

This new Hispano-Suiza aero engine was installed in the single-seater SPAD VII fighter and this power advantage eventually enabled the Allies to regain air superiority over the Germans. 40,000 examples were built.

The famous French fighter ace Georges Guynemar flew a Spad VII of the Stork Squadron and that’s how the bird became associated with Hispano Suiza.

How Much is a Hispano Suiza H6 worth?

A 1925 Hispano Suiza H6B Transformable Cabriolet by Belvallette sold for US$445,000 in January 2020 (source Sothebys).

But some restoration projects sell for rather less: US$149,000 was achieved in March 2022 for an H6B rolling chassis: #11007 (source: glenmarch).

And another 1921 H6B was tipped to make between €500,000 to €700,000 in 2022 (source: La Gazette Drouot).

Where Can I Buy a Hispano Suiza H6 For Sale?

Sotheby’s, Bonham’s and other car auctions plus carandclassic.com are good sources of these cars.

The Hispano Suiza H6 Speedster

Five racing H6Bs with short wheelbases and slightly bigger engines were built in 1922. They were open racing cars and were eventually named the “Boulogne Speedster” to recognise the H6’s 1 – 2 – 3 win at the sports car race at Boulogne by the drivers Dubonnet, Garnier and Boyriven in 1923.

The Hispano Suiza H6b and H6c Models

The H6B had a slightly more powerful engine. The H6C was an updated version of the H6B with an 8-litre engine developing 160 bhp (source: supercars.net).

The H6C Boulogne Tulipwood Torpedo

The 1924 H6C Dubonnet Boulogne Targa Florio speedster is probably the most famous Hispano Suiza of all. It was commissioned by the ex-flying ace and racing driver André Dubonnet, whose family had amassed a considerable fortune from the cognacs and aperitifs that still bear their name (source: tweedland).

Dubonnet ordered a special lightweight body of under 100 lbs (45 kgs) from an aircraft manufacturer, Nieuport, who obliged by building what was essentially an aircraft fuselage. Nieuport had built the famous 27 series of single-seat fighters.

The H6 body was constructed (it was said) of strips of tulipwood, an extremely light and strong wood weighing just 490 kg per cubic metre (whereas, say, mahogany weighs 673 kgs per cubic metre).

These strakes were riveted onto aluminium ribs in the manner of boat construction. This wooden body was then attached to an H6C Boulogne chassis powered by an 8-litre, 195 hp (145 kW), H6C engine.

Dubonnet entered the car in the 1924 Targa Florio in Sicily and came sixth in a field of 37 starters.

Dubonnet finished the gruelling event without a body or mechanical failure and drove home to Naples afterwards. The car eventually found its way to England, where it was discovered in the back of Hooper’s Coachbuilders in 1950 and then bought by an enthusiast.

This car is now in the Blackhawk Museum near Danville, California. Unfortunately, it has been over-restored, with the glorious patinated old wooden body stripped back to the raw wood and given a plastic varnish finish (source Geraldwingrove).

At this point it was discovered that the body was in fact planked in Honduras mahogany, not tulip wood after all. The ‘Tulip’, it would appear, is a stylistic term, referring to the tulip (rounded and pointed) shape of the rear of the body! Someone got the wrong end of the stick…

This car, with cream leather upholstery and a polished copper undertray now sadly resembles a bad replica (source: tripadvisor).

The 1938 Hispano Suiza Dubonnet Xenia One-Off

The 1938 Hispano-Suiza H6B Dubonnet Xenia was perhaps the apogee of the Art Déco look. The wraparound windscreen and cockpit, the teardrop silhouette and the silver aerodynamic bodywork recalled the glory days of fighter aircraft. Some consider it the most beautiful car ever made.

The car employed an independent coil spring suspension designed by the Hispano Suiza enthusiast André Dubonnet. This was a kind of leading arm arrangement hung off the ends of the axle beams.

It was briefly popular in the 1930s and 40s, being used from 1934 to 1939 by General Motors for the independent front suspension of their Chevrolet cars. It was soon superseded by better systems. It featured coil springs and shock absorbers enclosed in oil-filled containers which were prone to leaks (source wikipedia).)

Only one example was built, and the car was named after Dubonnet’s second wife Xenia Howard Johnston who sadly died after just four years of marriage. Hispano Suiza was soon to die, too, after the Spanish Civil War and the trading difficulties of the Second World War.

Thankfully the car itself survived the war, having been carefully hidden, and is now on display at the Mullin Museum in California. (source: wikipedia)

The Hispano Suiza H6 Carmen

What of Hispano Suiza today? After all, the company closed in 1946. In 2019 a new Hispano Suiza was announced.

The Carmen is a 1005 bhp electric sports car that loosely recalls the Hispano Suiza Dubonnet Xenia. It accelerates from 0-62mph in less than 3.0sec and is largely made of carbon fibre. And in a funny way, it goes right back to the first Hispano Suiza cars of 1898, which were electric.

But now there is an extraordinary legal dispute about who actually owns the name, with – or – without the hyphen (source: motortrend).

Claveau cars are among the world’s rarest cars because hardly any were made.

But Émile Claveau should be celebrated as he came up with ideas way ahead of their time. You can draw a line from his thinking directly forwards through French cars such as Citroen.

