CHAPTER NINE

 

THOSE COSMOPOLITAN TIMES

    Of Bulbous

        Beauties

 

    Most major automobile manufacturers tend to have each succeeding model

build on the prior year's design.  Only once every couple of decades does

this chronology break down.  The Lincoln Zephyr in 1935 was an example of

this.  In 1948, the Lincoln Cosmopolitan was another such milestone.  It

was the production of a new and modern line of automobiles using outdated

technology.  It was the beginning of a new era for Lincoln, but not quite

the end of the old.  One must, however, return to the early days of World

War II in order to fully understand the development of this rare and

short-lived line of Lincoln automobiles.

    A clay mock-up was produced in November of 1941, which was essentially

a Lincoln Zephyr Sedan with a one-piece, slightly curved windshield.  The

front fenders were faired into the body mid-door.  The long, high hood line

was retained.  It had a rather unbecoming Oldsmobile style of grille,

composed of arched bars.  By 1942, the clays mock-up had taken on the new

bulbous shape, and could be readily identified as related to the Lincoln

Model EH.  By April, a torpedo backed (fastback) Mercury body Club Coupe

was sculpted.  It featured a padded roof and convertible style (hardtop)

side windows.  In January of 1943, clay mock-ups were constructed of a

fastback Club Coupe with the Model EL fender line, and a two-piece

windshield.  Except for the frowning 1946 Oldsmobile grille, it was clearly

a small-bodied Lincoln.  Front end and grilles seemed to be giving the

designers more problems than the bodies themselves.  One of these

voluminous body styles featured a small Edsel (the car) looking grille with

flush door-covered headlights.  By June of 1945, the Lincoln Cosmopolitan

looked like itself.  The two single exceptions were a Mercury rolled wire

grille and four large fender wings.  The latter were obviously the

forerunner to the smaller front fender chrome wings.

    During 1944, several Model EH Continentals had been on the drawing

board, but that is about as far as any of these proposals ever got. 

Renderings of the Model EH Continentals varied from a squared off Coupe

(which distinctly resembled a Mark II) to a 121 inch wheelbase Woody Rag

Top on a Mercury body.  It featured an outside rear-mounted spare tire, and

a trunk design resembling a later year's Cadillac Seville.  The Continental

rear spare tire housing was faired into the lid of a hatchback trunk.  The

best-looking proposal was the one that actually became the Model EH

Cosmopolitan.

    There was an earnest desire on the part of the design group to continue

the name Continental in the Lincoln lineup.  However, as the bulbous design

was firmed up, it became more and more obvious that they were dealing with

a uniquely different concept in automobile styling.  Small items, like the

side script logo LINCOLN COSMOPOLITAN, written in the same style as the old

LINCOLN CONTINENTAL, managed to survive.  For a short period (July and

August) during 1945, the Custom Sedan model was labeled as a Continental. 

Herman C. Brunn rendered several drawings of this proposal.  They were of a

Landaulet style Coupe and Sedan.  The Sedan was an open-drive Brougham

Limousine complete with padded roof and coach bars.  The drawings were

labeled the Brunn Brougham, and included top and passenger compartment

dimensions.  One drawing was of a hardtop sedan which became the Custom

Sedan proposal.  These drawings are excellent examples of the

coachbuilder's art applied to a modern body design.

    Styling concepts for the next generation of Lincolns were well underway

by 1943.  In fact, what became the 1949 Mercury and small Lincoln would

probably have been the 1945 model Fords and Mercurys had the war effort not

intervened.  Clay mock-ups of early forties Ford prototypes resemble a

large fifties Volvo.  Lincoln-Mercury seemed to be following the design

trend of the period which resembled the postwar Nash, Hudson, and Kaiser. 

This motif has often been referred to as the "upside-down bathtub" look. 

E.T. Gregorie, head of the design group at Ford until 1946, always prided

himself on having never copied another car's styling.  Thus, these bulbous

designs were the natural evolution of the styling trends of this era. 

Gregorie's design group, from 1943 through 1945, was kept busy on defense

projects such as camouflage patterns and glider airframe drafting.  A few

designers, however, continued to work on civilian automobile designs. 

During the short period that Gregorie was absent from Ford (September 1943

through March 1944), Tom Hibbard continued to develop new car designs.

    A dozen or so full-size clay mock-ups were built, and subsequently

photographed.  Most of the proposals for Lincoln and Mercury had retained

some remnant of a front fender line, a feature that would die as slow and

as agonizing a death as did the running board.  Drawings made by Robert

Doehler in 1947 were of a Lincoln Sportsman Sedan.  On a long 128 inch

wheelbase, this Sedan was clearly a continuation of the Custom Continental

concept.  It featured a vertical rear-mounted spare tire housing which was

partially imbedded in the trunk.  It was called a Sportsman because of its

Woody trim, Lincoln's answer to the Chrysler Town & Country models.  By

June of the same year, the drawings which John Cheek had made of the

Sportsman Woody convertible on the small Lincoln chassis evolved into the

Mercury station wagon.  In May of 1948, J. Allward made drawings

illustrating a Parade Sedan on the Lincoln body.  Martin Regitko would head

up a design team exploring these possibilities, and later a Lincoln Parade

Phaeton was produced.

