History
1923 Lincoln, Model ‘L’, body type 129. By Graham Allum.
This car was brought new to Australia in 1923.
In 1922 Mr Dixon, from Kia Ora Juices, went to the USA to buy the best car he could find and he bought a Lincoln tourer. In late ‘23 he and his associate, Mr Hume went to the USA and bought two matching sedans.
The first Dixon car was No. 5966, the second Dixon car was No. 15772 and the Hume car was No. 16094.
The Hume car was decommissioned and dismantled in 1935. (I have the piece of windscreen with the 1935 rego label). The first Dixon car was sold to Mr Robertson, a publican, of Mornington in 1925 and subsequently abandoned in the beach dunes in the 30s. It seems that they used the tourer to take people on tours on the beach and someone fell or bounced out so they just walked away from the car. The second Dixon car was dismantled with the chassis and running gear used for a hill climb special throughout the 1940s,(apparently it is mentioned in the VSCC newsletters). It was fitted with late ‘20s Chrysler axles and roadster body.
Colin Drake, from Warrnambool acquired a pile of parts in 1967, found the body removed from 16094 in 1972 and completed the restoration in 1983.
In 2012 Colin wrote to me offering the car for sale. With my son Alex, I bought the car and drove it back to Queensland; the complete trip from Warrnambool was almost 2000 Kms in total!
I have to thank Colin and Helen Drake for not only bringing the car back to life but also for researching and saving the history of the early cars they found.
Specifications.
136 inch wheelbase, 200.8 inches overall and stands over 6 feet tall.
357.8 Cubic Inch 3 3/8 x 5, 60 Degree, side valve V8; single plane crankshaft, 5 bearing pressure feed crankshaft with fork and blade rod configuration. It has a single updraft Stromberg 03 Carb, Roller cam followers, dual ignition, (actually the ignition is 2 four cylinder systems siamesed), gear driven water pump and clutched starter generator. It is fitted with a Stewart Warner vacuum tank but the lower tank is extended with a working capacity of one US gallon. The distributor has manual over-ride over centrifugal advance.
The 7 row radiator has thermostat controlled shutters and a strainer is fitted in the lower water outlet.
The gearbox has three forward speeds driven through a multiplate clutch and torque tube drive to the diff with fully floating axles. It stands on the optional 7.00 x 21 tyred disc wheels.
The body is aluminium over a wood frame, with cast bronze windscreen and cast aluminium window frames; however, despite the use of aluminium, it is heavy.
Other interesting features are the mechanical dipping of the headlights, where the reflector tilts; no double filament bulbs! There are oilers or grease fittings fitted to every moving part of the chassis; even oilers on the engine mounts and there are even covers fitted to the alemite grease fittings.
This particular body is a Brunn design built by Towson and is number 1079 of 1195 built in 1923. Total 1923 production is 7963 vehicles across 32 body styles.