Balboa Motor Car Company

Balboa Motor Car Company
legal form	Company
founding	1924
resolution	1925
Reason for dissolution	Closure after litigation
Seat	Fullerton ( California , USA )
management	Otto W. Heinz William H. Radford JC Bliss Fred G. Mott
Branch	Automobiles

The Balboa Motor Car Company was a short-lived American automobile manufacturer in the mid-1920s . The brand name was Balboa .

The company was founded in 1924 by Otto W. Heinz (President and CEO), William H. Radford (Vice President and Chief Engineer), JC Bliss (Secretary) and Fred G. Mott (Vice President and Sales Director) .

Otto W. Heinz

Heinz had worked with Fred M. Guy at the Hackett Motor Car Company in Jackson and later in Grand Rapids, Michigan . There he was involved in the development of the Guy four-stroke - flat slide motor involved. Its outstanding technical feature were rotating, perforated disks in the top of the cylinder head instead of valves; these were not driven by a camshaft , but by gear wheels . When Hackett had to close, they took the engine with them to Ypsilanti (Michigan) to their new employer, the Apex Motor Corporation . There the engine was used as a six-cylinder in small numbers in the Ace Model T and Rotary Six series. The establishment of the Heinz Motor Company to manufacture automobiles was announced, but did not take place. Instead, he helped Fred Guy build the Guy Disc Valve Motor Company .

William H. Radford

The chief engineer of the Balboa Motor Car Company , William H. Radford, was an experienced technician and had last worked for the Kessler Motor Company in Detroit , which concentrated on engines at the end of 1922 and gave up the automotive industry, which had only started three years earlier, after persistent unsuccessfulness would have. Possibly too early, because the super-charge engine developed there was very promising. Its authorship claimed both Radford and his former boss, Martin C. Kessler , for themselves.

Company history

The Balboa Motor Car Company was based in Fullerton, California . Shares were issued and the construction of a factory in Pomona began . Production was supposed to start in October 1924 with a planned annual output of 1,000 vehicles, but for the time being one had to be content with the former premises of a wire goods factory in Fullerton.

The super-charge engine

The Balboa was to come onto the market with a technically interesting engine. It was the aforementioned Kessler Super-Charge eight-cylinder engine that Chief Engineer Radford had brought back from his previous employer. According to Balboa (probably exaggerated), it took eight years of development. It was an overhead in- line engine with an integrated compressor . The innovative approach was to integrate a pressure vessel in the crankcase ; the pressure was built up by the downward movement of the pistons . According to a single source, it was a rotary vane motor ; possibly a misunderstanding because Otto Heinz had previously worked on such a construction .

As with the Kess-Line Eight , which is built in small numbers , the Balboa Eight should also provide 100 bhp. It can be assumed that it largely corresponded to that of the Kess-Line. A performance over 80 bhp was reserved for a few high-priced automobiles in the mid-1920s, for example in the USA

• Lincoln Model L : 81 bhp (60 kW); side-controlled V8 engine with a displacement of 5.8 liters
• Packard Single Eight : 85 bhp (62.5 kW); side-controlled in-line eight-cylinder engine with 5.9 liter displacement
• Duesenberg Model A : 88 bhp (65.6 kW); Overhead steering in-line eight-cylinder engine with 4.3 liter displacement
• Daniel's Model D: 90 bhp (67.1 kW); side-controlled V8 engine with a displacement of 6.6 liters
• Locomobile Model 48: 95 bhp (70.8 kW); Six-cylinder T-head engine with a displacement of 8.5 liters

All of these engines had a significantly larger displacement and the vehicles cost significantly more than was planned for the Balboa . The Alfa Romeo RL SS , presented in 1925, had a 2.6-liter six-cylinder engine with 83 bhp (61 kW), the Bugatti Type 35 B racing car with a 2262 cm³ eight-cylinder engine and a compressor 130 bhp (97 kW). The super-charge engine would have been a very competitive drive.

Balboa Eight

The Balboa Eight was by no means intended for motorsport. The only chassis initially planned had an impressive wheelbase of 127 inches (3226 mm). This, as well as the targeted sales price of US $ 2900 for a five-seater Touring, places the vehicle in the lower end of the luxury segment. The slightly more expensive Packard Single Six, for example, was available with a wheelbase of 126 or 133 inches (3200 mm and 3378 mm).

The company began promoting its car in advertisements back in early 1924. The advertising slogan was: Its's Beauty You Must See, it's Genuiness Only Close Inspection Discloses ; Translated, for example: "You can see its beauty, its independence is only revealed on closer examination". In a former wire goods factory organized by board member Bliss, three chassis were built, two of which were given a body of unknown origin. One of them was a Touring, the other a four-door called Sport Brougham with a leather-covered roof and hinted storm bars . Both showed a European influence with fenders not attached to the running board. The spare wheel was carried at the rear. Because the Super Charge engine was not yet ready, all three Continental in-line eight-cylinder engines were purchased .

In this form they were exhibited in March 1924, together with the bare chassis, at the California Hotel in Fullerton; followed by a presentation at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles in August.