Émile Claveau’s first design was for a mid-engined car with an aerodynamic body. He applied for a patent in 1923 and this model was discovered in Tours near where the designer was making a living as a grain broker:

In this design, Claveau foresaw mid-engined, aerodynamic cars with a forward driving position and independent suspension.

And in 1930 he designed a front-wheel drive car.

After the war, Émile Claveau came up with something quite different. At the 1947 Paris Auto Show, he presented his Claveau Déscartes, surely the first car to be named after a French philosopher.

This thoughtful machine had a 2.3 litre V8 engine and front-wheel drive. René Descartes may have asked, “Cogito ergo sum?”: how many gears are there? It had a five-speed gearbox.

The Claveau Déscartes therefore preempted the 1966 Oldsmobile Tornado, also a car with a V8 and front-wheel drive.

Now then, if someone asked “which was the first 1950’s small car of under 900cc capacity, with front-wheel drive and rubber suspension” you might say “BMC Mini!”, right?

But you would be wrong.

Try Claveau.

In 1955 Émile Claveau showed this prototype at the Paris Auto Show. The car had a unibody bodyshell with independent suspension. The springing medium was by rubber rings called “Anneaux Neiman”, a system also used on scooters.

The car had a DKW three-cylinder two-stroke engine of 896cc, and a four-speed gearbox with the drive to the front wheels. It wasn’t entirely original: the design owed something to the Cisitalia 202 coupe of 1947.

The Claveau 56 prototype never had a fuel tank fitted and could not be driven. After the Paris show it was despatched to a scrap yard.

Luckily it was rescued by one Doctor Jeanson, a French car enthusiast. The Tampa Bay Museum acquired the car, restored it and fitted a fuel tank.

At last, after fifty years the car was driven on the road.

How much is a Claveau worth?

It is not known how much a Claveau car is worth. As the total production number of this car was only one, it is almost impossible to put a value on it. Let’s say $100 million.

Today we showcase this 1930 example, which raced at the Targa Florio of that year, came in second to an Alfa Romeo and has survived untouched for over 90 years.

It bears the serial number 4959 and its driver was Louis Chiron, whose name is immortalised in the modern Bugatti Chiron.

The British spy William Grover-Williams drove the Type 35 under an alias to victory in the 1928 and 1929 French Grand Prix. Also in ’29 he won the first Monaco Grand Prix in a British racing green Bugatti Type 35B, beating the German driver Rudolf Caracciola in his Mercedes.

Pure Bond, James Bond.

This car introduced alloy wheels fifty years before they became commonplace.

“Nothing is too beautiful, nothing is too expensive,”

Ettore Bugatti

Instead of building wheels with Sir George Caley’s wire spokes, Bugatti cast his wheels out of aluminium. These featured eight wide, flat spokes, a removable wheel rim and an integral brake drum.

The design is simple and sculptural and reflects Ettore Bugatti’s aesthetic aspirations.

The Bugattis weren’t necessarily perfect inside, though.

The two-litre engine had eight cylinders in a line, cast as two blocks of four, and the crankshaft was built up of many pieces, allowing the use of roller and ball bearings and high revolutions. It was like two four-cylinder engines running 90 degrees out of sync, that is to say, one running a ¼ turn ahead of the other.

The great English motoring journalist Laurence Pomeroy, or “Pom”, made this assessment: 

“Both the firing order and the layout of the crankshaft are unique,” he explained. The firing order “goes 1, 5, 2, 6, 3, 7, 4, 8, i.e., taking each bank of cylinders separately the firing sequence is 1, 2, 3, 4 on the front bank and 5, 6, 7, 8 on the back bank.”

Laurence Pomeroy, The Motor, December 30, 1942

But four-cylinder engines are not perfectly balanced, even two running together in this fashion.

“In this layout, the engine is well balanced except for a severe couple between the front and back halves of the shaft, which imposes severe loads on the centre bearing.”

A couple is a to-and-fro twisting or rocking force. Pom didn’t like the look of the cylinder head, either. The cooling was insufficient, and the valve guides were too short. Not content with this, he went on to criticise the cylinder block cooling.

“Taken as a whole, it will be seen that the design of these engines is entirely characteristic of Ettore Bugatti, being unconventional in nearly every aspect, demanding the utmost in skilled workmanship and fitting, and yet, at the same time, reflecting a severe, almost brutally practical outlook…”

Laurence Pomeroy, The Motor, December 30, 1942

We might add three things Pom missed: the inlet tract had no less than six sharp bends in it between carburettor and the inlet valves, something most engine designers would avoid nowadays, as these slow down the flow of mixture.

And whereas most racing engines have larger inlet than exhaust areas Bugatti reversed this, the figures being 1.34 and 2.70 sq. ins. per cylinder.

Furthermore, instead of the two inlet and two exhaust of the 1912 Peugeot (the first four-valve car engine) the Bugatti only had three valves per cylinder. Four valves are considered best practice today.

So, given what appears to be a completely damning assessment, how on earth did the Type 35 win so many races? The simple answer was something all the aero engine builders knew about: the supercharger.

Internal combustion engines are simple creatures: put more fuel and air in and you get more power out. If you just increase the revolutions there isn’t time for the air and fuel to get in, especially if there are six right-angled bends as in the Bugatti.