    As to the continuation of the Continental, the closest thing to it was

the design sketches resembling a 1947 Kaiser-Fraiser with a

forward-leaning, covered, rear-mounted spare tire.  The hood lines on

several of these war time Lincoln clay mock-ups did retain, at least in

impression, the high squared-off nose of the original Continental.  This

hood style was ultimately adapted for use on the Cosmopolitan, but

flattened considerably.  Without Edsel's guiding hand, and with new Ford

management, the design group was not sure that the Continental would be

continued.  Because of this, many Continental proposals were never fully

developed.  E.T. Gregorie indicated he felt that, "Had the Continental used

different tooling than the standard Lincoln, it probably would not have

been produced after the war at all."

    Fastbacks were a popular body style on most of the Lincoln wartime

mock-ups.  Edsel, Gregorie, and Harley Earl had all been partial to torpedo

body styles.  Ultimately, the 1949 Cosmopolitan Town Sedan Type 73 did use

just such a back end design.  The two-piece flat windshield and front door

wing windows were carried over on the mock-up, but the actual Cosmopolitan

would be fitted with a single-piece curved windshield.  One proposed logo

design was round like the last Model K logo with Lincoln in script

letters.  A major feature of the new Lincoln's front end design was

hideaway or panel covered headlights.

    In photographs of these wartime Lincoln clay mock-ups, a Buick and a

Chevrolet can be seen in the background.  In an interview, Special Interest Autos asked E.T. Gregorie about the presence of these cars in the design

area at Ford.  Gregorie explained, "We always had a representative group of

these makes on hand.  It was company policy to buy several of every make of

car each year.  We called them 'foreign cars' and we'd take them completely

apart and inspect them piece by piece, lay them out on long tables.  This

way we could see all of the little tricks each manufacturer used in putting

his cars together.  Everything from seat cushion construction to new types

of clips and hangars.  We'd buy these foreign cars from local dealers. 

Whenever I had to go away on a trip, I would always drive one of them. 

Then we traded these cars back to the dealers.  Each car had been

completely disassembled and reassembled, but of course we had no specs to

go by so it was put back together the best way we knew how.  Anyway, the

dealers would advertise these as low-mileage used cars, which they were,

but the new owners might have been in real trouble due to our re-assembly. 

Nothing really fit the way it should."

    The Ford styling cycle had caused a new body shell to be introduced

every two years since 1933.  The Mercury introduced in 1939 fell into step

with this cycle, but Lincoln did not.  Thus, it is difficult to guess what

year that the Lincoln clay mock-ups in the design salon would have become

had the war not came along.  Clearly, however, they would have been

produced several years earlier.  Rather than improve or redesign the HV-12,

a decision had been made in 1941 to return to a V-8 engine.  Of course, any

progress on such a design was slowed by the war time projects.  It does

appear, at least by studying the photographs, that the HV-12 engine was to

have been phased out.  The hood lines were shortened, and the obviously

heavier bodies would require more horsepower.  In December of 1943, a

prototype of a revolutionary concept engine was built.  It was an aluminum

block V-8 with dual single overhead worm gear driven cams.  Al Esper,

manager at the Dearborn Proving Grounds, reported that the engine was

disappointing.  The concept and the engine were scrapped after two months.

    Early wartime Mercury designs resembled the Ford designs.  Slowly,

however, the thinking became that the Mercury should resemble the Lincoln

more than the Ford.  The Mercury was moved to the upper-middle market, and

the Ford was to reach a broader range of the lower-end market.  There was

one school of thinking in which the Ford name, and possibly the GM name,

might be slowly elevated through the model lineup until they were the top

of the line automobiles.  This was already the case with Chrysler.  The

design trend of the early forties prototypes seemed in a small way to

confirm this.  Management decisions in 1946, however, cast the die in a

more traditional direction.

    In a 1949 paper to the SAE in Los Angeles, Harold Youngren described

Passenger Car Design by saying that, "Foresight and guidance must come from

information gained in various ways.  Beginning with a rough sketch or a

doodle, the idea is laid out on a one-tenth scale drawing.  The design is

then looked at from a market and manufacturing standpoint as well as cost

and pricing class.  Next, a full-size blackboard layout is made, followed

by an engineering proposal to management.  If approved, a full-size clay

mock-up is built and trim is added using bright metal foil.  If the design

concept makes it through all of this, the body bridges and templates are

made and engineering begins to produce the drawings and detailed

specifications required to make the tooling and produce the automobile."

    A special project, formed at Ford on April 12, 1946, was called the

Light Car Division.  The new model car lineup (originally begun by Edsel

Ford, and developed by Gregorie) had proposed a rather bulbous 118 inch

wheelbase body for the new Ford.  The Mercury was to be a Ford with some

Lincoln and some pure Mercury features on a 120 or 123 inch wheelbase.  The

large Lincoln (Zephyr) was to be on a 125 inch wheelbase.  The latter

actually became the Cosmopolitan.  Two proposals which were ultimately

dropped were the Custom and Continental Sedans which shared the

Cosmopolitan body motif.  The Continental with external rear-mounted spare

tire was to have been on a 128 inch wheelbase, and the Custom Sedan on a

135 inch wheelbase.

    Ernest R. Breech, newly arrived at FMC, test-drove the new Ford

prototype.  He concluded that the car was too heavy, and that the projected

production costs were too high for the car to be successfully marketed as

the Ford mainline.  This seemed also to confirm the feelings of the Light

Car Division people.  Even if the Ford light car had been marketed in the

United States instead of in Europe, there was too great a production gap

between the proposed light Ford and the proposed Model BA Ford.  As it

developed, by late 1947, the light Ford was not marketed in the U.S.  It

became the European Ford Vedette.

