He’s largely forgotten today.  His name brings to mind an unsuccessful car, a shorthand for business failure in the car industry.  But, he deserved better.  He was the man that kept the Ford Motor Company alive, even as his father tried to run it into the ground.
   
His name was Edsel Ford, and he was the man who forced the company to produce the Model A.  He was also the man who brought styling and style to the Ford Motor Company.  Lincoln was his laboratory, but his sense of style, proportion, and line was the equal to the best in the car business, here or abroad.  But, he died young – some say he was the victim of his own father’s jealousy.
   
The Lincoln Continental is perhaps his best known car, built originally to give him a fashionable car for wintering in Florida.  But his interests were more eclectic than that, and two of the results are going on the auction block of RM Auctions at the Amelia Island Concours in Florida this coming March 8th. 
   
One is a one-off 1934 Ford Model 40 Speedster, specifically built to Edsel Ford’s order and retained by him until his death in 1943.  The vehicle was restored from deteriorated original condition in 1999 and this is the first time since that it has been offered for sale.
   
The second Edsel Ford car is another 1934 Ford, this one a Brewster-bodied town car.  There were several of these built.  Brewster, at the time, was a company building custom bodies, a trade that was rapidly expiring in the depths of the depression.  Ford commissioned them to build a limited number of luxury vehicles on the Ford chassis.  The car on the block is Edsel Ford’s personal vehicle, the first of the Brewster-bodied Fords.  It, too, has only had one owner since leaving the Ford family fleet.
   
www.rmauctions.com will give you more information, should you want to add either to your fleet.