The collector car market, in your inbox
Classic car news, hand-picked vehicles, and auction coverage. Choose what lands in your inbox.
A 1930 Lincoln Model L sedan that spent roughly 50 years in the collection of string maker Ernie Ball is live on Bring a Trailer through Monday, October 26 at 3:47 p.m. ET. Bidding sat at $10,000 on Wednesday morning. Check the listing for the current number.
The price is not the story here. A car this old, in this condition, is going to be about the car. What makes this one worth a closer look is who kept it, what happened to it after he was gone, and the charity that has held it ever since.
The Man Behind the Slinky
Roland Sherwood "Ernie" Ball was a Los Angeles musician who played in the U.S. Air Force Band during the Korean War and opened a guitar-only shop in Tarzana, California, in the late 1950s. According to the company's history, he started a custom string line in 1962 and sold lighter-gauge sets under the Slinky name after Fender and Gibson passed on making them. The Ernie Ball company moved to San Luis Obispo in 1979 and bought the Music Man brand in 1984.
Ball was born on August 30, 1930, which happens to be the same year as this Lincoln. He died on September 9, 2004, in San Luis Obispo. His biography notes that he collected cars alongside surfing and flying airplanes.
A Collection Car Turned Charity Car
According to the listing, this Model L was refurbished before Ball bought it about 50 years ago and added it to his collection. After his death in 2004 it was donated to the Casey Lee Ball Foundation, which has owned it since. We could not find independent documentation of the Ernie Ball ownership, so treat that chain of custody as the seller's account and ask for the paperwork in the comments.
The foundation is a real one, and its story is a family one. Casey Lee Ball is the son of Sterling Ball, who ran Ernie Ball, Inc. after his father. Casey was diagnosed with polycystic kidney disease at age two and had a kidney transplant at UCLA at age five, and the foundation they started afterward directs its donations to pediatric kidney research. The listing does not say where the sale proceeds go, so that is another question for the seller.
The Car Itself
The Model L was the first car built by the Lincoln Motor Company, which Henry Leland founded after leaving Cadillac. Henry Ford bought the company in February 1922 for $8 million after it went into receivership, and the L-series stayed in production through 1930 before the Model K replaced it. Four-wheel brakes became standard in 1927, and a displacement increase followed in 1928.
This is a five-passenger sedan finished in black over tan cloth. It is powered by a 385-cubic-inch L-head V8 with fork-and-blade connecting rods, paired with a three-speed manual transmission and mechanically actuated four-wheel drum brakes. The listing says the paint is believed to be more than 50 years old. Dual side-mounted spares, a greyhound radiator mascot, cowl lamps, glass wind wings, rear window shades and a fold-down luggage rack complete the period look. The wire wheels carry Lincoln-branded center caps and 7.00-20 Denman bias-ply tires. The odometer shows 32,000 miles.
What to Know Before You Bid
This is a car with a visible age, not a show-ready restoration, so read the photos and the comments closely. It is offered on dealer consignment from San Luis Obispo, California, with a clean California title. The listing is not marked No Reserve, and at the time of writing it had seven comments and a bidder asking for a startup and driving video, which is a sensible request for a car this old. A prewar Lincoln with a long stay in a private collection is also one worth inspecting in person if you can.
More Cars With a Story
If you like cars defined by who owned them, Neil Peart's silver Maserati Mistral Spyder is back on the block, and a 1979 Aston Martin V8 Volante that spent 46 years with a film producer is live on Bring a Trailer this week. For another prewar car with a trick up its sleeve, see the 1937 Cord 812 and its "electric hand", and for cars that sat out of sight for decades, read about the veteran cars hidden since WWII that surfaced at Bonhams.
The 1930 Lincoln Model L is live on Bring a Trailer until Monday, October 26 at 3:47 p.m. ET. Do your own inspection, read the comments, and check the listing for the current bid.
