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Take a test ride through the book, a sampling for you from our...

TABLE OF
CONTENTS

1.The Origins of the Limousine
2. The Traditions of Riding in the Back Seat
3. Chauffeurs
4. The Coachbuilders
5. The Factory Limousines
6. The Commercial Limousine Operators
7. Getting What You Want -- Buying a Limousine
8. The Limousine -- Inside and Out
9. Building a Stretch Limousine
10. Exotic Limousines
11. The Classics and the Not So Classic: Celebs, High Rollers and Their Limousines
12. Presidential Rides
13. Fit for a King -- Royal Limousines
14. Limousine Etiquette and How to Enjoy Riding in the Back Seat
15. The Cultured Limousine
16. Glossary (definitions as seen from the back seat of a limousine)

Photo Gallery

1. Welcome
2. Back Seat Riding
3. Cadillac Pages
4. Lincoln Pages
5. Lehmann-Peterson Pages
6. Limousines Pages
7. Reader Pages

Used by permission Society of Automotive Engineers, SAE Press, Copyright 2002 www.sae.org and by private contributors, as noted.

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Copyright 2002
by
Michael L. Bromley
All Rights Reserved

Welcome!

The words "limousine"
and "chauffeur" have
roots in the pre-1900
days of carriages and
trains when professional
drivers and "stokers"
were required to
manage horses and
steam  engines  In the
region of the Limousin, France,
shepherds long ago developed
a unique,oversized and hooded
garment called a "limousine" for
protection from the rain and cold.
The connection between the "limousine" and that type of automobile
came from similarly named and covered compartments of Limousindelivery wagons
and the earliest covered motor cars in France, as well as the protective cloaks used
by the drivers who sat in the open cockpits. Or, possibly, the word wasbrought to
common use by a Parisian coachbuilder who hailed from the Limousin.  Whatever
the exact link, by the turn of the century the word limousine applied to gasoline
powered cars with enclosed passenger compartments whose roof extended over
the otherwise open drivers compartment. And true to the etiquette of the formal
horse-drawn coach, the limousine was to be guided by a hired driver, never
the owner who was to relax in luxurious rear seats.

Coachmen accustomed to horses and carriages were quick to lean that the automobile
might not work properly after being driven into shallow water to cool off the brakes and
"water the horses." The skills of drivers, mechanics, attendants, engineers, stokers,
and guides were in great demand with the more efficient yet terribly complex automobile.
Thus "chauffeurs," French for "stoker" -- or those charged with fueling  the fire to power
steam engines -- were in demand more than mere coachmen or conductors, for
the new contraptions required extensive mechanical knowledge and attention.
At first a chauffeur was any driver, owner or servant, but as automobiles
evolved from hobbiesand curiosities to serious transport, the chauffeur
became a professional, dedicated driver

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