    The result of several Ford Policy Committee meetings in August of 1946

was a crash program to develop a new Ford mainliner from scratch.  In

September of 1946, the Ford Motor Company showed its first monthly profit

since midyear 1942.  Things were definitely looking up.  The Policy

Committee met again on December 11, 1946.  After a blind competition, they

selected the Bob Koto and George Walker design for a new Ford.  Gregorie's

design was retained for the Mercury and Lincoln, but on December 15, E.T.

"Bob" Gregorie resigned his position with the company.  His first love had

always been yachting, and he would retire to Florida to follow a career as

a custom marine designer.

    The Koto-Walker design was to become both the Mainline and Deluxe Ford

products, the HA and BA Fords for 1949 and 1950.  Bob Koto had worked on

the Tjaarda Zephyr front end redesign project under Gregorie.  George W.

Walker had worked under GM's Harley Earl before contracting with Ford as an

outside stylist.  Others involved in the project were Frank Hershey, who

came from GM, and Bill Schmidt.  Frank Hershey later became head of Ford

styling, and Schmidt became Lincoln-Mercury's chief of styling.  The

engineering and design staff for all of Ford-Mercury-Lincoln totaled only

eight hundred people.  By late 1947, Harold Youngren had increased the

personnel level to 2,600.  A new engineering center was under construction

across from the Henry Ford Museum and Greenfield Village in Dearborn. 

Never again would a handful of men decide the production destiny of the

Ford built automobile.  By the 1948 new model introduction, Ford had spent

$100 million on new tooling.

    The original heavy Ford proposal became the 9CM Mercury, and remained

on the 118 inch wheelbase.  The small 9EL Lincoln adopted the proposed

Mercury wheelbase dimension of 121 inches.  The 9EH Cosmopolitan remained

on the originally proposed 125 inch wheelbase.  The Cosmopolitan was almost

scuttled at one point by Breech's group, but there continued to be some

support on the Policy Committee for a large, top-of-the-line automobile. 

Much of the 9EH tooling was already in place, and the Cosmopolitan

survived.  Like many previous Lincoln models, it is not likely that the car

was profitable.  In this respect Breech was right, but it would have been

sad had this bulbous beauty never appeared in the Lincoln genesis.  With

the new Ford design in place, the prototype models were all pushed up the

product line one notch, except for the 9EH Continental and Custom Sedan

which were pushed off the planning table altogether.

                             NINETEEN-FORTYNINE

    The 1949 Series 9EL and 9EH Lincolns were introduced to the automobile

buying public on April 22, 1948.  The new Lincoln's unveiling was followed

on April 29 by the Mercury Series 9CM which shared body components with the

9EL Lincoln.  Production picked up rapidly.  The small Lincolns were

assembled at three sights in addition to the Michigan plant.  The Los

Angeles assembly plant began Lincoln production in May.  A Metucheu, New

Jersey, plant was opened in June, and a St. Louis plant started production

in September.

    The new Series 9EL (Light) Lincoln body styles were the six-passenger

Coupe Type 72 (the lightest in weight at 3,959 pounds), the Sport Sedan

Type 74, and the six-passenger Convertible Coupe Type 76.  All were on the

121 inch wheelbase.  On the 125 inch wheelbase, and built largely from

separate tooling, were the four new 9EH (Heavy) Lincoln body styles.  They

were the six-passenger Coupe Type 72, the Town Sedan Type 73 (torpedo

back), the Sport Sedan Type 74 (trunk back), and the six-passenger

Convertible Coupe Type 76.  The 9EL Lincoln is often incorrectly referred

to as the Sport Lincoln.  Actually, the term applies to both the 9EL and

the 9EH Sedans which had the trunk back configurations.  Yet another

misunderstanding has the name Sport referring to the fastback Town Sedan

Type 73.  The 9EL Convertible was only built this first year of

production.  Additionally, the Cosmopolitan Town Sedan was dropped after

this first year.

    The Cosmopolitan's headlights were to have been hidden (door-covered). 

Towards the end of development, however, engineering was still having

problems with the door mechanism.  Thus, a chromed metal trim tunnel was

installed to mate the fender and headlamp assembly.  The result was a

unique and stylish headlight motif, often referred to as "frenched" or

"frenched-in."  The wide low profile grille had two horizontal grille bars

with six teeth-like flutes located on either side of a small center egg

crate pattern.  At each end of the grille was a large round parking light,

reminiscent of the Series 876H Lincoln's driving lamps.  The grille

captured in appearance, if not in dimension, the older Lincoln's grille

pattern.  The Cosmopolitan had a curved single piece windshield while the

standard Lincoln used a flat two-piece windshield with center bar.  Both

sedans and coupes had a rear door triangle wing-window.  On the longer body

Cosmo Sedans, the wing-window was aft of the door while on the smaller body

sedans, it was part of the door window.  The combination (thumb)

push-button and hand-grip door handle was introduced this first year of the

Cosmopolitan.  The Mercury and small Lincoln continued to use the old-style

pull lever handles, but were changed to the new type the next year.  The

small Lincoln, which shares body dies with the Mercury, was actually three

inches longer than the Mercury.  The extra inches were added to the forward

section of the frame.

     After the war, FMC had hired many of the GM design engineers.  The body

dimensions of the new Cadillacs were already known by these people.  Thus,

the new Lincoln body length was longer than the Cadillac even though its

wheelbase was shorter.  The cabin (greenhouse area) was 7.5 inches longer,

affording more leg room front and rear.  The Cosmo's bench seats were ten

inches wider than that year's Cadillac.  As it turned out, the standard

Lincoln had more trunk room than either the Cadillac or the Cosmopolitan. 

