GTP Cool Wall: 1961-1969 Lincoln Continental (4th generation)

[SomePlayaDude]

2.3 tons.

PAIN.

 

[motortrend]

There's no way you could justify giving this anything less than cool. I mean COME. ON.

 

[Tornado]

Incidentally:

Overweight

2.3 tons.

PAIN.

and Is heavy as hell

The reason it is so humongously heavy (slightly heavier than the equivalent Imperial and Sixty Special even though it was quite a bit smaller) is because it was a hugely overengineered unibody and everything else at the time was Body on Frame (perimeter for the Imperial, X-Frame and then perimeter for the Sixty Special).

 

[Stotty]

Sub Zero because bloody look at it.

Spoiler

This.

But only in the US!

 

[Cano]

Incidentally:
The reason it is so humongously heavy (slightly heavier than the equivalent Imperial and Sixty Special even though it was quite a bit smaller) is because it was a hugely overengineered unibody and everything else at the time was Body on Frame (perimeter for the Imperial, X-Frame and then perimeter for the Sixty Special).

It doesn't matter dude. Land yatch 3 speed pushrod american car. Don't even try.

 

[TexRex]

That would be like saying the Carrera GT would be famous for being the car in which Paul Walker was killed.

Pfft. He was an actor made famous by being in bad movies about stupid people doing stupid things in fast cars, and he was killed in a car that was going fast when it crashed--I'm more surprised by the moon appearing in the sky night after night. But yeah, it's a lot like a presidential assassination...

Edit: I have more respect for James Dean than I do for Paul Walker, but I feel very much the same way about the way he died.

 

[synchromesh]

Cool. Hard for a Detroit vehicle to have so much grace.

 

[Tornado]

I'm still always a bit confused by the designations of the Continental Mark vs Lincoln Continental.

The Continental up through 1980 (but after 1969 when it switched to BoF) was built on the full size Ford LTD platform. It came as a two door and a sedan, and was Lincoln's traditional luxury car that competed with the de Ville but had the Town Car/Town Coupe trim level to compete with the Sixty Special.
The Continental Mark up through 1980 was built on the four door version of the smaller Thunderbird frame and was loaded with every option the regular Continental could get as standard equipment, with a bunch of stuff on top of that that was exclusive to it and hugely expensive but was almost always ordered anyway. It competed with the Eldorado, but had a much more conventional design with mechanical bits lifted from a lot of contemporary Fords (which incidentally allowed Ford to throw a lot more money at luxury gadgets and interior trimmings for the same money without hurting the astronomical profit margins it had, which eventually doomed the last of the big Eldorados).




Think of it like the difference between the original Seville vs. the downsized 1977 Coupe/Sedan de Ville; or the 1970s Monte Carlo vs the 1970s Caprice if they were closer in size to each other.

 

[Joel]

Very easy SZ.

 

[Epic B]

SZ. Just look at it.

 

[SlipZtrEm]

SZ'd with a quickness. If it's good enough for Grandpa Gene, it's good enough for me.

 

[Northstar]

Seriously Uncool.

I love these things, but they are almost exclusively driven by old guys that bring it to a car show than proceed to yell at anyone that gets within 5 feet of the thing.

 

[The87Dodge]

Suicide doors, high build quality, and great styling.

Sub Zero.

 

[Slash]

Cool, but the 70s ones are way cooler.

 

[Wolfe]

It doesn't matter dude. Land yatch 3 speed pushrod american car. Don't even try.

A big fat imposing braggart american car is seriously uncool by default. This is an upscale sedan analog to a redneck's pickup truck. It might be something else if I saw what others see in its styling, but I see the ungainly offspring of a 1950s refrigerator and a pontoon boat with a set of 1960s-style headlights grafted onto the nose.

 

[Tornado]

braggart

Based on what?


In 1961 when it debuted, it competed with this:

And this:

And this:

And it directly replaced a car that looked like this:

Who buys what was by a wide margin the smallest and easily (and deliberately) the most conservatively styled car in a market segment to be a braggart?

 

[Wolfe]

Oops, double post...

 

[Wolfe]

Based on what?

Size and status. It's a car the POTUS rode in. I'm not comparing it to its competitors, I'm talking about huge full-size luxury sedans, period. They're all uncool by default.

Who buys what was by a wide margin the smallest and easily (and deliberately) the most conservatively styled car in a market segment to be a braggart?

I never base my reasoning on buyers/owners. It's the car itself.

 

[Tornado]

Size and status.

Which it had neither of in particular abundance when it was new. Kennedy had one, and Kennedy was immeasurably cool at the time.


People still bought more Cadillacs with big fins and lazy Pontiac knockoff stacked headlights then they ever did these; and people bought way more of the model that replaced this one with its ridiculous Rolls Royce knockoff grill, vinyl tops and porthole windows.

I never base my reasoning on buyers/owners. It's the car itself.

The car itself was bragging about something by being the smallest and most conservatively styled luxury car on the market?

 

[TexRex]

I've always loved the '61-3 Imperials' headlights on pedestals, though I prefer the later two years for their more subdued fins. I know, sacrilege.

