History of the Lincoln Continental | The Bad Blonde Cars

Let’s dive into the history of the Lincoln Continental! If you love classic car content, be sure to subscribe to The Bad Blonde YouTube. Thank you to George Finley who is the owner of this fine car! Now, I will digress deeply if allowed to but today I will skim like a light rock on the deep majestic pond that is Henry Leland, the gentleman behind Lincoln. Henry Leland. The man the myth the legend. The man that created BOTH of American most competitive luxury vehicle lines, Cadillac and Lincoln.. He started his career in firearms manufacturing at Colt, engineering supplier for manufacturer that would become Oldsmobile, AND a fact I love to share he created the electric barber clippers. So it is 1917, Leland has already left Cadillac (and will talk about bit more about that in a bit), he and his son get a loan to start the Lincoln motor company.. and with that they also landed a 10 million dollar contract to create the liberty aircraft engine.. Now where did the name Lincoln arise? AFTER THE PRESIDENT! Abraham Lincoln was the first president Leland got to vote for. I do want to make a shout out to Leland being one of the first to introduce interchangeable parts within auto manufacturing – all of our lives automotive sector have been easier for that.. Sadly, in 1922 Lincoln becomes insolvent, and you know who was waiting in the murky waters to chomp? FORD! Old henry “dandelion on the side of the road eating” ford.. Okay so let’s paint the picture, it is 1902 and the Henry Ford Company is going bust. Ford has gotten into a tiff with his investors and he is out. One of Ford’s financial backers is like SHITT, damn it Ford, to be honest Ford’s later success with the Model T and Model A were inspite of himself, his backers call in Henry Leland to appraise the plant and equipment for liquidation. However, the clever Leland said, hold up! And he persuaded the finance dudes to let Leland start up manufacturing using his reliable single-cylinder engine. They said why not, and thus Cadillac Automobile Company was born. Cadillac would then be sold to GM… and you see where this is going. So that is why Ford of course HATED Henry Leland because he had created Cadillac out of his defunct company and thus lowballed him significantly for Lincoln. What is the Continental? It is NOT the hotel Christopher Walken made unwanted advances in… it is a series of mid-sized and full-sized luxury cars produced by Lincoln, a division of the American automaker Ford Motor Company. The prototype continental design was created by E.T. “Bob” Gregorie, and inspired by Edsel Fords European travels – This was heavily based on the Lincoln Zephyr that was introduced in 1935 – which if you are starting off with this as your base point, it would hard to make something not aesthetically pleasing. It is said the initial sketch for the design was completed in an hour Why? Edsel Ford, who commissioned a coachbuilt 1939 Lincoln-Zephyr convertible, developed as a vacation vehicle to attract potential Lincoln buyers – He needed it done by March of 1939 so he could show it off on his vacation - Alright, so like I said, Edsel was inspired and wanted this European car quickly, and quickly her got it, the turn around on this continental prototype was but 6 months! Introduced in 1940, and let’s paint a little picture of life in the 1940s.. Cause you know I like to do that… War, Nazi Germany would begin the Blitzkrieg which actually took out quit a few beloved European car manufacturing plants, so lots of war stuff, the first Captain America comic book was published, Hattie McDaniel is the first African American woman to win an academy award for her performance in Gone with the Wind, also Franklin D. Roosevelt wins the election and becomes he first third-term president.. and MOST importantly, Chuck Norris was born. There 404 of these elite cars built in the first year, -Also, this was the year built examples were built with hand-hammered body panels and after that dies for machine-pressing would be constructed With that advance and success spurred Lincoln forward with over 1,200 built the following year. This was the car of the elite… Hollywood icons, the business elite, Frank Lloyd Wright owned one.. Now there wasn’t room within the trunk to store a spare tire, and that is how we arrived at this signature rear mounted “Continental” spare- tire feature --- And it’s what we’ve deemed classy ever since. Side note, while disappearing on American cars, the externally mounted, covered spare tire remained a feature on European-produced cars. Fun fact – In 1951 the NY Museum of Modern Art recognized the Lincoln Continental as an example of excellence as works of art… On that note, let’s take a another look.. -Of the 850 made for the 1941 model year, only 200 are still in existence.. What is powering this first generation beauty, is a 292 cid L head v12 – capable of 120hp – three speed manual transmission