Cadillac story

When people in Sweden during the 1940th saw His Majesty the King and Prince Bertil or other persons within the Swedish industry, driving Cadillac cars. There is two things one can be astonished for. First one can wonder over the comparison with the so called "cockroaches", the first taxi cars in Stockholm. Has this small car developed to this luxury car. Secondly the finest car today is not expensive. Price 1940, 19500 Skr. There were several other much more expensive and smaller car.

Henry Leland. Ref. 1

How the self-starter came to.

Cadillac built during the first years more cars than all other car builders in Europe together. The success was colossal. It should be greater.

The story tells this. Packard had invented the steering wheel and Cadillac was bound to construct the self-starter through Charles Kettering.

1910 the young Charles Kettering sat one day in his office with Leland.
He tells us."I was driving over the Bella Isle-bridge in Detroit and got to see a lady who tried to manually turn the crank of her car. She didn't have the strength to turn it. A god friend of mine tried to help her. But the nervous lady had put the ignition in high position. My friend got a backlash and the crank hit him in his face. He died of his wounds."

Leland became very touched. But Kettering started to work with the problem to construct an electric starter. This became also a generator after the engine start rotating. The self-starter had come to the world 1911 and was a standard equipment on many cars from 1912. The invention was the cause of the world wide producer DELCO.

Kettering and engine knocks.

Charles Ketterring didn't only invent the self-starter. He also solved the knocking phenomenon in the engine which was caused by low octane petrol. Thanks to this invention modern cars petrol economy was solved. and the oil companies could deliver petrol with equal quality and the right octane.

It was also Kettring who invented the way to paint the cars, instead of using common oil paint by hand. This invention led also to the world wide company duPont and the development of  enemal.

Kettering became the leader of GM technical department 1919. From this time Cadillac is only a small part in the production of GM, but the classical badge was added as the finest car of all from GM.

Cadillac 452A 1930

Trying to dig info about Cadillac there is a must to first decide what to dig about. General about history, general development or engines. After much searching it became about engines as most websites talk about this subject and specially about the V16.
1970 Cadillac decided to bore the 472 engine to 500 cc (8.2 liter) engine just because Lincoln had announced an engine with 7.7 liter, just to get the biggest engine. In the 1930th it was due to that Marmon and Peerless was on the way to build a V16. Cadillac started to build together two straight 8 engines with a single crankshaft and one camshaft in the middle with pushrods and standing valves. One new invention were the hydraulic tappets. This was chosen to get a silent engine. Advertising said that a 16 cyl engine is very smooth running, but this is not true for 16 cyl. The reality for a good balanced engine should be 12 or 18 cylinders. The mathematical problem to count the counterweights must have been quite a challenge for the Cadillac engineers.
In the beginning it was quite easy to sell such an expensive car 1930. The first 7 month 2000 cars were sold. All these were offered with body according to catalogue or at customer wish. These were built by Fisher or Fleetwood. The 2 coach work companies were earlier bought by Cadillac just to get them inside Cadillac walls. Empty chassis were offered but only small sales. Same time the same bodies were sold with V12 engines and a few with straight 8:s.

After the first 2000 cars it took 10 years to sell another 2000 units. This car, the V16, is one of the most asked for. 
The V16 car was sold at a loss so they tried to change the engine to more cheaper one doing it into a L-head side valve and 135° V, instead of former 45°. The engine became in this way much broader. The chariots were though big enough to take this so there was no problem with space. The last V16 came 1940. America had not yet entered the war. It took 10 years to sell 4000 cars. This type from 1930 is one of the most sought after luxury cars on the market.

150 horsepower 1947.

Cadillac was the first facory that build a V8 engine. Still today the V-engine is kept. It is a precision built machine with close tolerances compared to the most expensive airplane engines 1947. The cylinder rows are configured in 90° angle and the power is 150 ps at 3400 rpm.

The length is 5.5 m is built to offer the passengers most possible comfort. Front wheels have separate spring feahers. The same as sister car Buick. This construction has  been used for 11 years. rear has semi elliptical type, good protected with wax isolated covered damasks.

1946 års Cadillac is equipped with automatic hydaulic gearbox. With this coupling and gearbox handle are not necessary, expect when at start. It has a special by Fleetwood and Fisher built chariot The passenger compartment has automatic temperature regulation and fresh air control.

Cadillac V16 in Sweden.
One V16 at the museum in Sparreholm. It was ordered by Torsten Krüger (not Ivar Krüger who committed suicide in Paris). Torsten got 1 years in prison because of an economical swindle 1933 and the car was sold to publisher Pettersson in Malmö and then to Helge Kaarinen, owner of Sparreholm Castle and car museum.. This car is original and never renovated. Another two 452B 1931 and 1932 are owned by Anders Läck in Sweden.

In the end of the racing period for Minis it became to heavy trimmed.

Exactly what caused this engine failure only BLMC know or Sport Cars. If you read about Mini Cooper you get to know that Cooper reinforced the casting. From the beginning it was only an original BMC A-engine.