A supercharger is an air pump which pressurises the air and pumps more fuel/air mixture into the cylinders. More oxygen is added to the chemical reaction of combustion and thus more power is developed by the engine, and if it’s well-made and reliable like the Type 35 the sky’s the limit.

Even diesel engines can develop stupendous power when turbo supercharged, and the 1.5 litre BMW Formula One turbo M13 petrol engine produced 1,400 hp (1,044 kW) in qualifying trim (This was based on the 1962 BMW 1500 saloon’s 80 hp engine, an increase in power of 17 ½ times!).

Ettore Bugatti didn’t like superchargers, but when he fitted them, his engines doubled in power and started winning races.

One can only imagine what he would have had to say about the great Pom’s list of criticisms, as Bugatti had a robust approach to customer care. When one buyer complained that his Bugatti was difficult to start, he was told

“Monsieur, if you can afford a Type 55, surely you can afford a heated garage?”,

and to another who complained that his Bugatti wouldn’t stop he retorted

“I make my cars to go, not stop.” Privately he added, “The car’s brakes were merely symbolic…”

How many races did the Bugatti Type 35 win?

The Bugatti Type 35 had over 1000 victories, winning the Targa Florio five times, the Grand Prix World Championship once in 1926, and the Monaco Grand Prix three times.

How many Bugatti Type 35 are left?

Bugatti built around 340 Type 35s in total. Because “rebuilt” cars can be constructed around a single genuine part, such as an engine or a chassis, several “rebuilt” cars could arise from one pile of parts.

So it is quite possible that there are now more Bugatti Type 35s in existence than there were genuine ones built.

As with everything, provenance is all.

Who was the Bugatti Queen?

The Bugatti Queen was Hellé Nice, a French model, dancer and racing driver. She was the owner of Bugatti Type 35 chassis 4863, taking delivery in March 1930. She raced in a number of minor Grands Prix in France and in the non-championship Monza Grand Prix.

She was badly injured during the 1936 Sao Paulo GP in Brazil when her car hit a soldier attempting crowd control. She was in third place behind Brazilian champion Manuel de Teffé when her car cartwheeled through the air and crashed into the crowd, killing six people and injuring more than thirty others.

Hellé Nice was flung from the car and freakishly landed on a soldier who took the impact of her body, saving her life. But the force of the blow killed the soldier and because she lay in a coma, she too was assumed to be dead.

After the war Hellé Nice was accused of collaboration with the Nazis by the Bugatti racing driver Louis Chiron, at a party at Monaco in 1949. True or not, this ended her career and she died in poverty in Nice in 1984 (source: Wikipedia).

Specifications of a Bugatti Type 35:

Eight cylinders in line.

Single overhead camshaft.

Roots-type supercharger.

Three valves per cylinder.

Displacement: 2261 cc (138 cubic inches)

Power: 140 hp at 5000 rpm.

Weight: 1,680 pounds.

What is the top speed of a Bugatti Type 35 B?

The Bugatti Type 35 B top speed is 130 mph/209 Km/h.

How much does a Bugatti Type 35 B weigh?

The Bugatti Type 35 B weighs 762 Kg / 1680 lbs.

How much horsepower (bhp) does a 1927 Bugatti Type 35 B have?

The 1927 Bugatti Type 35 B developed 140 bhp (break horse power) / 104 kW (kiloWatts).

How much is a Bugatti Type 35 worth?

A 1925 Bugatti Type 35 Grand Prix (serial 4487) sold for $3,300,000 at a Gooding & Co. auction in 2017 (source: classic.com)

And a 1927 Bugatti Type 35 Grand Prix (serial 4863) sold for $2,970,000 at a Gooding & Co. auction in 2014 (source: classic.com)

The car featured here, in such untouched condition and with such a racing pedigree has to be worth in excess of $5,000,000.

How to buy a Bugatti Type 35 replica

The sheer cost of a genuine Bugatti Type 35 means that there are many replicas available. Some are VW Beetle based with a rear engine and are not particularly faithful to the original. These sell for around $10,000.

Then there are the famous “Pur Sang” (pure-blooded) Bugatti Type replicas, made in Argentina, which are as close as you can get to the real thing. Jay Leno owns one to save his real Bugattis from road use.

Argentinian Jorge Anadón used to restore genuine Bugattis and was well aware of the value. When he had one of the genuine Type 35s apart for restoration he measured every single part and began to manufacture copies (source: speedhunters).

His company Pur Sang made everything: the engines (still three-valved but with an improved firing order), properly English-wheeled aluminium panels, even the tyres.

Most of the new parts could be interchanged with the original parts. The quality is superb and even experts could be fooled. The clutch is now a modern multi-plate instead of the old oil-bath variety.

Some improvements were made. The old roller-bearing crankshafts needed regular rebuilds after 5000 miles, so a plain bearing crankshaft is used instead. This has firing intervals at the preferable interval of 45 degrees instead of Bugatti’s 90 degrees.

Pom would have approved.

The engine is otherwise like the original Bugatti unit, with supercharging, eight cylinders in line producing 180 bhp instead of 140 bhp. (source hymanltd) Modern fuels would account for most of that, with higher octane.

