History of Lincoln Documentary

[Music] absolutely printable the drive isn't this terrific it is gorgeous best-looking rearing in town except my wife it's become a classic it was just little subtle things they did that made the cars great you know it just evokes all kinds of warm fuzzy feelings for me he has made it a life principle always to do things better than they have been done before so wrote a contemporary of Henry Leland some 40 years before Leland built the first Lincoln 40 years before he would apply a passion for engineering exactitude to the design and manufacture of automobiles Leland stubborn commitment to absolute precision was the tool that would help him teach a fledgling auto industry exactly what a luxury car would be after the war in 1920 Henry Leland introduced his own Lincoln car and while it was beautifully engineered it was not a beautiful car to behold it was stodgy it was tall it was dark it was somber and it didn't sell very well and the company went to the wall Henry Ford stepped in bought the company for basically for his son Edsel who had a great eye as a designer he spiffed the cars up he was smart enough to keep the wonderful Leyland engineering in the car in the chassis and this combination resulted in the model L Lincoln which brought them into the 1920s and through the 20s as a great prestige mark in America every Lincoln for example was shipped in its own individual paper bag and sealed in a dust free railroad car by the early 30s the L Series had been pretty well developed to its ultimate point and absol toward new that a new car needed to be engineered he had inherited one and now he had to make one himself and when he did it was quite wonderful this is a 1932 Lincoln KB coupe the custom body the KB was the top of the line for Lincoln Cal remember they were being sold during during the Depression 1929 you know everything slid off the face of the earth and it progressively got worse as we moved through the 30s and these cars were difficult to sell Lincoln's were conservative in styling compared to Duesenbergs and Cadillacs and Chrysler's and stuff well there was a certain person who bought a Lincoln probably a businessman it was successful a wealthy family that wanted to have a lower profile if they were buying a town car or something like that what appeals to me about the Lincoln's is the quality's extraordinary the designs conservative they're absolutely incredible to drive well if the the KB's got a 12 cylinder motor perfectly balanced I mean the engine is is smooth it's got a great power range if you drove a Lincoln and then drilled a Duesenberg and and we're just looking at drivability and quality of construction and and smoothness the the build its ability to break and handle you'd buy a Lincoln every day of the year compared to a Duesenberg in celebration of the k-series first birthday the KB was chosen as pace car for the 1932 Indy 500 the Cawood soon proved as durable as it was beautiful and innovative in fact some k-series v12 engines were driven for over three hundred thousand miles without replacement of the bearings or turning the crankshaft the Lincoln's gained fame on two fronts one they were very fast cars for that time they were favored by both rumrunners and the police so it must have been quite a sight to see one chase in the other the bodywork was all custom work sometimes aluminum bodies the fit and finish the quality of the material was up to rolls-royce standards and if the car was very very well regarded they wanted to get a share of upper-class buyers but they didn't want to have cars that were gaudy ostentatious in design they controlled that very carefully even though they sent jassi's out to custom coachbuilders they adhered to a certain Lincoln standard they did a great job on the emblems that finishes inside the interiors the inlay and the wood the nickel plating around the steering wheel and dashboard and that type of thing it was just little subtle things they did that made the car is great in my opinion I just love I love looking down the hood I look like the shape of the radiator the size of the headlights the positioning of the headlights between the radiator they're not up too high they're not down too low I can see right through them I like the Greyhound as it extends off the regular shell if you look at a link of 32 Lincoln KB radiator you'll see a 32 Ford only twice as the size it was a difficult time for anybody to do anything I mean manufacturers were going broke right and left automobile manufacturers were just dropping like flies and obviously the Ford financial resources allowed them to weather the storm versus companies like Duesenberg and and much later Packard that just couldn't make it after the kaybe Lincoln decided that they had to make some money with their cause and so they began to go for a lower price line the streamline and radically Street and the college's effort [Music] did you see that what is it wow I've never seen anything like that before but she sure was traveling well it looks like those to me I've got to get bad don't worry I've got it my camera yeah you may have it in your camera if your shutter works fast enough but I want that story you see that car well I've got to catch it come in George hey the spot catch if you can do it hey hop in Mike they managed to maintain a separate identity for the Zephyr which did not take the big Lincoln's down market in the process well thanks for stopping I saw that car of yours whizzing by and I just had to find out about it now tell me what is it and who makes it it's the Lincoln Zephyr made by the Lincoln Motor Company [Music] say if this were an ordinary car I'd be rolling all around it's marvelous how she keeps on even keel it was acceptable to the public whereas the streamlined Chrysler airflow wasn't it was a better design in that sense Edsel Ford