Nineties Concept Cars Part 4: Lincoln Sentinel and Mercury MC4

The Lincoln Mercury Division of Ford Motor Company was looking for a shot of magic in the 1990s. After the best "suicide door" Continentals* in 1963. and the last ones in 1968, body design became more timid and conformist.  The Town Cars of the 80s and 90s were especially heavy-handed visually, with none of the simplicity or mastery of proportion and detail shown in Elwood Engel's Continentals.  Compared to the first Continentals of the 1940-41 range, they had no distinction at all.  By the mid-1990s, the first and second generation Ford Taurus (and related Mercury Sable) had saved Ford, and given their design staff the confidence to pursue new directions.  Teaming up with Ford-owned Italian coach builder Ghia, they launched the Lincoln Sentinel concept car as an example of their New Edge design direction.

A fully-functioning prototype was built on a modified Jaguar chassis (Ford had purchased Jaguar and Aston Martin). Massing and proportions ditched the leaden look of recent efforts, emphasizing large-diameter wheels and shorter overhangs.  At the front, twin air intakes with vertical bars recalled the grilles of Edsel Ford's 1940 Continental.

Bright metal trim outlined the edges of the sheer, undecorated flanks, as on the 1961 Continental. The rear-hinged rear doors, "suicide doors" to Lincoln fans, also echoed the 1961-68 cars.

The tapering tail lent and minimal trim lent a purposeful air from the rear.  At least two cars were built in 1996, this fully functioning one and a silver gray display car.  Unfortunately, Ford decided on a different direction for Lincoln, and in 1997 introduced the Navigator SUV, a "badge-engineered" version of the Ford Expedition.  By 1998 the Mark VIII coupe would have an SOHC V8, 4 wheel independent suspension and disc brakes shared with the Thunderbird, but no New Edge.

Over at Mercury, designers were brainstorming a follow-up to the successful (up until the 1996 restyle) Sable, perhaps something with more sporting character than the last couple generations of the Mercury Cougar, which had turned out to be Thunderbirds with squared-off rooflines.  They took the 1997 Thunderbird chassis and got their metalworkers working on something that very much predicted the "4-door coupes" produced by German manufacturers a decade later...

As with the Sentinel, the four doors opened at the center of the cars flanks, but there was no center post, and the front doors needed to open before the rears, with an electronic fob. There were no external handles.  

The luggage compartment featured these gullwing doors, opening along a central structural spine.  The design traded a high rear lift-over sill for better side access; more important, it attracted attention. The front door armrest is a clever detail, with an extension of the dash surface outlined in bright metal forming an "X" with the lower armrest.  

The view with the doors closed underlines how well the MC4 concept anticipated the later German 4-door coupes.  Instead of expanding upon their idea of a high-performance 4-door T-Bird, perhaps with differentiating features like all-wheel drive, Ford decided that future Mercury cars would be nothing more than Fords with fancier trim.  The last Mercury rolled off the assembly line in January 2011.

Photo Credits:  All photos are by the author, except for the last one, which is from the website carsofinterest.com.

*Footnote:  Elwood Engel's groundbreaking design for the 1961 Lincoln Continental is featured in our post "When the Sixties Really Began" from November 18, 2015.