One of these Pur Sang replicas sold for $249,200 at Sotheby‘s. Another on bringatrailer for $233,000.

Maybe that Morris Marina or VW Beetle-based kit doesn’t look such bad value now?

Why was it called the Austin Seven?

The 1923 Austin Seven was the most important car in British motoring history, bringing independent travel to the masses. The car was called Austin 7 because of its horsepower.

Early cars in Britain were taxed on a formula called RAC horsepower. It didn’t reflect the actual measured horsepower but was calculated by a formula including cylinder bore size, number of cylinders and notional efficiency.

Cars were commonly named for their taxable horsepower, such as the Austin Seven and the Riley Nine. The name “Rolls-Royce 40/50” referred firstly to the taxable horsepower: 40, and the actual measured horsepower: 50.

How many Austin 7s are left?

There are only 17 Austin 7s left on the roads of Britain with a current MOT vehicle test. (carlogbook.com)

How many Austin 7s were made?

Between 1923 and 1939 over 290,000 Austin 7s had been made, transforming the British motoring scene.

How fast were Austin 7s?

The 1933 Austin 7 could just do 60 mph. Acceleration was brisk from a standstill, but 0 – 50 mph took 25 seconds.

Technical Specification of the Austin 7

Engine: 747cc straight four-cylinder side valve.

Clutch: very abrupt, with a short travel. See below!

Gearbox: 3 speeds and reverse. Four speeds were available from 1932, with synchromesh added in 1933 to third and fourth gears, extending to second gear in 1934.

Chassis: an “A” Frame chassis, with a transverse front spring like the Ford Model T, and rear quarter elliptic springs.

Brakes: rod-operated drums: not very effective.

What’s an Austin 7 Chummy?

When production began in January 1923 the only version offered was the Austin 7 Chummy tourer, an open four-seater (source: Bonhams.com).

The word Chummy means “friendly” in British English. You’d have to be friendly to sit in this.

What’s an Austin 7 Ruby?

As production increased, Saloon, fabric Saloon (where the panels were made of canvas), and coupe were added to the range. The 1934 Ruby was a two-door saloon with flowing lines, valanced wings and a taller radiator in a cowl.

It had self-cancelling flush-fitted indicators. The wheel size decreased (which would be an unusual development these days) from 19” to 17”, and it had synchromesh on second, third and fourth gears.

What’s an Austin 7 Ulster?

The lightweight Austin 7s were successful in competition, and when an Austin 7 Sports Model won its class at the 1929 RAC Tourist Trophy a very special Austin Ulster version was released. It was a two-seater with no doors but an aluminium body with a pointed tail and a modified chassis giving a 3” lower ride height.

The engine was special too, developing 24 horsepower, or 35 horsepower with a supercharger. An Austin Ulster won the Brooklands Five Hundred Mile Race with Sammy Davis driving (source automotiverestorations.com).

Austin Ulsters are worth around $70,000.

What’s an Austin 7 Special?

Austin 7 special is a generic term for the dozens of home-brewed special racing cars made from old Austin 7 chassis after the Second World War. The bodies were hand-made and very often there was just one seat.

What’s an Austin Seven Brooklands?

Six Austin Seven lightweight racers were built in 1928 – these were the Austin Seven Brooklands. They only weighed 875 pounds.

Why was the Austin 7 so important to early motoring in Britain?

The First World War did more than anything else to convince soldiers that the motor car was a good thing.

Within a month of the start of the war, the German army was in sight of the Eiffel Tower, but 600 Paris 1905 Renault AG taxis were requisitioned to take half a division of infantry overnight to the front, and the Germans were repelled. Later on, Tommy might have marched past the armoured cars and the tanks which ended the deadly stalemate.

After the Great War soldiers who had seen the success of motorised transport wanted something for a run out into the country on Sundays. And so when he got back to the land fit for heroes the second thing the British Tommy did was to buy a motorcycle-and-sidecar combination.

If the missus objected, he might try to provide a bit of weather protection and so a horde of cyclecars arose, lightweight cars based on motorcycles, but only the Morgan Plus Four survives today. Most were horrible, and this gave Herbert Austin food for thought.

The Austin Motor Company had done well out of the war, manufacturing heavy artillery, generating sets, and building trucks and aircraft. The workforce had expanded from around 2,500 to 22,000.

After the war, though the order book was empty. An over-reliance on just one expensive model, the 3.6 litre 1919 Austin Twenty proved disastrous, and the company went into receivership.

In the teeth of opposition from the Board of Directors and creditors, Herbert Austin decided that a small affordable car was the way forward. It would be cheaper and better than the cyclecars and would mobilise Britain just as the Ford Model T had mobilised America.

A new horsepower tax, which penalised the Model T imports was imposed in 1921, and this decided him. Working secretly at home with a young draughtsman at Lickey Grange near Birmingham, Austin planned the tiny car in 1:1 scale in the billiard room.

Some claim the work was done on the table, certainly, it would have been big enough, as the tiny car was only ten feet long and five feet wide. Austin incorporated innovations patented by him and so he stood to make two guineas per car sold: a fortune.