After race was ended with this car it was garaged and then sold. Before it came to the garage of Bilsport several owner had raced it. Here you can se it in a sorrow and worn look.

Alec Issigonis

In England he was called "The Greek God". Alec was born 1906. His father was a Greek marine engineer. He became English citizens during the Turkish - Greek war 1922.

The family was evacuated during this period to Malta together with other English citizens from the place where they lived,on island Smyrna. Later Turkish area.

His father died 1922 at Malta and his mother who was descended from Bavaria in the not yet united Germany.

In England Alec educated at Battersea Polytechnic. He continued at other education places and travelled much. His first job was at Edward Gillet when 22 years old.

Here they were designing a new automatic gearbox. It was some kind of preselector gearbox. He worked also much with front end constructions which he used later in life.

Then he got job at Humber. They were interested in the work with the gearbox. He also worked much with front end constructions.

Then Alec moved to Morris design team 1936 and work with cars independent front end. It was here the car with the very well known name Morris Minor was designed. This car was produced from 1948 to 1971.

Before WWII he was involved in a project called Mosquito. They experimented with glued tree and aluminum.

LaSalle was from the very beginning an economical fiasco. The name Alfred Sloan had fetched the part of a name from a French explorer in 1700 in America. René Robert Cavalier Sieur de LaSalle.

This man wrote the Mississippi map making several journeys starting from the north. France had at this time the possessions of Louisiana area where Mississippi river ended.

Cadillac had also got it's name from an explorer, sieur de Cadillac. He explored the area around the great lakes. But it was Henry Leland who started the production of Cadillac cars.

The LaSalle car was created 1927 as a part of Cadillac production.

The idea from the beginning was to produce a car, which fit in the tax system. The first car made became what was called a cycle car.

It was not allowed to have a bigger engine than 1100 cc and a max weight of 350 kg except all extras. If the car could fit within these rules it could take the name as a cycle car and tax was 100 franc pro year. If not it was in France called Voiturette.

France hade the same sort of classification according help engines (mopeds) in the end of WWII. A help engine with over 50 cc was taxed. Read more about ABG VAP4.

But back to Amilcar. The first Amilcar was a cycle car and presented at Paris Motor Show 1921. It was Jules Solomon and Edmond Moyet who constructed this car. The car type led to a boom of success for such cars. This was because the low taxation.

This home built car is equipped, for the moment, with a Chrysler Hemi engine.

From the beginning it had a Ford 79 A V8, which simply translated means a side valve V8 100 ps from 1947.

The front end is a rigid axle from Ford.

Further info is not available.

1951 Nash introduced a smaller compact car. They had produced this in cooperation with Nash-Healy and the chariot was designed by Pinin Farina.

Harry Earl turned on this and started to convince the lead of GM that it was time to produce a sport car in USA. By some reason this project was named "Project Opel". Anyway this led to a hand built prototype car. This car was shown on all car fairs with the name Corvette.

The reception for this in USA was overwhelming and for this reason GM decided to start production 1953.

The chariot was mould in the new material armed plastic. The same as Volvo used for their unsuccessfully car Volvo Sport.

Bayliss Thomas 1919 - 1930, Cars were built 1922 - 1928
Excelsior 1896 - 1965

The company was established 1874 by John Thomas Bayliss. He merged early with Penny Farthing Bikes and changed name to Excelsior. This company now produced both cars and motorcycles.

As this name already was on the market both in Belgium and Germany and also America they had to sell under the name Bayliss-Thomas.

HD could not accept this so their test driver Paul Goldsmith got order to bring back high speed record from Norton. To do that a 37 hp engine was mounted and the record for highest speed raised with 42 km/h.

HD was though created long before by the 2 mates William Harley and Arthur Davidsson. They started to produce motorcycles in Milwaukee.

The two men were a good combination and already after some years they had developed a V-twin, a layout that should remain till today.

They understood that in order to sell they must have several resellers and they created that. Already 1912 they had over 200 in America.

The models replace each other but engine type and layout were the same. To get the name known they joined all types of competitions in America.

Here he opened an import and export firm 1883. This was, 1885, named Triumph Cycle Company. The factory was placed in the industry town of Coventry.

He also started Triumph in Germany. This name was later c hanged to TWN in Germany. 1902 the first motorcycle was produced with a Belgian engine. Triumph has a very up and down history and among, it once went bankruptcy during time between wars.

Bettman disappeared from the board 1933 and Jacob Sangster bought the company 1936. The mark Trumpf-Adler office machine was a cooperation between Triumph and Adler.

With this he sold parts for bicycles. In the beginning he used engines from Clement or Motor Rev. When Norton with Rem Fowler won the first Isle of Man TT, James decided to construct his own engine.

James had no good health and because of being away very much, the firm went bankruptcy and soon he died. Any way the firm was restarted and saved, by one of his part deliverers.

The time between wars was a continuing development and competition. Norton was a winning machine. The constructions from Norton were for the time advanced. Besides the cycle won Isle of Man more times than anyone else.