The overall body length for the 9EL Lincoln was 213 inches while the 9EH

Cosmopolitan measured 220.5 inches.  The tread on both models was 58.5

inches front and 60 inches rear.  Original equipment tire sizes were

8.20x15, and were the new super balloon type designed for lower profile and

a more comfortable ride.

    Rear fender skirts were standard equipment.  The small Lincoln retained

a body mold line resembling the outline of a front fender.  It also had a

large, full-body-length chrome strip on the sides.  The Cosmopolitan was

smooth sided except for a chrome wing or flange over the front fender

wells.  The cross crest and knight's head logo was on the center grille and

on the full-moon hubcaps.  Its silhouette was also molded into the door

plate rubbers.  The hood ornament was a missile suspended by a swept-back

arch mount.  The name LINCOLN was stamped into the center bumper chrome,

front and rear.  The bumper ends wrapped around the body to the wheel well

in the front and most of the way in the back.

    Interiors for the period were plain, although they were luxurious

compared with the average car interiors of the day.  These were austere

times.  The opulence of the twenties and the Art Deco of the thirties had

given way to the simplicity of modern.  "Salon Styling" was the name given

the new decorum.  Soft foam rubber padding was extensively used in the

seats.  Fabric options were broadcloth and nylon.  Cloth seat patterns were

usually a wide pinstripe with contrasting solid seat back trim.  Fiberglass

soundproofing insulation was used extensively, and referred to as

"Quiet-Tone" noise control.  Power hydraulic windows (four) were optional. 

The power antenna option was still vacuum.  Heater systems continued to be

treated as optional equipment on cars of this period.  The Lincoln heater

used a positive fresh air system called "Cross-Ventilation," controlled by

three knobs on the lower part of the large instrument panel.

    The instrument panel itself was massive in appearance and seemed to be

a conglomerate of component parts.  The round speedometer and engine

cluster group were small, hard to read, and separated by a center-mounted

rectangular clock.  A row of rectangular gold-colored pull knobs and

switches were strung out along the lower panel.  Chief Engineer H.H.

Gilbert was quick to point out that these controls were difficult to

identify in daylight, and impossible to read at night.  This panel

arrangement was not dissimilar to that used on the early Beechcraft Bonanza

airplanes.  After several wheels-up landings in these aircraft, when the

pilots had extended the flaps instead of the wheels, Beechcraft redesigned

their lower panel knob and switch arrangement.  (Fiascoes like these in the

auto and aircraft industries probably caused the human factors engineering

discipline to be taken more seriously.)  The Lincoln's upper panel, area

directly in front of the passengers, was clear of knobs and obstacles in

the interest of safety.  This unique Cosmopolitan instrument panel was only

offered the first model year.  It would be extensively redesigned by Tom

Hibbard at the request of Lincoln marketing, who felt the panel was

old-fashioned.

    Henry Ford had always favored solid front axles.  In the early forties,

Lawrence "Larry" Sheldrick obtained permission to develop an independent

front wheel suspension for the Ford.  Engineer Joseph J. Felts, who was

assigned to the project, was told to develop any type frontend so long as

it did not look like a GM or Chrysler.  A torsion bar design was ultimately

chosen.  In 1944, a hundred units were built and sent to dealers to be test

driven.   When Harold T. Youngren (formerly Oldsmobile's chief engineer)

came to Ford, he brought with him several young GM engineers.  Among them

was Earle S. MacPherson, who later developed the MacPherson Strut.  A new

independent coil spring frontend was developed for the EL and EH Lincolns. 

The old-style cross-member frame (sometimes referred to as X-member or

K-frame) was retained.  During early production, the frame rails were

increased by .015 inches in gauge.  The new frontend used stamped steel

suspension arms.  The coil springs were mounted wishbone-fashion with the

tubular shocks inside the coil springs.  Heavier shocks and rubber frame

bumpers were added during early production.  The rear suspension retained

the conventional dual semi-eliptic leaf springs.

    A Hypoid (bottom offset) differential rearend was used to allow the

chassis to sit lower to the ground.  This also lowered the center of

gravity.  With only 204 square inches of brake lining area, the Lincoln's

brakes were inclined to grab with the slightest touch.  Standard design

"duo-servo" brake systems of this period all had this problem, and the

Lincoln brake system underwent several modifications during early

production in an attempt to correct it.  Lincoln had used the three-quarter

floating axle for many years.  The new Lincoln used a semi-floating axle

where the wheel bolts directly to the axle flange.  This and the

elimination of the drive shaft torque tube, decreased the sprung weight,

and improved the Lincoln ride.  The rear axle ratio was 4.27 to 1, but a

3.07 to 1 engine to rearend final drive ratio was provided with the

overdrive engaged.  A Hotchkiss three-speed standard transmission was

installed with the gear ratios of 2.526 to 1 in low, 1.518 to 1 in second,

and 1 to 1 in high.  A Borg-Warner overdrive was optional on the small

Lincoln and standard on the Cosmopolitan.

    Lincoln returned to a V-8 engine for the first time since the early

Model K.  The new flathead V-8 was rated as 152 horsepower at 3600 RPM.  