had always admired European styling and wanted to incorporate it in the car of his own we talked to Bob Gregory who was the chief stylist for Lincoln and they collaborated on the design based on the Zephyr chassis which resulted in the stunning Lincoln Continental oh this car is a 1941 Lincoln Continental Cabriolet it's an elegant automobile the day I rolled out of the factory and there was an instant classic I believe they started out with the on the prototype of the 1939 Lincoln Zephyr he basically lowered the car and stretched the length of the hood fenders to give it a longer sleeker lower look sporty or look a continental look so to speak because that's all had gone to Europe in 1938 and admired many of the European sports cars and he came back with some different ideas about how a sports car should look I seen the car for the first time in 1941 this basically fell in love with it and it made a lasting impression upon me and we have a saying here the best looking rear end in town except my wife might pop up and say huh except mine it's an absolute beauty I know beauties in the aiya beholder but there are many people even what I refer to as non car people will come by this car wherever it may be parked standing and simply admire the beautiful lines and children as well I'll say hi mister what a neat car you got not even realizing what it is but it's a beautiful automobile simply elegant Wendling can produce the first continental the embodiment of elegance and style their marketing oddly had pure I'll artwork with simple almost childlike trees and fluffy cotton wool clouds floating for no apparent reason page after page throughout the document one guy come running out of the gas station commented in my beautiful rolls-royce I said that's fine you know it's what you liked it to be that's what it'll be but naturally I told him it was a continental and probably one of the finest looking us build cars of its era [Music] [Music] the original owner was a wealthy banker from New Jersey and he had the forg factory paint the color to his specs and I have this on the assembly plant record and the color they referred to when they're finished is Jersey gray a one-off paint job if you will and looking back on our last 10 years of driving and car shows the cars won basically every award it can win and a half a dozen national clubs that I belong to it's a it's just an established car and just a great driver so I have the best of both worlds a winner and a driver to me the greatest feeling is slipping behind the wheel and driving off down the road all my aches and pains disappear through the forties they continued with the Continental but in the 50s the early 50s Lincoln lost their way they really didn't know what they were producing the Continental had been dropped and where they were producing cars of winning the Mexican road race but that doesn't certainly connote a luxury car and 1956 was the turning point when they brought out not only a restyled big Lincoln but the logical heir to Ed Tools original Continental the mark 2 and this car was so beautiful that have ended up as an exhibit in the Museum of Modern Art 1955 saw the introduction of yet another Lincoln destined for classic designation the mark to another startlingly artful design like Continental the mark 2 was produced in limited quantity however its influence and impact were major its styling was elegant and unique avoiding as the original continent did the design excesses of temporary fashion this car is called a continental mark - not a Lincoln Continental but a continental mark - people just got the habit of calling it a Lincoln Continental Ford invested so much money that it came down to in 1950 $5 $100,000 per automobile the most expensive Cadillac limousine was around 6200 this car with air-conditioning delivered for 11700 the term stratospheric I think applies the car was conceived as an umbrella to go over the whole Ford Motor Company line and as such it was never considered as something that they wanted to make a profit for instance you could build an entire Cadillac limousine in the time it took to paint a mark - Mike Todd bought one from Elizabeth Taylor and had it painted kind of a violet blue so it worked with her eyes and she had blocks put on the brakes and the gas pedal so she could reach him because she's quite tiny little fat that hood ornament was made by a gunsight maker it was solid cast brass and was more expensive than the entire grille of a 1957 Ford when you sight down the side of the car it's a testimony to the automotive workers art that the sides were flawless you could just take the line and sight down it all the way and it's perfect everything meets they put the hump where the hidden tire on the trunk because they decided if there was ever a signature for an automobile like the three pointed star or the Mercedes grille or the rolls-royce fine lady in the grille the hump was indigenous to the appeal of the mark two [Music] [Music] it's the first day I went to work at Sears Roebuck and Company in Chicago and I was running quite late to catch my carpool and I come whipping down the stairs and out and I skidded on my loafers all the way out to the curb because there sat a maroon Continental mark - I was literally salivating over it so while I'm standing there oddly in this car a gentleman comes up and kind of looks at me and then he looks at the car and then he looks at me and I said isn't this terrific it is gorgeous I said this is my first day at work and to see a Continental Mark - is really exciting I said you know it's just kind of too much for one day and he said I work here and I said you do what do you do he said I'm president and chairman of the board and this is my car and I looked at him and I said Wow many many years later going out to Rockford Illinois to a car auction and over in the corner of a shed was