The young draughtsman, Stanley Edge, persuaded Austin to use a proper four-cylindered engine instead of a twin-cylindered motorcycle engine. It was a wise suggestion as the Seven was thus a proper car, albeit a tiny one.

At 696cc the engine was a quarter of the size of the Model T’s engine, and the weight of the completed baby Austin was half that of the American car.

It was minimalist in design: the crankshaft had only two bearings, one at each end, and the big ends were lubricated by splash instead of pressure from an oil pump. There was no water pump: the coolant was circulated by thermo-siphon. But the crankcase was aluminium, and so was the clutch housing. This was meant to be lightweight.

The engine had an RAC tax rating of 7.2 hp, hence the name: Austin Seven  The whole car took up little more road space than a motorcycle-sidecar combination.

I had a couple of these engines to play around with at the age of 15 or so, and even then was struck by there only being one roller main bearing at either end of the four-throw crankshaft. It ought to have flexed like a skipping rope at high revs, but when a plain centre bearing was added later the new crankshafts proved less reliable, not more so.

By Easter 1922, Edge’s drawings of the car were ready, and work began immediately on the first prototype.  Then an elite group of Longbridge workers selected by Herbert Austin built the first three cars. The Seven was regarded with derision by the other workers, who called it a “bath on wheels”. Austin persisted with his design and managed to get it past the Board of Directors.

Soon after launch, in March 1923 the bore was increased to 2.2 inches (56mm) giving 747 cc and 10.5 hp. At first, there was no electric starter, the engine being started by hand with the usual handle at the front of the car. 

The dynamo was driven directly from the timing gears. The gearbox had only three forward speeds. The chassis was an A-frame, with solid axles back and front, suspended on simple leaf springs, with no dampers. But the brakes were poor, and the clutch was fierce.

The advertising emphasised the economy: “Where it costs shillings to take a taxi you may use the “Austin Seven” for pence…The “Austin Seven” makes a very snug coupé, and it’s really much nicer to have your own car.” Costing just £165 (£9,500 today) it was as cheap as a cyclecar.

At first, the bodywork was an open four-seater, and the weight was just 360 kgs (796 lbs), or half the weight of a Lotus Elise. Despite the minimalist nature of the Seven, it was still a real car, and in just a few years it had wiped out the cyclecar competition.

But it wasn’t ever a car for the masses, the years between 1929 and 1935 were the worst for working-class incomes.

My grandfather lived around the corner from Herbert Austin at Kentmere House on the Lickey Hills. He bought one of his neighbour’s baby Austins and toured North Wales with his wife and three children, so the car was clearly big enough for a family.

While undertaking a perilous three-point turn on a mountain track he instructed the family to get out for safety reasons.

As they watched he selected reverse, lifted the abrupt clutch too quickly, shot backwards, and toppled over a precipice. Leaping out just in time, grandfather watched as the tiny car cartwheeled into the abyss.

Family history tells us that they walked down into the nearest town and bought another Austin Seven.

My grandfather had another Austin Seven story. As a medical missionary in India, he befriended Gandhi. When the great independence fighter came to stay at our house in 1934 he was picked up at the railway station in the tiny Austin Seven, a familiar car in India.

Unlike the Ford Model T, which Henry Ford refused to change throughout the production run, the Austin Seven was constantly modernised and improved.

A closed saloon was introduced in 1926 and a two-seater was added in 1929. Coil ignition replaced the magneto in 1928. In 1930 the front and rear brakes, which had been operated separately by a hand lever and a foot pedal respectively, were connected.

The chassis was lengthened in 1931. A three-bearing crankshaft was introduced in 1936 (but proved no more reliable). And the gearbox became a four-speed unit in 1932, gaining synchromesh on third and fourth in 1933, and on second gear in 1934.

The Austin Seven was a success in Britain, where it mobilised the middle classes. The chassis cost £112 (£6,890 today). The Austin-made steel-panelled saloon was introduced in September 1926 at £165 (equivalent to £10,151 today)

Did you know? The car was also popular throughout the world: who would have thought that BMW would have built Austin 7s under licence?

Nissan made unlicensed copies of the Seven, laying the foundations for that company’s later success, and 7s were also built in France, America and Australia. In a strange way, the Austin Seven also influenced the Willys Jeep (read more on this site).

By 1939, over 290,000 Austin Sevens had been sold, transforming the British motoring scene.

What is an Austin Seven worth?

An Austin Seven today would cost you from $3,250 to $44, 200, with an average of $16,900 (classic.com)

Austin Ulsters are worth around $70,000 today.

The 1929 Cadillac 341B was launched with a revolutionary new gearbox: the “‘clashless Synchro-Mesh Silent-Shift transmission”.

Cars in the old days were difficult to drive largely because of their so-called “crash” gearboxes. The clutch pedal had to be pushed down, one gear was deselected and the lever moved to the next ratio.

A pair of spinning gears or cogs had to be slid together with horrible gnashing, crunching noises as their teeth met each other. Then the clutch was gingerly let back in.

The ability to drive almost everywhere in top gear was of great importance to Edwardian motorists, many of whom could not manage the “crash” gearboxes of the day and were unable to change gears on the move.

The Cadillac 341B changed all that with synchromesh.