It develops 265 foot pounds of torque at 1800 RPM as compared to the older

HV-12 which produced 225 at the same RPM.  This C.C. Johnson designed

engine was first installed on the F-8 Ford trucks in January, 1948.  (Frank

Johnson, famed Ford and Lincoln engine designer of the twenties and

thirties, had retired in 1947.)  The new V-8 truck engine was adapted for

both models of the new Lincoln.  The engine had a 336.7 cubic inch

displacement with a 3.50 inch bore and a 4.375 inch stroke.  This

relatively long stroke provided high torque.  It differed from the popular

engine design trend of "squared engines," in which the bore and stroke are

the same dimension, i.e., 4x4.  The compression ratio of 6.4 to 1 on the

Ford truck engine was raised to 7.0 to 1 for the Lincoln version.

    Standard engine accessories were a Holley two-barrel carburetor,

mechanical fuel pump, and six-volt electrical system.  This

three-main-bearing engine was massive, about 40 percent heavier than a Ford

passenger car engine.  The crankshaft alone weighed 104.5 pounds.  Pistons

were aluminum.  The front of the large engine looked very much like other

Ford V-8 engines with top-mounted generator and two water pumps driven by a

single belt.  The new rotary-type distributor was moved to the rear of the

engine beside the fuel pump.  This allowed the oil filler neck to be moved

forward on the engine.  A large oil bath air-cleaner was

sidesaddle-mounted.  Three exhaust ports were located either side of the

V-block, and the manifolds were connected with the traditional under-pan

crossover pipe.  The most distinctive feature of this engine being its two

broad, flat, cylinder heads.  GM had already changed over to the OHV

(overhead valve), but the new Lincoln engine was still of the valve-in-head

design with the inverted L-combustion chamber.  Lincoln would not change to

the OHV until the 1952 models.  Thus, these were the last of the big Ford

flathead engines and were truly dinosaurs.

    Ford engineering had not invested the time needed to develop an

automatic transmission for the new V-8 engine.  In fact, the engine itself

was still suffering from a few developmental bugs.  Additionally, there was

some reluctance to proceed with a new automatic transmission design after

the Liquamatic fiasco.  A deal was stuck with General Motors to use the GM

Hydra-Matic transmission in Lincolns and Mercurys.  Lincoln's manufacturing

manager actually negotiated the deal with GM.  The new Hydra-Matic

transmission for the Lincoln was introduced on June 26, 1949.  Engineering

manager Harold Youngren then turned to Borg-Warner to develop a Ford

automatic transmission.  Ford and Mercury went to the Borg-Warner designed

Ford-o-matic (Merc-o-matic) in 1951.  Lincoln continued to use the

Hydra-Matic until 1954.

    The GM designed Hydra-Matic transmission coupled very well with the

large Lincoln V-8 from a power train standpoint, especially at highway

cruise speeds.  The new Lincoln Hydra-Matic transmission gearshift lever

arrangement placed "N" (neutral) to the far left, "DR" (drive) in the next

position, "Lo" (low) next, and "R" (reverse) in the far right position.  

There was no "Park" position, and the car could be started in "Drive." 

These old-style selectors became the brunt of a popular joke about the hot

rodder who had figured out that "N" stood for nothing and so placed the

selector into "L" for leap and then "D" for drag.  Everything was going

fine until he dropped the selector down into "R" for race.

    Large two-page ads were taken out in popular magazines to hype the new

Hydra-Matic transmission for the Lincoln.  They read, "Simple as 1-2-3. 

Start the engine, set the lever in drive and step on the accelerator." 

Lincoln ads for the period continued to feature realistic artist's

drawings, usually in three colors.  The "Nothing Could be Finer" Lincoln

advertising slogan was dropped.  Although one or two early ads read,

"Nothing Could be Finer - or Newer!"  The most commonly used slogan was,

"Lincoln Has A New Idea!"  This was generally followed by phrases like,

"What fine cars should be" or "Planned with you in mind."  There was a

definite appeal to the female influence on the family's purchasing power

with phrases like "Your wife has long been waiting for," and "For the lady

behind the wheel."  The early model introduction ads pitched, "Preview of

Tomorrows Fine Cars," and "Two completely new 1949 Lincolns and a choice of

magnificent body styles in two separate price ranges."  The "Lincoln Makes

America's Most Distinctive Cars" was also a popular slogan.  The large-body

style was called the Lincoln Cosmopolitan while the smaller was referred to

only as the Lincoln.  Often, the phrase "white sidewall tires and road

lamps optional at extra cost" was footnoted.  This seemed not to make much

sense, as the price of these automobiles was never stated in the

advertisements.  Even Borg-Warner got into the advertising act.  They took

out several full page ads showing a popular Lincoln ad with one corner

folded down to reveal the "B-W" engineering logo.  The Borg-Warner company

boasted supplying nineteen out of twenty of the automobile makers with

their parts.  They manufactured everything from carburetors to gears,

producing 185 different components for the auto builders.

    During the 1949 National Association of Stock Car Auto Racing season,

Lincolns won two of the nine Grand National NASCAR races.  Additional

publicity was obtained for the new Lincoln's mechanical prowess when Johnny

Mantz of Englewood, California, drove a 9EL Coupe in the 1950 Pan-American

Road Race.  The car was sponsored by Bob Estes of Los Angeles.  The

Lincoln's side number was 38.  It finished ninth in a field of sixteen

Lincolns and twenty-two Cadillacs, but the race was won by an Oldsmobile

88.  Know as the Carrera Pan-American, this race from Juarez to El Ocotal,

Mexico, was 2,178 miles long.  Mantz's Lincoln ran well ahead on the

straightaways.  At Mexico City, he had an eleven-minute lead on the entire

pack.  The heavy Lincoln started blowing tires on the back roads, and at

one point, the overheated brakes locked up which caused a one-hour delay. 

