{"id":2624,"date":"2005-02-16T03:05:00","date_gmt":"2005-02-16T08:05:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.kitfoster.com\/carport\/2005\/02\/doin-continental\/"},"modified":"2010-12-30T12:02:06","modified_gmt":"2010-12-30T17:02:06","slug":"doin-continental","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.kitfoster.com\/carport\/2005\/02\/doin-continental\/","title":{"rendered":"Doin&#8217; the Continental"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"picright\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.kitfoster.com\/images\/2005-2-16_ContiLFWeb-Large.jpg\" target=\"_blank\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.kitfoster.com\/images\/2005-2-16_ContiLFWeb-Feature.jpg\" width=\"220\" height=\"169\" alt=\"Continental Flyer coupe\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Wayne Graefen is a car journalist&#8217;s best friend. He travels widely, is always on the lookout for remarkable vehicles, and takes lots of pictures. This time he&#8217;s come up with the Continental drift.<\/p>\n<p>These days Continental is synonymous with <a href=\"http:\/\/www.kitfoster.com\/images\/2005-2-16_1940LincolnContiWeb-Large.jpg\" target=\"_blank\"title=\"Illustration of 1940 Lincoln Continental\" target=\"_blank\"class=\"imglink\">Lincoln<\/a>, but when this Continental was built no one at Ford Motor Company had contemplated such a model. This is a <a href=\"http:\/\/www.kitfoster.com\/images\/2005-2-16_ContiLSideWeb-Large.jpg\" target=\"_blank\"title=\"Illustration of Continental Flyer coupe, left side\" target=\"_blank\"class=\"imglink\">1933 Continental Flyer<\/a>, built by the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.kitfoster.com\/images\/2005-2-16_ContiBadgeWeb-Large.jpg\" target=\"_blank\"title=\"Illustration of Continental badge\" target=\"_blank\"class=\"imglink\">Continental Automobile Company<\/a>, a division of Continental Motors. Continental? Didn&#8217;t they build engines, not cars? Well, yes. Through the 1920s Continental was the chief supplier of engines to manufacturers of so-called &#8220;assembled cars,&#8221; those built from parts supplied by outside companies (&#8220;outsourcing&#8221; is nothing new).<\/p>\n<p>Continental&#8217;s Muskegon, Michigan, plant had been supplying engines for the <a href=\"http:\/\/clubs.hemmings.com\/clubsites\/durant\/Additions\/devaux\/yelle\/target1.html\">DeVaux<\/a> automobile, built in nearby Grand Rapids. But in 1932, when the DeVaux-Hall Motors Corporation failed, Continental took over its Michigan assets to settle unpaid bills for engines. Building the last few DeVauxs in the plant, Continental brought out their own car for 1933, in three models: an entry-level <a href=\"http:\/\/www.kitfoster.com\/images\/2005-2-16_ContiBeacon2DrWeb-Large.jpg\" target=\"_blank\"title=\"Illustration of Continental Beacon two-door sedan\" target=\"_blank\"class=\"imglink\">Beacon<\/a> four-cylinder model, a Flyer (the type photographed by Wayne), and a top-of-the-line <a href=\"http:\/\/www.kitfoster.com\/images\/2005-2-16_ContiAceWeb-Large.jpg\" target=\"_blank\"title=\"Illustration of Continental Ace\" target=\"_blank\"class=\"imglink\">Ace<\/a>. All cars, of course, used Continental&#8217;s famed <a href=\"http:\/\/www.kitfoster.com\/images\/2005-2-16_ContiREdSealWeb-Large.jpg\" target=\"_blank\"title=\"Illustration of Continental Red Seal engine\" target=\"_blank\"class=\"imglink\">Red Seal engines<\/a>. 3,310 were built in 1933, and a further 953 <a href=\"http:\/\/www.kitfoster.com\/images\/2005-2-16_ContiBeaconRoadsterWeb-Large.jpg\" target=\"_blank\"title=\"Illustration of Continental Beacon roadster\" target=\"_blank\"class=\"imglink\">Beacons<\/a> were sold in 1934 before operations ceased. Continental Motors was acquired by Ryan Aeronautical Company (builder of Lindberg&#8217;s <a href=\"http:\/\/www.charleslindbergh.com\/plane\/index.asp\">Spirit of St. Louis<\/a>) in 1965, which in turn was purchased by Teledyne in 1969. Today <a href=\"http:\/\/www.tcmlink.com\/\">Teledyne Continental Motors<\/a> builds piston and turbine engines for light aircraft.<\/p>\n<p>Wayne snapped this Flyer coupe at a <a href=\"http:\/\/www.vmcca.org\/\">Veteran Motor Car Club of America<\/a> meet at Fredericksburg, Texas, in July 2003. A bit <a href=\"http:\/\/www.kitfoster.com\/images\/2005-2-16_ContiInteriorWeb-Large.jpg\" target=\"_blank\"title=\"Illustration of Continental Flyer - interior\" target=\"_blank\"class=\"imglink\">down at the heels<\/a>, it was solid and complete. <a href=\"http:\/\/www.kitfoster.com\/images\/2005-2-16_ContiRRWeb-Large.jpg\" target=\"_blank\"title=\"Illustration of Continental Flyer - rear\" target=\"_blank\"class=\"imglink\">It sold quickly<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Wayne Graefen is a car journalist&#8217;s best friend. He travels widely, is always on the lookout for remarkable vehicles, and takes lots of pictures. This time he&#8217;s come up with the Continental drift. These days Continental is synonymous with Lincoln, but when this Continental was built no one at Ford Motor Company had contemplated such<span style=\"color:#aaa\">&#8230;.<\/span> <br \/><a href=\"http:\/\/www.kitfoster.com\/carport\/2005\/02\/doin-continental\/\">Read full article<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2624","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.kitfoster.com\/carport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2624","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.kitfoster.com\/carport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.kitfoster.com\/carport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.kitfoster.com\/carport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.kitfoster.com\/carport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2624"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/www.kitfoster.com\/carport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2624\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3450,"href":"http:\/\/www.kitfoster.com\/carport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2624\/revisions\/3450"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.kitfoster.com\/carport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2624"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.kitfoster.com\/carport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2624"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.kitfoster.com\/carport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2624"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}