 

[Wolfe]

@Tornado -- I accept your points with regard to its competitors. I was speaking from a broader context (ie. all cars).

 

[SVT Cobra GT]

Solid cool. Just oozes presence.

 

[AnthonyD1993]

It took me all of 5 seconds to SZ this thing. That is far and away the fastest I've ever hit the SZ button by a mile.

 

[Legro]

Once again, incredibly hard one, as it's 100% location dependent. In basically every city centre outside North America, it's terribly uncool, by the sheer size alone. The thing is, when not in tight place where simply fitting on a lane, or worse through the road, becomes an inconvenience in a car like this, it actually is very cool.

 

[Eunos_Cosmo]

Once again, incredibly hard one, as it's 100% location dependent. In basically every city centre outside North America, it's terribly uncool, by the sheer size alone. The thing is, when not in tight place where simply fitting on a lane, or worse through the road, becomes an inconvenience in a car like this, it actually is very cool.

If you look at the cool wall results, everything in the top 2 categories is either a supercar or a sports car. Even within the "cool" category, there are only a handful of cars that aren't sports cars. It's pretty clear that this community doesn't 'get' luxury cars.

With the Continental, you either understand the ethos of it, or you don't. I don't think anyone here would apply location specific factors to something like a Lancia Stratos, aka purpose built, small and European. A Stratos crossing the Nevada Desert on US Route 95 would be just as useless as a Lincoln Continental trying to navigate downtown London. Nobody would ever accuse the Stratos of being uncool because it isn't comfortable or that you can't put 6 people in it, or that its impractical for a road trip, yet the Continental finds SU votes for being heavy, large, and unsporty.

The Continental is huge because it didn't need to be small. It needed to be comfortable and unstressed. Aside from a V12, a massive, low revving, high torque V8 is the best engine for a luxury car. Keep in mind, when this car was built, the US had just started this little project:

(Remember France and Texas are roughly the same size and that New York to LA is about the same distance as Lisbon to Moscow or Berlin to Baghdad)

The name Continental is appropriate. Lincoln Continental came before Bentley Continental.

Its quite surprising to me that even in a global community such as this, people still don't get why American cars are the way they are, or at least used to be. Unless you are in a very urban part of the country (AKA TWO POINT SIX PERCENT, 2.6%!! of the total land area) it makes almost zero sense to have a small/sporty car. You know how far I have to drive my RX-7 to find a road that isn't straight? Think how uncool I feel driving over an hour just to find roads that are appropriate for the intent of the car.

I realize that those who vote SU for this type of car are not likely to be moved by this post, but that's ok. You don't get it and you never will. I still maintain the 61-69 Lincoln Continental is the coolest car ever made. Drive one, in it's element, down Sunset Boulevard in Los Angeles with the top down and I think just about anyone would agree. It is the definition of a tacit, effortless cool. Steve Mcqueen incarnate.

/owner of a 1000kg Mazda RX7 and an 1100kg Mazda 2.

 

[Dennisch]

Once again, incredibly hard one, as it's 100% location dependent. In basically every city centre outside North America, it's terribly uncool, by the sheer size alone. The thing is, when not in tight place where simply fitting on a lane, or worse through the road, becomes an inconvenience in a car like this, it actually is very cool.

Posts like this are a load of bull.

I can navigate mine or my dad's pickup or his landbarge 1970 Bel Air (when it still was on the road) perfectly fine through narrow streets, and we have plenty of those in the Netherlands.
And look so goddamn cool doing it. And that's in a workhorse. Now imagine being goddamn cool in a landbarge like this, all that sixties style, just oozing out of it.

Come to think of it. I should have voted Sub Zero.

 

[Eunos_Cosmo]

Posts like this are a load of bull.

I can navigate mine or my dad's pickup or his landbarge 1970 Bel Air (when it still was on the road) perfectly fine through narrow streets, and we have plenty of those in the Netherlands.
And look so goddamn cool doing it. And that's in a workhorse. Now imagine being goddamn cool in a landbarge like this, all that sixties style, just oozing out of it.

Come to think of it. I should have voted Sub Zero.

I actually agree with you here. I think the Continental is actually cooler in places like Europe or Japan than it is in the USA where cars like it are fairly common. Just imagine a Continental parked up in the Daikoku Parking Area in Tokyo next to the Supras and Skylines. It would draw the biggest crowd guaranteed.

 

[Heldenzeit]

Daikoku Parking Area.

I like this idea.

 

[Joey D]

Seriously Uncool.

I love these things, but they are almost exclusively driven by old guys that bring it to a car show than proceed to yell at anyone that gets within 5 feet of the thing.

While I would normally agree with this and think it's right on the money, I just can't seem to vote this anything less than Sub Zero.

As for the weight, people are really complaining about a car that weighs 4,600lbs? That's essentially what a Mercedes S-class weighs. Luxury cars are heavy, you can't have something super plush and light at the same time.

 

[ROAD_DOGG33J]

In all this talk of uncool, I would've expected somebody to mention Entourage.

SZ