The Lincoln finished ahead of many respected rally cars and cars using the

latest design OHV and OHC engines.  It was visions of things yet to come

when, in the early fifties, the new lighter Lincolns would sweep these

events for several years running.

    The automotive press praised the new Lincolns highly.  Publications

like Newsweek and Iron Age wrote favorably about Lincoln's new styling. 

Popular Mechanics' Tom McCahill rated it "conservative, fast, and pleasing"

after one of his famous Road Tests.  McCahill further reported that both

Lincolns were capable of 100 MPH speeds in overdrive.

    In April of 1948, when the new models were introduced to the dealers,

there was much enthusiasm about them.  It soon became tough head-to-head

competition.  Chrysler introduced their new fender lines in the fall.  They

did not, however, come out with their new combustion dome "Fire Power"

engine for two more years.  Cadillac, on the other hand, used a mix of body

styles for 1948.  They retained the old Fleetwood Series 75, but introduced

an all-new straight-back front fender design on the Series 61 and 62. 

Hudson, Packard, and Lincoln had all gone with the popular prewar thinking,

that the "slab side" was the next design generation.  Harley Earl of GM

made an end run around them all, and it worked.  Designer Julio Andrado

retained the Cadillac's rear fender line, if not the front.  Studebaker

also retained the rear fender line, but GM expanded on the idea, and

introduced the "tail fins."  Designers Frank Hershey and Bill Mitchell

claimed they had been inspired by a P-38 twin-tailed fighter airplane.  The

car-buying public loved it.  Gregorie, too, had earlier sensed a need to

retain some semblance of a fender line, as evidenced by the front fender

silhouette on the Mercury and small Lincoln.

    Very little 1948 Series 876H dealer literature had been published, due

primarily to the early Model E introductions.  Large 32-page catalogues in

15x11 format were produced in great number for the new 9E Series. 

Additionally, there were the standard-size color brochures.  Quick Facts, a

small customer publication (began in 1936, and discontinued in 1942) was

offered again with the Series 9EL and 9EH introduction.

    The two Lincoln model concept gave Lincoln a slight pricing edge.  The

small Lincoln was priced under the Packard and Chrysler by a couple of

hundred dollars.  The Cosmopolitan was priced about $500 under the

top-of-the-line Cadillac.  Lincoln dealers now had a model to compete with

both the 60 Series and 70 Series Cadillacs as well as Chrysler's

six-cylinder Royal and Windsor, and eight-cylinder Saratoga and New

Yorker.  Chrysler's body styles shared components with the Dodge and

DeSoto, similar to the Mercury-Lincoln scheme.  Packard's Twenty Series was

not dropped until 1950, and Packard continued to be a major competitor in

the Lincoln market for several years.  Almost more important than meeting

the competition, was the two Lincoln model concept itself.  It tied the

Mercury to the Lincoln for the first time.  Mercury could now be viewed as

a baby Lincoln instead of a deluxe Ford.

    The flathead V-8 had not hurt the sale of the Lincoln as much as the

one-two punch delivered by the competition.  The first punch, the lack of

an automatic transmission had been circumvented, but the second punch was

in the area of styling.  Lincoln had unwittingly pioneered the hardtop

coupe roof line with its Continental.  Even today, Type 57 Coupes are

sometimes referred as Hardtop Coupes.  The competition introduced

pillarless coupes, and they became very popular.  Marketing requested a

study on the possibility of such a body style for the Lincoln.  Engineering

said that the fundamental design of the bodies would not allow the removal

of the center posts without extensive redesign.  To answer this challenge,

a series of sporty coupes was offered the following year.  The EL and EH

Lincolns had more nicknames hung on them than the Douglas DC-3.  These

bulbous Lincolns were referred to as bar-of-soap, upside-down bathtub, Moby

Dick, and beached whales to name a few.

    Never before had Lincolns been turned out in such numbers.  The highest

volume of Lincolns ever produced, heretofore, had been in 1937 when the

combined Zephyr and Model K production was just over thirty thousand

units.  One should, however, take into consideration that many of these new

Lincolns were built early in 1948, making this an exceptionally long model

year.  These were, nevertheless, very impressive production figures for

Lincoln.  Had the standard (Mercury-body) Lincoln never been produced, the

Cosmopolitan Series alone would have turned in some respectable sales

figures by Lincoln standards.  The number of Cosmopolitans registered

were:  11,949 in 1948; 18,213 in 1949; 13,128 in 1950; and 11,642 in 1951.

By the end of 1949, the Ford Motor Company had replaced Chrysler as the

second largest auto producer.

                               NINETEEN-FIFTY

    In 1950, a restyled Lincoln grille was introduced.  While the Series 9E

Lincoln grille had held true to the massive postwar style, it did not look

that good on the new bulbous Lincolns.  The cross crest and knight's head

logo was now a stand alone logo on the hood nose.  It was winged with small

square blocks.  Between the Series 26H and 66H, the crest logo had been

moved from the nose to the grille.  Now, the procedure had been reversed. 

The grille itself was a single large horizontal bar, a style popular with

custom shops of the period.  A small vertical center bar was flanked on

both sides by four flutes.  The front parking lights were smaller with

rectangular lenses.  Plastic now replaced the traditional glass lenses on

the front and rear parking lights.  The small Lincoln used the Mercury door

handles last year, but both bodies received an improved push-button and

grip door handle this year.  Rocker panel chrome was added.  Front and rear

bumpers had dual top bumper guards.  The front bumper was rotated slightly

upward "so as to imply a faint smile, and remove any impression of a

frowning grille," according to Lincoln's chief engineer H.H. Gilbert.  On

the Cosmo, the word LINCOLN was dropped, and a larger script COSMOPOLITAN

logo was located on the lower front quarter.  The crest logo on the hub

caps had been gold the first year, but was now chrome to match the wheel

covers.

