We’re going to do a couple posts on a very rare car. It will be done
in two posts, the reason should become obvious. We’ll give some clues
as we go along, but the car is so rare, we can’t find a picture.
The story has links to Detroit in 1701. A capitaine de marine in the
armed forces of Louis XIV named Antoine de la Mothe Cadillac established
Detroit and dubbed it Ville d’Etroit-”Village of the Straits”. At the
time North America was named “New France”. He was not a rich man, but
his family did have a crest dating back to the 11th century. This
family crest is still on the marque today, although it has been altered
extensively by now.
A little later, in February of 1843, Henry Martyn Leland was born to
Quaker parents in Massachusetts. Henry went to work at age 11. By age
14 he was working 64 hour weeks for the sum of $3. He was respected as
a top-notch machinist. Later he went to work for Colt Arms were he
honed his precision.
Leland opened his own business in 1890 with two partners. In 1896 the
company started producing both steam and gasoline engines. These were
made cheaper and with more power than any car manufacturer could.
Another jump, to 1885, in Piedmonte, Italy, Giovanbatiista Farina was
born. He was call “Pinin” which meant ‘runt of the litter’. We was the
10th of 11 children in the family. The family moved to Turin, and in
1911, pinin was offered a chance to design a radiator for the Fiat
“Zero” Torpedo. He went up against 10 designers from Fiat and won.
Now let’s jump to 1961, when by a decree of the President of the
Italian Republic, the surname “Farina” was changed to “Pininfarina”.
And if you’re into classic cars, you may recognize the name.
All these came together to make automotive history in 1931. Only one
car was built, for the then Maharajah of Ocha, against GM brass advice and itsupposedly resides today in the Blackhawk
Collection of fine automobiles. We’ll fill in the blanks in the next
post. You should know the make by now, any guesses on the the model?
Comments on about anything are welcome.
June 10, 2008 at 3:27 pm
June 10, 2008 at 4:09 pm
scoundrel,
Actually the coachbuilder did make a profit. It was commissioned by the then Maharaja of Orcha . Even though the management at Cadillac headquarters adamately advised against it, the Maharaja had more than enough money to get his way.