Now other difficulties arose. The company appears to have made promises it couldn't deliver, and investors are suing it for investment fraud. How the proceedings ended is not known. In any case, it meant that the project with the Super-Charge engine had to be abandoned after the three prototypes were exhibited again in March 1925 at the Orange County Automobile Show in Santa Ana , now with the correct engine. Apart from the prototypes mentioned, no Balboa Eight was produced, the sedan mentioned several times was never built. Leading experts attest the Balboa that it had great potential and could have been successful with more serious preparation and a little more patience on the part of the investors.

dual

Woods Dual Power Model 44 Hybrid (1916)

Probably to save the company, consideration was given to producing hybrid electric vehicles under a license from the Woods Motor Vehicle Company , which was discontinued in 1918 . The production site was supposed to be the plant in Pomona, but that did not happen either; More than a few prototypes were hardly made in Fullerton. The Woods Dual Power (1916–1918) is the first hybrid car ever to be built in series. In its latest version, it had a wheelbase of 124 inches and a purchased Continental four-cylinder engine that idled at speeds below 15 mph (24 km / h) and took over the power transmission from the two electric motors on the rear axle. The top speed was a modest 35 mph (approx. 56 km / h) and it can be assumed that the last retail price of the Wood Dual Power Coupe Coach from 1918, US $ 2950, ​​would not have been kept.

A recent source says that in 1924 at least three touring cars and two Roadster as a prototype emerged as dual should be marketed. This was preceded by the attempt by Theodore E. Felt and his TE Felt Motor Car Company , based in Los Angeles and a plant in Midway City , to manufacture such vehicles between 1922 and 1923 and to sell them as duals .

The Balboa Motor Car Company closed in 1925.

Model overview

construction time	model	cylinder	Cubic capacity cm³	Power bhp / kW	Wheelbase inch / mm	body	List price
1924-1925	Balboa Eight	R8	2917	100 / 74.6	127/3226	Touring	US $ 2900
1924-1925	Balboa Eight	R8	2917	100 / 74.6	127/3226	Sport Brougham , 4-door
1924-1925	Balboa Eight	R8	2917	100 / 74.6	127/3226	Sedan , 4-door
1924 or 1925	dual	Hybrid			124/3150	Coupe Coach

It can be assumed that the engine of the Balboa largely corresponded to that of the Kess-Line Eight. No further data is available for the Dual.

literature

• Beverly Rae Kimes (ed.); Henry Austin Clark Jr. Standard Catalog of American Cars 1805-1942. 3. Edition. Krause Publications, Iola WI 1996, ISBN 0-87341-428-4 , pp. 1565, 1569 and 101. (English)
• George Nick Georgano (Ed.): Complete Encyclopedia of Motorcars, 1885 to the Present. 2nd Edition. Dutton Press, New York 1973, ISBN 0-525-08351-0 . (English)
• David A. Kirsch: The Electric Vehicle and the Burden of History. Rutgers University Press, New Brunswick NJ / London 2000, ISBN 0-8135-2809-7 . (English)
• Ernest Henry Wakefield: History of the Electric Automobile; Battery-Only Powered Cars. Editor SAE (Society of Automotive Engineers). Warrendale PA 1970, ISBN 1-56091-299-5 . (English)
• Gijs Mom: The Electric Vehicle: Technology and Expectations in the Automobile Age. Johns Hopkins University Press, ISBN 0-8018-7138-7 . (Reprint 2012, ISBN 978-1-4214-0970-2 ) (English)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c d e f g h i j k} Kimes, Clark: Standard Catalog. 1996, p. 101.
2. ↑ mychurchgrowth.com: Ace 1920-1922
3. ↑ ^{a b} Kimes, Clark: Standard Catalog. 1996, p. 14.
4. ↑ Kimes, Clark: Standard Catalog. 1996, p. 694.
5. ↑ ^{a b} Kimes, Clark: Standard Catalog. 1996, p. 804.
6. ↑ ^{a b c} Georgano: Complete Encyclopedia. 1973, p. 123.
7. ↑ Kimes, Clark: Standard Catalog. 1996, p. 497.
8. ↑ Kimes, Clark: Standard Catalog. 1996, p. 413.
9. ^ Georgano: Complete Encyclopedia. 1973, p. 437.
10. ↑ ^{a b} Kimes, Clark: Standard Catalog. 1996, p. 1566.
11. ↑ Kimes, Clark: Standard Catalog. 1996, p. 1570.
12. ↑ ^{a b c} Beverly Rae Kimes, Henry Austin Clark Jr .: Standard catalog of American Cars. 1805-1942. Digital edition . 3. Edition. Krause Publications, Iola 2013, ISBN 978-1-4402-3778-2 , pp. 494 (English).

Remarks

1. ↑ A conclusion by noted automotive historians Beverly Rae Kimes and Henry A. Clark, Jr. in the Standard Catalog of the American Automobile, 1805-1942. 1996, p. 101.
2. ↑ Dates : Woods Dual Power (1918)