Lincoln Continental
Edsel Ford’s Lincoln Continental was phased out in the late 1940s, but the continental name reappeared as a marque in its own right in 1955. The Continental MkII was a vast, hand-built coupe with a $10,000 asking price, despite which Ford reputedly lost $1000 on each one. The next generation were lower-priced and in 1959 the Continental became a Lincoln again, but remained one of America’s biggest and most flamboyant cars.
For 1961 a brand new and very different Continental was offered. Here was proof that less is, indeed, more: the new car was smaller and less ostentatious, with classic clean-cut styling that was the antithesis of the baroque excesses that it replaced.
Just two models were available, a four-door saloon and a four-door convertible, both with forward-opening ‘suicide’ rear doors. A more than adequate 300bhp was provided by a7.0-litre V8 engine driving the rear wheels through standard automatic transmission. IN 1964 a long-wheelbase version was unveiled and in 1966 an even larger 7.6-litre V8 giving 365bhp was installed.
The Continental proved to be just the kind of luxury saloon upmarket buyers wanted in the 1960s, and more than 340,000 were built between 1961 and 1969. For several years the White House used Continentals as official cars – John F Kennedy was assassinated in his – while another appeared as crime boss transport in the film Goldfinger. American audiences were horrified when a real Continental (less its engine) was craned into a crusher and cubed…