But then its sales prospects were ruined by another Crash- in Wall Street. Read on to find out how synchromesh worked, and how you perform the lost art of “double declutching.” Watch this youtube

Cadillac was founded out of the ashes of the Henry Ford Company in 1902. Ford had left the company after two years because of a dispute with his investors. The new marque derived its name from Antoine de la Mothe Cadillac, who founded the town of Detroit, Michigan.

General Motors bought Cadillac in 1909 because of its high quality of build, and the marque became GM’s luxury brand. Not only that, Cadillac built a reputation as America’s most technically innovative car manufacturer.

They introduced the electric starter, electric lamps, an all-steel roof (before then cars had fabric roofs), safety glass, the first dual-plane crankshaft V8 engine, and, crucially for this story, the world’s first synchromesh transmission (source conceptcarz.com)

The internal combustion engine isn’t ideal for transport. Unlike an electric motor or a steam engine, it cannot start from a standstill and so it needs an electric starting motor and a clutch, which smoothly engages the spinning engine flywheel with the stationary wheels.

Again, unlike an electric motor, the internal combustion engine has so little torque or twisting power that it needs to run at a high rate of revolutions. This in turn means it needs a gearbox to step down the revolutions and step up the torque, just as a lever helps to lift a heavy weight.

Even the Cadillac’s V16 engine needed gears:

General Motors realised that many sales were lost due to newbie drivers struggling to change gears. So something had to be done, and the 1929 Cadillac 341B Roadster showed how to do it with the new synchromesh design.

Gears are monogamous and are much happier if they can run constantly in mesh together with their partner. So in a synchromesh box, all the pairs of gears run together in this way, but they are free to spin on the output shaft. Gear ratios are therefore selected by locking the desired gear pairs to the output shaft by using locking rings.

When the clutch pedal is depressed and the gearbox is disconnected from the engine these cone-shaped locking rings are slid up to the next pair of gears by moving the gear lever, and then they synchronise the speed of the gears to that of the output shaft. This they do by friction on the cones.

Another gentle pull on the lever locks the gear pair to the output shaft, and the clutch is re-engaged. You might feel the “click”, “click” through the lever as these two actions are completed.

And if you want to know what the old crash gearboxes sounded like, try selecting reverse gear before the engine revs have fallen. The nasty old sliding straight-cut gear pinions live on, lurking under the letter “R”. Lamborghini was the first (and nearly the last) to bother to put synchromesh on reverse gear.

Before synchromesh drivers used a technique to match the speeds of the spinning gears: this was called double declutching:

• The accelerator or throttle is released, the clutch pedal pressed down and the gearstick moved to neutral.
• The clutch pedal is released and the driver matches the revolutions of the engine to the next gear by doing this:
• If changing into a higher gear, release the throttle and wait until the engine revs have fallen.
• If changing into a lower gear, rev up the engine by “blipping” the throttle.
• At the moment when the engine revs and the new gear are closely matched, the driver then presses the clutch pedal down again, shifts into the next gear, and releases the clutch.
• Bingo! With practice, this results in a silent, smooth gear change.

Learning how to double-declutch is still a requirement for a commercial truck licence in some jurisdictions as many trucks still have crash gearboxes.

Actually, a sensitive driver could set off and change gears without using the clutch at all, starting the engine- and the car- in first gear and carefully matching the engine revs with road speed up and down the ratios.

If you are adjusting the speeds correctly you won’t need to touch the clutch pedal at all and the gears will engage with a quiet grunt.

In 1929 the previous Cadillac 341 had been upgraded to the 341-B with the yearly improvements GM customers expected: there was a slight increase in power, and an optional low-compression engine was offered.

There were slightly larger tires, double-acting Delco shock absorbers, new brakes, chrome-plated brightwork and electric windshield washers (source supercars.net)

But the big news was of course the new synchromesh transmission which at last brought easier gear changes. The 1929 Cadillac 341B had synchromesh only on the second and third gears, but the car was a revelation, and the new gearbox was swiftly copied around the world.

No less than five million dollars were put into upgrading the factory but then the hoped-for market growth was crushed by the Wall Street Crash.

How much is a Cadillac Series 341 worth?

A Cadillac Series 341 is worth an average of $63,000 today (source classic.com)

Contrary to common belief, Model T Fords did not only come in black, in fact the first cars came in blue, gray, green, and red, but not black. Only from the years 1914 to 1925 were Model T Fords only available in black.

One of the most persistent car myths is that Henry Ford decreed that his customers for the Model T could have any colour they liked as long as it was black. So did Henry Ford really say this, and was it true? Well, sort of. And sort of…

Henry Ford did not actually utter those exact words. In his autobiography he wrote:

“Any customer can have a car painted any color that he wants, so long as it is black.”

Henry Ford, My Life and Work (1922)

And so like many famous quotes it sounds good but isn’t actually what was said. Somebody somewhere “improved” Ford’s quote and in so doing made it memorable. It has become part of the legend of this legendary car: the obsessive pursuit of the mass production of an identical product. And it worked: by 1918 half the cars on the roads of the USA were Model T Fords.

Those early Model Ts were sold in almost any color… except for black. Red, gray, green, and blue were all available, but not black. The first black Model T didn’t roll off the assembly line until 1913.