a maroon mark - I looked in the corner of the windshield and believe it or not there was the Sears Roebuck and a company parking sticker same car and I went ahead and bought the car and I took it to a local repair shop and I said what can you do for six or seven hundred dollars I think that'll about do it and the fellow looked at me and he smiled and he said you're new to this hobby aren't you as the simple elegance of the cars declined into the gargantuan ostentatious and vulgar cars of the late 1950s so the text of the brochures began to state classic elegance in motorcars classic beauty and excelled craftsmanship sheer elegance is the look of Lincoln I suspect that the copywriters had never seen the cars in reality the cars produced between 58 and 60 recalled the lost Lincoln's and they suffered from I think a case of Cadillac itis they had to be longer they had to be lower they had to be wider they had to be flashy er they had to have more chrome trim unfortunately this did not make for a very good-looking car and the story goes that one day late 1957 henry ford ii who had virtually dictatorial powers at ford marched into his styling Department and said I want you people to design a car that I am not ashamed to drive to the Detroit Athletic Club without somebody laughing at it and the result was the 61 Continental my grandfather bought his first Lincoln in 1925 and that was apparently a very flashy thing burgundy with a black top and he was extremely proud of it that that was his first Lincoln and this was his last they bought it new in June of 1964 and I was six and a half years old at the time and somewhere there is a picture of me standing next to it that very first day that I saw it in my cowboy hat in six-guns but I can remember many times sitting here in the front seat in middle of a seat looking down the hood through the star and aiming at other cars on the road it's just kind of a fun childhood thing so the car itself brings back a lot of tremendous memories can I feel refor tchen --it that that we've got this car now to enjoy not only those memories but also to enjoy the beautiful sunshiny days when you can still put the top down it's got a 430 cubic inch engine v8 and an enormous car it's a real luxo boat and we'll call him here in the in this country very very comfortable very classic of the 1960s it's over 18 feet long it's well over 6 feet and wide it has very luxurious accommodation inside for six and then a few if you need to pack it in it makes for a very very luxurious travel on the highway but even if you're just driving it by yourself it's very comfortable the very unadorned slab-sided design the simple chrome trim right along the leading edge of the fenders it all led to a very simple unadorned look that was almost shocking when compared to the Cadillacs and Imperials of the same years with which they were competing people were really appreciating the simplicity of design and it's become a classic with one push of the button here on the dashboard it does the whole system entirely itself the whole operation first the back boot opens up a little flap comes up and then the top unscrews itself at the windshield pillar and it folds itself down into the boot and then the boot cover comes back down and it locks itself in place all in one operation very smooth as long as it works these have a reputation for being a little bit of a problem there if I remember correctly there are 11 electrical relays for circuits and 2 reversible electric motors and they are known to occasionally you have a blip in them and they will stop working and you can't put it back up and you can't put it back down you're stuck fortunately it's only happened once it was about a year ago at a car show I would put it down and operated flawlessly went to go put it back up and it wouldn't do anything [Music] [Music] you know the the car also I think it leaves certainly do the American public is kind of a more infamous appeal if you will because it's very much identified with the Kennedy assassination I don't know you know what effect the Kennedy assassination had on Lincoln per se the form that happened just being the Lincoln because that was the official White House car Ford Motor leases those cars the government $4 a year what I did find amazing and researching that car is that it stayed in government service through the Carter Administration it was just another member of the motor pool when I look at that badge on the dashboard that has my grandfather's name on it which was sent to him by Ford Motor Company shortly after he bought the car you know it just evokes all kinds of warm fuzzy feelings for me it's a wonderful family connection as well as just something very pretty to drive the decade of the 70s saw Lincoln build on the formal styling precedent at the mark three had established the rounder sleeker mark for replaced the mark three and immediately outsold its luxury coupe competition other lincoln innovations of the early 1980s include the industry's first electronic instrument panel message center in 1980 and nitrogen pressurized shock absorbers and industry first in 1982 the contemporary transformation of the lincoln model line was completed with the launch of the 1990 town car I like what they're doing I hope they succeed but they've got a lot to be proud of it's a wonderful mark with a great tradition some great triumphs behind it and I hope some ahead of it too today Lincoln stands at the pinnacle of the automotive world and Lincoln automobiles are more desired than ever before exactly what Edsel Ford had when he trotted Lincoln's course and many years ago I want to build the best car in the world [Music] [Music]

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Views: 46,678

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Length: 23min 45sec (1425 seconds)

Published: Fri Apr 27 2018