1929 Lincoln Limousine NICE JAG MATE!

It’s not often we come across a Gatsby-era luxury car that has been in the UK since the roaring Twenties and with the same owner since 1966! Meet Derek Brown’s magnificent 1929 Model L seven-passenger Limousine…

- John Bath

After a relaxing coffee break last year(between lockdowns,) we were amused to be complimented by a passer-by with the words “Nice Jag mate!”, following a busy morning’s photoshoot around Kew, West London. The admirer had mistaken the sleek Greyhound mascot on the bonnet for the Leaping Jaguar, but owner Derek diplomatically corrected the enthusiast very gently. We were not far from Lincoln’s former original Art Deco headquarters on the Great West Road (A4), opposite the famous Firestone factory buildings, both now sadly demolished, though this car even precedes the establishment of that Thirties location and also the Dagenham complex.

The Lincoln Motor Company was founded in 1917 by Henry Leland, to manufacture 6500 Liberty V12 Aero Engines for the war effort, but when the contracts ended, he was left with a large factory and machinery with a skilled workforce, but nothing for them to do. Therefore, having previously created the Cadillac marque, he naturally decided on a new luxury car named after Abraham Lincoln. The first cars were produced by 1920 and were arguably the most advanced mechanically at the time and well-received, but the styling was too conservative. By 1922, the company was in financial difficulties, so his old nemesis Henry Ford seized the opportunity for a takeover, purchasing Lincoln at the receivers’ sale in February 1922 for $8 million.