So why did the boss decide to sell only black cars? Here’s why: it was more efficient that way. Henry Ford explained the philosophy behind his car:

“I will build a motor car for the great multitude…constructed of the best materials, by the best men to be hired, after the simplest designs that modern engineering can devise…so low in price that no man making a good salary will be unable to own one-and enjoy with his family the blessing of hours of pleasure in God’s great open spaces.”

Henry Ford, 6/6/13 Ford Times.

Henry Ford relentlessly drove the price of the Model T down. When announced in 1908 the price of the Model T Ford was $825, or $26,211 today (£21,284). Within five years the Model T’s price had halved. By 1920 it had halved again. Then by 1925 the price was down to $260 ($8,260 today). (see our article:)

The main reason for painting all the Model Ts in black from 1914 was simple: economy of scale. It was cheaper that way. There was nothing particularly special about the colour; black didn’t dry any quicker, nor was it easier to apply.

If there was a technical reason I suspect it was that you can use very slightly less black paint to cover a panel: anyone who has ever spray painted a car knows that white paint, for example will often need another coat to hide imperfections.

There was another reason. The First World War caused disruption of the chemical industry in the US, so sourcing different coloured dyes became more difficult.

And it is interesting to note that during the life of the Model T the Ford Motor Company used no less than 30 types of black paint to coat different parts of the car (source McCalley, Model T Ford: The Car That Changed the World.) Multiplying that number by a dozen colour varieties would have cost money.

It is true that for around ten years of production, from 1914 to 1925 the Model T was only available in black. But for the last two years of the car’s life, with falling sales, six new colours were offered, including Royal Maroon, Phoenix Brown and Highland Green (source woot.com)

Why Were All Early Model T Fords Black?

Early Model T Fords, from 1908 to 1914 were available several colours: blue, gray, green, and red, but not black.

From 1914 to 1925, halfway through the production run the Model T was only available in black.

Then for roughly the last two years of production, from 1925 to 1927 the Model T was available in six new colours including brown, maroon and green.

So, although Henry Ford did order that all his Model T’s should be black this didn’t happen until the seventh year of production. The claim that all Model Ts were black is fake history.

Why Did Henry Ford Choose Black for the Model T Ford?

The Ford Motor Company explains on its website that “the policy was in place solely for efficiency and uniformity. The car was only offered in black from 1914-1925, however before and after that various models of the vehicle could be purchased in a variety of colors including blue, red, grey, and green.” (source: corporate.ford.com)

A fuller quote is here and might remind readers of another revolutionary car maker, Elon Musk:

‘In 1909 I announced one morning, without any previous warning, that in the future we were going to build only one model, that the model was going to be the Model T, and that the chassis would be exactly the same for all cars, and I remarked  “Any customer can have a car painted any colour that he wants so long as it is black.” I cannot say that any one agreed with me. The selling people could not of course see the advantages that a single model would bring about in production. More than that, they did not particularly care.’

Henry Ford, My Life and Work 1922

To summarise, black was chosen because it was cheaper to produce cars in just one colour. Black paint also covers panels more efficiently than other colours. So less paint needed to be bought.

Were All Subsequent Model T Fords Black, or Different Colours?

In the last two years of production, from 1925 to 1927 the Model T was available in black and also in six new colours including brown, maroon and green.

The Lancia Lamba was the first monocoque unibody car designed without a separate chassis. It also had independent front suspension, four-wheel brakes and a narrow-angle V- 4 aluminium engine.

The Lambda’s designer was Vincenzo Lancia, a hugely courageous racing driver. But it was his mother’s fear of a broken car suspension spring which drove him to create this unique and forward-looking car. How did that come about? Read on…

Vincenzo Lancia was that rare beast: a racing driver and also a car designer. He raced Fiat cars and led the first lap of the very first French Grand Prix at Le Mans in 1906. As a result he had insights that we lesser mortals might be unaware of.

Early cars were built on a heavy chassis frame made of two parallel steel girders connected with cross pieces: a ladder frame. The wheels and engine were attached to this and the body was built on top.

During a stormy ocean voyage Vincenzo Lancia had a stunning realisation: he could dispense with the car chassis altogether! He saw that the rigidity of a steel-hulled liner gave the vessel a superior ride through the waves: there was none of the twisting and racking of large wooden vessels.

All motor cars up to that point had timber-framed bodies mounted on the whippy steel chassis. On rough roads the chassis would flex, doors would burst open and the passenger’s teeth would be rattled out of their sockets.

In his seminal 1922 Lancia Lambda, Vincenzo Lancia produced the world’s first car with a load-bearing unitary body. It was an open car, but it had deep frames welded to the body in the manner of an open-topped steel box.

Not content with that, the Lambda also featured a sliding-pillar independent front suspension, a unique narrow-angle V 4 engine and an elegant body. So the Lamba was the first car to have a load-bearing unitary body (source: Wikipedia).

The rigidity of Lancia’s body enabled the car to suspend its front wheels independently. This gave the car a smooth ride and tenacious road holding. As a result the Lambda could race around corners faster than any other car and it scored a stunning 1-2-3 class victory in the first staging of Italy’s 1000-mile Mille Miglia road race in 1927. How could this be?

When thinking about car suspension it helps to imagine the car body floating serenely along, a foot above the ground, with the wheels bouncing up and down silently, accommodating the bumps. That is the ideal.

