This Lincoln Model L is one of 324 built in 1925 with New York coachbuilder Brunn’s appropriately named seven-passenger Sport Touring coachwork, style number 124B. It was delivered new by the St. Petersburg, Florida, dealer F.M. Scarritt to a well-heeled Navy officer stationed in Pensacola. The original owner drove the car for three years, then stored it on blocks until 1950, when F.M. Scarritt purchased it back and put the Lincoln, still in well-preserved original condition, on display in its showroom.

In 1968, F.M. Scarritt sold the Model L to the Reverend T.L. Osborn, who drove it back home to Oklahoma with his wife Daisy. The charismatic Reverend Osborn was a prominent evangelist who traveled the world and brought back numerous artifacts for his World Museum in Tulsa, where native canoes and shrunken heads shared space with an impressive collection of Model L Lincolns. Dubbed “The Lone Ranger,” the Brunn Sport Touring was the Osborns’ favorite touring automobile, driven thousands of miles all over the country and kept in its original specification during their ownership.

At the dispersal of the World Museum collection in 1981, noted Lincoln enthusiast Jack Passey of Watsonville, California—a dearly missed friend to many in the collector-car community—acquired “The Lone Ranger.” It passed to Norm Buckhart of San Francisco in 1988, who commissioned a frame-off restoration. Completed in 2004 to its present color scheme, it included mechanical work by the noted Eric Rosenau and upholstery and top refurbishment by the late Ken Nemanic. The engine was reportedly rebuilt with aluminum pistons and hardened valve seats, and the rear axle is said to have featured high-speed gears for improved highway cruising. Invoices and photos in the accompanying history file document some of the restoration work.

Following a brief period with a dealer in Missouri, the Lincoln was eventually acquired by the Vehicle Vault Collection in 2013, where it has remained on display for the last 14 years. Still in very good overall condition, “The Lone Ranger” stands as one of the best-known surviving Model Ls of its generation, a wonderful car of tremendous quality with an outstanding tale to tell and much-loved for generations.