    Lincoln interiors for the last decade did not have much pizazz.  Seats

were living room couch comfortable and fabrics of excellent quality, but by

today's tufted and rolled interior standards, they would be rather ho-hum. 

This year, new color and fabric choices were offered.  Interior door

handles were improved.  The new courtesy lights operated from front door

switches.  Only the Cosmo Sedan had rear door switches.  The center post on

hardtop models was upholstered to match the headliner.  The Convertible's

rear window glass was now a single pane instead of two small panes. 

Actually, the Convertible had the sharpest looking of all the Lincoln

interiors of this series.  This year, however, the Convertible Type 76 body

style was only offered on the large Cosmopolitan.  Of course, the

smaller-bodied convertible was still available as a Mercury.  Additional

fiberglass sound deadening was added in the roof of Sedans and Coupes.

    Both the Cosmopolitan and standard Lincoln received an updated

instrument panel.  Tom Hibbard's design team went to work on a restyled

dash soon after the first Model E was introduced.  Hibbard had become chief

designer after Bob Gregorie's departure.  George Walker's consulting team

also worked on the instrument panel redesign as well as many of the other

restyled features from the 1950 models.  The new instrument panel was

"Modern" in the finest fifties tradition.  The upsweep hooded two-tone

panel covered two-thirds of the dash.  A long, clear, plastic window

enclosed a semicircular easy-to-read speedometer with engine gauges on

either side.  It extended to the right to encompass the push-button radio. 

The lower portion of the horizontally ribbed panel contained various

easy-to-identify knobs and switches.  The gear shift lever knob was also

new.  A new pull-and-twist style hand brake replaced the less efficient

lever handle.  Door locks were redesigned and improved.  Optional equipment

(in addition to radio and fresh air heater) included vacuum-power operated

antenna, parking-brake-on warning light, hydraulically operated power

windows, and power front seat.

    In an effort to compete with the new hardtop coupes offered by other

auto makers, Lincoln promoted the new Lido and Capri Coupes.  The Lido was

a dressed-up Series 0EL Type 72 with padded vinyl top, and the Capri was a

deluxe sport Cosmopolitan Coupe.  An optional padded roof for the Capri was

offered in leather.  The new Lido Coupe added a small logo forward of the

new larger LINCOLN script logo on each side.  On the Capri Coupe, a script

COSMOPOLITAN was placed mid-door in line with the front fender chrome

wing.  Additionally, the Capri had rear fender well chrome wings (sometimes

called gravel shields) to match the front.  Both Lido and Capri featured

deluxe custom interiors.  Interiors were color-coordinated cloth and

leather combinations.  Engineering arguments against the lack of structural

integrity on the Lincoln's chassis for a hardtop seemed hollow,

particularly in light of the fact that a convertible chassis already

existed on which a top might have been permanently affixed.  The Lido and

Capri Coupes did not appear in the original new model brochures.  The

dress-up job was clearly an afterthought by marketing.

    The Cosmopolitan Type 73 (torpedo back) Town Sedan was discontinued at

the end of the 1949 model year.  The Series 0EH Cosmopolitan was now

offered as the Type H-72 six-passenger Coupe, Type H-72C custom Capri

Coupe, Type H-74 Sport Sedan, and Type H-76 Convertible Coupe.  The

convertible was the heaviest of all these Lincoln bodies, weighing 4,419

pounds.  The standard Lincoln Series 0EL was available in the Type L-72

six-passenger Coupe, Type L-72C custom Lido Coupe, and Type L-74 Sport

Sedan.  The smaller Lincoln actually weighed only about 250 pounds less

than the larger Cosmopolitan.

    Lincoln's identification serial numbering method was changed this

year.  The preceding year's serial numbers began with 9EL or 9EH followed

by a production number, i.e., 1 thru 73563.  Beginning with the 1950 model

year, the prefix was 50 for the year, then LA or LP or SL for the assembly

plant, followed by a serial number of 5001 thru 72521.  The standard

Lincolns were assembled at Los Angeles (LA), Detroit Lincoln Plant (LP),

and St. Louis (SL).  The Cosmopolitans were only assembled at the Detroit

plant.  The ending letter was "L" for the Light 0EL Lincoln, and "H" for

the Heavy 0EH Cosmopolitan.  Thus, the first Cosmo produced under the new

numbering method was 50LP5001H.

    Lincolns continued to be entered in stock car races.  This year, two of

the nineteen NASCAR races were won by Lincolns.  The new 1952 model

Lincolns were well into design by now.  This new found inclination towards

racing would have a definite impact on their design concept, according to

Bill Schmidt, chief stylist for Lincoln-Mercury.  A new factory was being

built at Wayne, Michigan, to produce the Model 2H Lincolns which would be

introduced in November of the following year.  George Hackett, who was in

charge of Ford auto shows, recalls that many types of experimental

prototypes were also being developed during this period.

    The Series 9E bodies had undergone eleven design improvements to quiet

road noise and chassis rattles.  Additionally, eighteen other design change

orders were issued to correct assorted mechanical problems.  These early

models suffered from water leaks, binding doors, hydraulic window switch

failure, and power units cracking the window glass.  The rain shield was

removed from the roof rail, over the forward wing-windows, to improve

appearance.  The heater core was relocated to the outside of the firewall

to reduce engine noise transmitted through the heater hoses and firewall

cutouts.  Overall, this second year's production was considered less prone

to worrisome minor problems.