Before the Lancia, motor cars used heavy beam axles inherited from their horse-drawn ancestors. These were also steel girders with a wheel at either end. If they also contained the differential gears and shafts necessary to drive the rear wheels they are referred to as live axles: the Hotchkiss system.

Beam axles were usually suspended from the chassis by semi-elliptic leaf springs, examples of which you may admire on the truck next to you while waiting at traffic lights. These had the double duty of locating the beam axle to the chassis and providing the springy compliance necessary for a comfortable ride.

As they were composed of bundles of leaf springs fastened together, the friction between the leaves provided a measure of damping. Without this, the car would continue bouncing uncontrollably for half a mile after every bump. Beam axles also kept the wheels perpendicular to the road, which was good for tyre adhesion.

Beam axles and leaf springs were a cheap and cheerful solution to the suspension engineer’s design problems, and that’s why you can still see them on pick-up trucks and lorries today.

They have many disadvantages. The considerable weight of beam axles form part of the unsprung mass of the vehicle. The sprung mass of a car is that which is isolated from the bumps of the road by the springs: the body, engine, passengers etc. The unsprung mass is that which comes before the springs: the tyres, wheels, brakes, axles etc.

Reducing the unsprung mass is a good thing because it reduces the vertical load variations that the tyre experiences as it rolls along an uneven road surface. This increases the tyre’s ability to grip.

The ratio between sprung and unsprung mass is important because a large unsprung mass increases the vertical acceleration of the sprung mass. A big, heavy axle leaping around under the car makes for a short, choppy ride for the passengers, as anyone who has driven an early Range Rover will testify.

Also, there is a little-known evil characteristic of semi-elliptic cart springs. As they are made in a bow shape, when the car rolls onto its outer cart spring this lengthens. Meanwhile, the unloaded inner cart spring has shortened. The result is to steer the axle tighter into the corner: the dreaded roll-oversteer.

This can catch out the novice driver as they have to back off the steering to compensate. The alternative is an ever-tightening turn, the loss of rear adhesion and the inevitable spin backwards through the nearest hedge.

Springs on heavy axles have to be stiff to be able to control them. The wheels cannot move independently, and so when an inside wheel hits a bump on a corner, the poor overloaded outer wheel is suddenly subjected to an adverse camber angle and loses grip. 

Furthermore, the camber angle is fixed and cannot change beneficially during body roll in a corner, as it can with the cleverer forms of independent suspension.

Under hard acceleration in a powerful car, a live axle will also twist in its mounts, lifting one wheel and causing a startling hopping, squealing, tramping racket from under the rear wheel arches. This is usually accompanied by clouds of smoke from the spinning wheel. Just watch the film Bullit!

Lancia’s mother had been frightened by the breakage of a semi-elliptic spring on a previous ride with her son and so he promised to come up with something better. By having a rigid unibody instead of a whippy chassis frame Lancia was free to make the Lambda’s front wheels independent of one another.

Each was attached to a softly coil-sprung sliding pillar firmly bolted to the bodyshell and damped by a hydraulic shock absorber. The front wheels’ unsprung mass was a fraction of the old beam axle.

This innovation foreshadowed the independent strut suspension universally used by motor cars today.

The Lambda’s narrow-angle V4, overhead camshaft engine was another brilliant innovation. There were two pairs of cylinders in a Vee shape sharing a short, stiff crankshaft, giving perfect primary balance and an absence of vibration.

The narrow angle between them enabled the cylinders to share a single cylinder block and cylinder head which were both made of aluminium- another innovation (source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lancia_V4_engine).

This V-4 engine, the unitary body, four-wheel brakes, four-speed gearbox and independent suspension all predicated developments far in the future. The Lancia Lamba was a tour de force.

Why Lambda?

Lambda is the eleventh letter of the Greek alphabet (Λ, λ), transliterated as ‘l’. Vincenzo’s brother Giovanni was a classical scholar and it was he who suggested allocating the Lancia cars the letters of the classical Greek alphabet, starting with the Lancia Kappa of 1919. Some of you might also remember the Delta (source: https://autodesignmagazine.com/en/2021/07/lancia-a-name-an-identity-video/).

Unfortunately, the history of technical progress is not always incremental. Vincenzo Lancia’s customers demanded the option of coach-built bodies, something not possible with a unitary body. From the sixth series of the Lambda he offered the option of a bare separate chassis, and by the 1931 ninth series, only the bare chassis was offered.

And so bizarrely the last Lancia Lambda was therefore less advanced than the original version.

Exhausted by getting his aerodynamic Lancia Aprilia to market, Vincenzo Lancia died of a heart attack in February 1937 at the age of 55.

If the love of motor cars is at all like the appreciation of Scotch whisky the 1922 Lancia Lambda Torpédo is a fine, subtle Speyside malt. It’s not flashy, or powerful, or luxurious; just full of nuance and fine detail that others might miss.

How much is a Lancia Lambda worth?

The Lancia Lambda is a valuable classic much prized by connoisseurs. The lowest price seen recently was $45,380 and the highest was $518,356. The average is around $190,000. The auction houses are where you’ll buy one- these don’t turn up on gumtree.com too often.