Leata (make of car)

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Leata (pronounced "LII-tah") was a short-lived American automobile brand that was in the market in the mid-1970s. The manufacturer was the Stinebaugh Manufacturing Company in Post Falls ( Idaho ).

Brand history

The company was founded in the 1960s by the machinist and inventor Don E. Stinebaugh and manufactured ATVs for professional applications, the largest of them with six wheels and three driven axles. A special feature was their hand-made fiberglass body , which was modeled after a scaled-down Ford Model A. A motor for snowmobiles developed by Stinebaugh was also successful . Stinebaugh received 48 patents over the course of his life.

Production ran from 1975 to around 1978.

Leata model

technology

The Leata was made from purchased components. The chassis was built by a special racing car company in Spokane for Stinebaugh. It had the short wheelbase of 1778 mm (70 inches), independent wheel suspensions at the front and coil springs all around . (For comparison: the wheelbase of the Smart Fortwo is 1812 mm.) There was a hydraulic dual-circuit brake system . The wheels had steel belt radial tires measuring BR 78 × 13. The tank held 38 liters (10 US gallons)

At least the first three copies were Continental - four-cylinder engines with 60 bhp (44.75 kW). The gearboxes came from BorgWarner , the rear axles from Spicer , the small sports steering wheel came from the catalog of the car accessories dealer JC Whitney and many other components came from Ford .

Cost reasons and problems with emissions regulations prompted Stinebaugh to use the Pinto engine from Ford with 2.3 liter displacement, electronic ignition and an output of 83 bhp (61.9 kW) instead of the Continental engine . The savings per unit were US $ 180.

The Leata contained parts that were in stock in well-stocked specialist shops or at car dealerships. The operating instructions listed their origins in detail to facilitate the search for spare parts.

construction

The leata was a family affair; apart from the chassis, the car was assembled in-house. Don E. Stinebaugh was the boss, his four sons were responsible for the mechanical processing, the production of the body or the interior. The founder's nephews took on other tasks. In fact, it was one of Stinebaugh's intentions to use it to "keep his four sons busy and out of trouble," as he put it. Stinebaugh attached great importance to quality and good workmanship; among the employees he was considered "obsessed with detail".

The plan was to produce one car a day.

design

The Leata was designed as a pure two-seater. The first model was a coupe or "Berlinetta". The body was again designed by Stinebaugh. The fact that he was impressed by the styling of the first Lincoln Continental can also be seen on the Leata with a tapering bonnet, offset fenders in the style of the VW Beetle , (probably for cost reasons) straight windows and even a Continental kit at the rear, as in the brochure was reported, was mounted on the chassis. So it was a retro design as it was, albeit less pronounced, also maintained by large manufacturers.

Inside, Stinebaugh was more oriented towards hot rods . The covers of the individual seats, as well as door and side panels, are made of shiny metallic vinyl with diagonally stitched inserts in the seats. The floor is covered with a soft nylon carpet. The dashboard appears straightforward with black displays and white numbers; the carrier probably also comes from Ford. There were real wood inlays that were also available with matching vinyl. Stinebaugh attached particular importance to the fact that all materials used were flame retardant.

safety

Fiberglass was also used for the body because this material contributes to the rigidity of the construction from a certain thickness. That this worked was shown when Stinebaugh crashed a Leata into a concrete wall at 40 mph (approx. 65 km / h) in front of the local press for the mandatory crash test . Then he got in, drove the car away, and challenged the Big Three ( General Motors , Ford and Chrysler ) to do the same.

The driving characteristics themselves should be quite impressive; the vehicle is at least shorter than a Smart, but has a significantly more powerful motor and is lighter. A customer overturned his Leata at 40 mph, and the vehicle then slid on the roof for 20 meters. He got out unharmed and put it on its wheels. It turned out that the Leata was still drivable. The Stinebaughs then cut off the demolished roof and replaced it with a new one.

marketing

The sparse product advertising was sober and factual. In any case, Stinebaugh relied more on word of mouth in order to utilize his very limited production capacities. The aim was to sell for less than US $ 3000.

The Leata can hardly be classified in one of the categories of the time . It most closely fits into the small car class defined in the 1990s . The Leata was never offered as a kit car , although its structure was similar and the pseudo-classic car style would have suited it.

variants

The extensive construction by hand made it possible to experiment with variants. This resulted in at least one convertible and a pick-up on a longer chassis with a 2388 mm (94 inch) wheelbase. A slightly more stretched, closed version was also tried. Although called "Sedan", it was a two-seater with some space behind the seats.

For 1976 only coupé and pick-up were offered. The price rose to US $ 3,295; that was US $ 500 more than a Ford Pinto cost. The car wasn't even profitable. Allegedly there was a waiting list of 2000 customers.

The production ended in early 1976 without a song. A total of only 22 Leatas were built, including 18 coupés, the convertible, three pick-ups and the "Sedan". After that, body molds and inventory were sold.

It was never quite clear for which market segment the car was actually designed. It was not luxurious, not particularly elegant or sporty, only offered space for two people, and carried remarkably little luggage. The company temporarily afforded a head of marketing. With enough time, he might have aimed the car towards a certain target group.

Cabalero model

Finally the marketing manager got a new job. Stinebaugh had come up with the idea of ​​converting Chevrolet Chevettes into small luxury cars. To do this, he formed special body parts, again from fiberglass. The Leata Cabalero (written with just an “l”) was modeled after much larger Personal Luxury Cars , but from the front it also reminded of the first-generation Toyota Cressida . Again there was a coupe and a pick-up. For the latter, he built a frame to give the Chevette's self-supporting body the necessary rigidity.

The Cabalero presented in 1977 was much easier to build than its predecessor. About a hundred copies were made, none of which made money.

Sports car models

A number of large sports cars followed, all of them one-off with a retro look and priced at around US $ 75,000.

Trivia

  • "Leata" is Norwegian and roughly means "small" or "cute"; this was the nickname of Stinebaugh's wife.
  • A young couple returned their Leata after the first overland trip. It had got into a speed control at 90 mph (just under 145 km / h) and was now afraid of the car.
  • Stinebaugh claims to have lost US $ 750,000 on his foray into the automotive industry.

literature

  • Consumer's Guide (editor): Encyclopedia of American Cars from 1930 , Publications International (1993), ISBN 0-7853-0175-5 (English)
  • Harald H. Linz, Halwart Schrader : The International Automobile Encyclopedia . United Soft Media Verlag, Munich 2008, ISBN 978-3-8032-9876-8 , chapter Leata.
  • George Nick Georgano (Editor-in-Chief): The Beaulieu Encyclopedia of the Automobile. Volume 2: G – O. Fitzroy Dearborn Publishers, Chicago 2001, ISBN 1-57958-293-1 , p. 886. (English)

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d howstuffworks.com: 1975 Leata , p. 1
  2. ↑ a b c d e f g h i j howstuffworks.com: 1975 Leata , p. 2
  3. ↑ George Nick Georgano (Editor-in-Chief): The Beaulieu Encyclopedia of the Automobile. Fitzroy Dearborn Publishers, Chicago 2001, ISBN 1-57958-293-1 , p. 886. (English)
  4. ↑ a b c d e f g h i howstuffworks.com: 1975 Leata , p. 3
  5. ↑ a b c d e f g h i j howstuffworks.com: 1975 Leata , p. 4

Remarks

  1. ↑ "I kept them busy and I kept them out of trouble"