1927 Lincoln Model L town car.
This gorgeous Brunn special order town car was available in our September 1977 issue of Hemmings Motor News. The recent restoration spared nothing and included work on the engine, transmission, brakes, paint, upholstery, tires and chrome. The car had some show history as it won many local awards and two second place AACA National awards. It had also completed four of the past five Glidden Tours at the time the car appeared in our classifieds. The asking price in 1977 was $32,500, which would be around $127,500 today.
Photo courtesy Automobile Quarterly.
Edsel Ford put Herman Brunn of Brunn & Company in charge of building Lincoln’s Town Car. Brunn had been brought on by Henry Leland before Lincoln was purchased by Ford, to try and improve the styling and design of the Lincoln and make it more appealing to the masses. He designed the Town Car to be an all-weather automobile with a snap-on top to protect the chauffer, as you can see in the color picture that appeared in Automobile Quarterly. In their prime, Brunn was producing about 20 town car bodies per month that would go directly to the Lincoln plant for installation. They would continue to supply bodies for Lincoln into the 1930s, but business would dwindle much the way it did for everyone during the Great Depression. In addition to Lincoln, Brunn & Company would build bodies for Pierce-Arrow, Duesenberg, Rolls-Royce and Packard, to name just a few customers. Brunn’s son, also named Herman, would work for Ford’s Lincoln-Mercury division, deciding on the colors and fabrics to be used in the Lincoln automobiles.
Lincoln produced over 7,000 cars in 1927 and featured several other custom body builders including Judkins, LeBarron, Willoughby, Dietrich, Locke and Holbrook. The 1927s models were the first to feature the bullet-shaped headlamp shells, and the running boards were changed to black-ribbed rubber. The year also marked the introduction of the Greyhound mascot that would become a popular fixture among Lincolns and Fords over the next several years.
