It's too bad we couldn't find a photo showing a 1936 Lincoln Zephyr towing that shiny aluminum Airstream Clipper* trailer at some airfield with a Douglas DC-3 in the background. Then you'd have an image showing at least 3 of the design landmarks from 1936. On the automotive scene, there was also Gordon Buehrig's front-drive Cord 810 the same year, but the price difference meant that Ford sold over 10 times as many of designer John Tjaarda's streamlined Lincoln Zephyr, the new mass-produced alternative to the expensive Model K*, which was still priced at and above the Cord level. The Zephyr, like that Lincoln K, offered standard V12 power, but unlike the 60 degree V in the 414 cubic inch K, it was a 90 degree, 267 cubic inch engine based on the Ford V8. Sales were good, considering there was a Great Depression going on, but fell from nearly 30,000 cars in '37 to just over 19,000 in '38. Henry Ford's son Edsel thought that a sportier Zephyr with European-inspired lines might create some showroom traffic. Designer Bob Gregorie came up with this prototype in 1939...
Beyond rear fenders with a bit less slope to their teardrop profile, Edsel's prototype went into production as the 1940 Lincoln Continental. The photo below shows two details specific to that first model year: the red teardrop-shaped Zephyr badge, and thin vertical bars that overlap the trim surrounding the twin grille openings. Also, the 1940 Continentals had conventional door handles as shown above; these were replaced by push buttons in 1941.
The 1941 ad below highlights the fleet appearance of unadorned, streamlined forms on the Continental coupe, which was produced in larger numbers than the cabriolet. But production was limited for the two years that preceded misguided efforts to decorate the car and make it look more massive. In 1940, Lincoln produced 350 coupes and 54 cabriolets. For 1941 coupe production rose to 850, and there were 400 cabrios.
The Zephyr series received a still more fluid form for 1938, and this '41 coupe model shows off smooth curves and a long deck. There was also a 4 door sedan (the black car in the background below) and a club coupe with more interior space and a shorter deck. The Zephyrs and Continentals comprised the whole Lincoln line for the 1941 model year; the big Model K had been discontinued the previous year.
Above, the blue Zephyr coupe can be compared with the Continental cabriolet from the same year. The cars share the same chrome-outlined grille detail simplified from the overlapping bars of '40, and the same headlights, parking lights and bumpers. But Zephyrs didn't get the Continental's push-button exterior door handles until 1942, when production was cut short by the onset of war. That year, a restyle sacrificed the simplicity and grace of the Continental, so we're concentrating on the '40 and '41 cars.
Zephyr V12 displacement was increased to 292 cubic inches for '40 and '41; the engine was bored out slightly to 305 cubic inches for 1942, but returned to 292 for postwar cars. Problems with early versions of the Zephyr V12 included overheating caused by small cooling passages, with resulting bore warpage and ring wear. 1948 was the last model year for the V12 Continental, and for any Continental until the Mark II showed up for 1956. The interior of the yellow cabriolet shows off materials typical for upper crust cars of the Forties: simulated wood on the dash, brass-colored trim around the instruments, bakelite switches, and leather seats. Unlike Fords from these years, the Continental and Zephyr features a one-piece windshield...
Edsel Ford, the only child of the cranky and eccentric company founder Henry, could not have been aware that his automotive brainchild would become a fixture in stark postwar detective and crime stories (below, Humphrey Bogart takes Lizabeth Scott for a drive in 1947's Dead Reckoning), because he died during that war, in spring 1943. He never saw the heavier-looking, over-chromed postwar version of his favorite car, though the 1942 model was a preview. And he never had any inkling of the car that would be named after him; a mostly overdecorated land yacht with a horse-collar grille would appear over 14 years after his passing.
*Footnote:
We featured a history of the Lincoln K Series in "Forgotten Classic: Lincoln Model K, Not Your Average K-Car", posted Nov. 9, 2017. The Airstream Clipper was featured with other pioneering streamliners in "When Mobile Homes Were Really Mobile: Bowlus and Airstream", posted July 30, 2017. And we looked at the 2nd great Continental design, Elwood Engel's 1961, in "When the Sixties Really Began: 1961 Lincoln Continental", posted Nov. 18, 2015.
Photo Credits
Top: archiveboston.com
2nd: The Henry Ford (museum)
3rd & 8th: Volo Automotive Museum
4th: Ford Motor Company
5th thru 7th: the author
Bottom: Columbia Pictures
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