This was the result that William III in the end of 1600 century understood that he needed a war industry independent of foreign countries.

Already 1903 the first bike was built, although it had Belgian Minerva engine. These bikes were green which became the BSA color.

Till WWII several different models were sold with increasing volumes. Names as Sloper, Blue Star and the M-Range. The last well known for it's use by AAA as support bike on the English roads.

Being Rudge company is an another story. As every other firms working with transport vehicles Rudge started with bikes. Accessories for bikes, rims for cars and motorcycles. One period Rudge also produced 3 wheeled cars. In England they were called "Cyclecars".

The progress started before 1850 when Daniel Rudge, who build high wheelers, invented the adjustable ball bearing. Equipped with this the bike got a better balance. Rudge contracted a French racing cyclist, Charles Terront. He won important races in France with his own bikes.

Note that France was the leading country for all sorts of racing, while they were more positive to build new roads and arrange competitions for bikes, cars and motorbikes.

The main idea of the bearing came from the time when Daniel made his military service in France. French German war 1870-71. Henry Clarke the fellow worker met a Frenchman whose bike seemed to be much better than all others. Daniel and his mate decided to find out the secret. It is said that they made the Frenchman drunk. Now they could dismount the bike to look at the secret. They found that the high wheel was mounted with ball bearings instead of  plain bearings. This was the bearing that Daniel made further development to a useful product for his own produced bikes.

Daniel was now lucky that among all other bike producers in England it was one company with the leaders of Walter Phillips and George Price. They searched for a capable engineer and they chose Daniel Rudge. Now the bikes were updated and a the merging of companies in several steps became the result. This was good and they earned much money.

The company showed many new ideas, like the multigear box. It was about the same construction as the Volvo 343. It is simple to explain it this way, but it was of course a construction for it's time. The most important thing was that the driving belt was adjustable in relation of the rear wheel. With this construction they won Isle of Man TT, 1913. This construction was not good when the engines power raised and 1923 they had to change for gearboxes of normal type. Just like Volvo did.

Rudge produced engines with IOE, (inlet over exhaust). The second update of engine was updating the cylinder head with 2 inlet and 2 outlet valves. They were placed parallel. This idea with multi valves had been tried on Triumph Ricardo head 1921. Well known is the Ricardo head for A-Ford engine.

This construction was developed in several steps and lastly Rudge had a cylinder head where the valves were placed radial. With this type Rudge won 1930 Junior TT. This winning mc got the name Ulster and was offered for sale as a replica.

During the depression 1930 the sales was reduced considerable in spite of several updates on the engine. The valves were placed semi radial. (parallel valves radial ports). The cylinder head was cast iron.

The valve arrangement was complete closed (see picture). The economy was still bad and may be the changeover to work for the war effort and producing radar equipments saved Rudge from shutting down 1939. Any new production didn't start after the war 1945.

Velocette motorcycles was established 1905, at that time the producer was Taylor & Gue.

Velocette was an English company between the years 1904-1968. It produced Veloce MC:s in Hall Green, Birmingham. The successes was mainly in road racing during the 50th.

The founder was John Goodman, born with the name Johannes Gütgerman. Changed later name to John Taylor before he formally changed to Goodman. His co worker was William Gue. The company name was up to 1905 Taylor & Gue. His sons Percy and Eugene were also members.

Their first mc was named Veloce. Later the same year it was changed to Veloce Limited. They had in mind to produce motorcycles, close up parts and give service. The first engine was a four stroke. The first two stroke came 1913 and got the name Velocette. The following models inherit this name.

1933 they decide to introduce a new mc with overhead four stroke engine. The main task was to cut cost in order offer mc:s which had big demand.

It was now decided to change to a simpler cylinder head construction and this called for less work.

The first of these was MOW and they used a 250 cc engine. It had square cylinder, 68x69. This mc became an immediate success. 1934 the MAC 350 cc was introduced and this became even more popular and the company earned much money.

Now they got funds to develop the earlier more expensive engine, Velocette. This mc was offered on the market 1935, and named Velocette MSS 500 cc.

This last mc got also a more firm frame and could easy be completed with a side wagon.

The name Velocette became now the name on all mc:s that were produced. John Taylor change also name 1935 to Goodman.

The company ceased their production 1971.

Rex Acme GB
Rex Acme was the English version. It was produced by the brothers William and Harold Williamsson 1899.

They first made small cars in Coventry but went over to motorcycles 1904 and used engines from other producers like JAP.

Telescope front end was used already 1906. 1908 they leaned the cylinder unit in order to lower the height of the motorcycle.

Rex Acme was the English version. It was produced by the brothers William and Harold Williamsson. They first made small cars in Coventry but went over to motorcycles 1904. They used engines from other producers like JAP. Telescope front spring was used already 1906.

During a few years there were popular to mount two exhaust pipes from one port. But it showed that the cycle had a better run with only one pipe. Royal Enfield had such a model. The owner found that it was better with only one working pipe but kept the none working one.

The name Rex could be found in several European countries like Sweden, Germany, Italy and Rex Acme in England.