Rickenbacker Motor Company

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The Rickenbacker Motor Company was an American automobile manufacturer from Detroit that existed from 1922 to 1927. The founders were Barney Everitt , William Metzger and Walter Flanders , who had previously operated the Everitt-Metzger-Flanders Company , and also the well-known racing driver and fighter pilot Eddie Rickenbacker .

history

Founded in 1921, the company introduced the first car, the Six, at the New York Automobile Show in January 1922 . Available as a four-seat coupé, five-seat touring car or five-seat sedan, the mid-range car was equipped with an in-line six-cylinder engine produced in-house. The unit had a displacement of 3572 cm³ and made 58 bhp (43 kW). It had three main bearings and ran quietly and with little vibration because it had a flywheel on each end of the crankshaft. The manufacturer guaranteed a top speed of 96.5 km / h (60 mph).

A sensational innovation in 1923 were the four-wheel brakes, the first in a US mid-range vehicle. Duesenberg had offered brakes on all wheels earlier, but the luxury cars were unaffordable for most Americans.

The death of Flanders in a traffic accident in 1924 was a major blow for the company. In 1925, Rickenbacker brought out the first eight-cylinder, the Eight , a side-controlled in-line engine with seven main bearings and a displacement of 4391 cc that made 80 bhp (59 kW). The six-cylinder engine with 3867 cm³, which brought it to 68 bhp (50 kW), was also new.

The sales figures for Rickenbacker automobiles were never particularly high. At the end of 1925, however, the earnings situation became so bad that a bankruptcy petition had to be filed in January 1926. Eddie Rickenbacker left the company the following September and Metzger had also said goodbye. The only remaining founder Everitt presented the model range for 1927 on December 1, 1926 and promised to produce 500 copies in the old year. Six- and eight-cylinder engines had been reinforced and now made 70–95 bhp (51–70 kW). In February 1927 the company had to close its doors. A total of around 34,500 automobiles were built in five years.

In 1928 Jørgen Skafte Rasmussen bought the production facilities for the six and eight-cylinder engines that were last manufactured and had them transported to Germany. There he wanted to open an engine factory under his own name, but found no interested parties among the German automobile manufacturers, with the exception of the Audi plants that he himself had recently bought up . Between 1929 and 1932, 76 Audi type T vehicles with 3.9 l R6 engines and 457 type SS vehicles with 5.1 l R8 engines were built

Models

model	Construction period	cylinder	power	wheelbase
Six / B / C	1922-1924	6 row	58 bhp (43 kW)	2972 mm
C / Six	1925-1926	6 row	68 bhp (50 kW)	2972 mm
Eight	1925-1926	8 row	80 bhp (59 kW)	3086 mm
6-70	1927	6 row	70 bhp (51 kW)	3010 mm
8-80	1927	8 row	80 bhp (59 kW)	3086 mm
8-90	1927	8 row	95 bhp (70 kW)	3454 mm

Production numbers

Construction year	number of pieces
1922	3709
1923	8539
1924	7187
1925	9214
1926	approx. 5400
1927	about 450

literature

• Beverly Ray Kimes, Henry Austin Clark Jr .: Standard Catalog of American Cars 1805-1942. Krause Publications, Iola 1985, ISBN 0-87341-045-9 . (English)

Web links

Commons : Rickenbacker Motor Company  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

1. ^ Werner Oswald : Deutsche Autos 1920-1945 , 10th edition, Motorbuch Verlag, Stuttgart (1996), ISBN 3-87943-519-7