    Hydra-Matic automatic and Touch-O-Matic overdrive transmissions were

optional on all models.  The overall engine design itself remained

relatively unchanged, but numerous minor changes were incorporated.  During

warm-up, the Hydra-Matic equipped cars would creep, so the automatic choke

was redesigned.  The oil filter was no longer mounted on the cylinder

head.  This location prevented proper torquing down of the head bolts, and

had also been a long time problem with the old HV-12 engines.  An improved

steel alloy was now being used in the engine block castings.  These

engines, it seemed, had experienced more than their normal share of cracked

blocks.  The oil dip stick was relocated to within easier reach under the

hood.  Pistons were changed from four-ring to three-ring with little effect

on the engine's oil consumption rate.  The greatest improvement to engine

performance came when the dynamic balance of each engine was checked and

corrected.  The front motor mounts were also improved as an indirect result

of these tests.  Hard steering remained a problem, so the steering gear box

was reworked.  Tire sizes on the standard Lincoln were 8.00x15, and on the

Cosmopolitan 8.20x15.

    For the Series 0E, a regular color brochure was offered, plus two

smaller foldouts.  A three-page gray (silver) pamphlet described the Series

0EL, and a four-page tan (gold) pamphlet described the Series 0EH. 

Separate color folders were issued midyear promoting the Lido and Capri

Coupes.  Magazine display advertising continued along the same lines, but

the art detail was progressively improving.  A typical ad would picture a

Lincoln or Cosmopolitan driving along an ocean shore or past a fox hunt

scene.  Photos were seldom, if ever, used in national advertising layouts

during this period.  Although officially Lincoln-Mercury Division, the

brochures and ads stated, "Lincoln Division of the Ford Motor Company." 

The Lincoln advertising motto of "Nothing Could Be Finer" was again being

used.

    Automotive writers of the period often compared Lincoln, Cadillac, and

Chrysler, but the comparison was more often of the companies.  As the top

line went, so did the rest of the fleet, particularly in the more closely

associated body styles like Lincoln-Mercury, Cadillac-Oldsmobile, and

Chrysler-DeSoto.  Styling exceptions to this were the trademark Cadillac's

tail fin, and the Continental's spare tire hump.  Although various other

body stylists attempted to copy them, none were very successful.  Lincoln

was not prepared for GM cutting its model run short this year.  For 1950,

General Motors hit its competition with both barrels, i.e., new body styles

which included a hardtop coupe and a 331 CID V-8 overhead valve engine. 

Lincoln had chosen to drop the Custom Sedan, but Cadillac now offered an

all-new Model 75 Fleetwood limousine.  Lincoln limousines had to be

produced by outside coachbuilders at greater expense to the purchaser. 

Henney Motor Company of Freeport, Illinois, Hess and Eisenhardt of

Cincinnati, Ohio, and Dietrich Creative Industries of Grand Rapids,

Michigan, were three of the coachbuilders who produced these custom Lincoln

limousines.

    The White House's Model K Sunshine Special convertible limousine was

still in service when Harry Truman came to the Presidency.  At his January

inauguration, however, Truman rode in a Cosmopolitan Convertible followed

by two others.  A custom Cosmopolitan convertible sedan, the famous Bubble

Top Parade Car, was being built for White House service at the time. 

President Eisenhower actually had the bubble top added four years later.  

Built on a 145 inch wheelbase, the Lincoln Cosmopolitan Parade Car weighed

6,450 pounds.  It had rear fender well wings and a custom Continental spare

tire kit.  Footholds were affixed to the large rear bumpers for the Secret

Service agents to stand on like carriage footmen.  Unlike the Model K

Lincoln, the Cosmopolitan body style had no running boards on which they

could ride.

    Raymond H. Dietrich, famed designer of the coachbuilt era, had formed a

new design company in Cedar Rapids.  Dietrich was the design consultant on

the Presidential Parade Limousine.  His eye for what the large limo needed

is evidenced in the open rear wheel well with added chrome wing and custom

hub caps.  Most of the body stretch was added to this limousine just

forward of the rear wheel wells.  There was only one Parade Car, but nine

other Lincoln Cosmopolitan custom Sedan limousines were built for the White

House.  Therefore, more than one collector may claim to own Harry Truman's

Lincoln Cosmopolitan limousine, and they probably do.  One limo was kept by

Truman, and followed him home to Missouri.  It is retained by the Truman

Museum in Independence.  Yet another was owned by the Anchor Motel in

Clearwater, Florida, and was displayed there for years before it went to

the Imperial Palace collection is Las Vegas.  The Bubble Top Parade Car is

presently owned by the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn.

    The standard White House limousines were stretched Sedan versions with

raised roofs and padded tops.  Their original cost was $30,000 each, but

they were leased to the government for a few dollars a year.  These limos

did not have the external rear-mounted spare tire like the Parade Car.  The

Number One car did have the retractable running boards, red lights, and a

slightly more plush interior with gold plated rear compartment trim, but

not all were so equipped.  All did, however, have rear heaters, rear radio,

and a compartment partition glass.  On the Number One car the rear

passenger options included two built-in thermos bottles, fold-out writing

desk, tobacco humidor, and radio controls.  These cars were rumored to have

bulletproof glass and armor plating which upped their weight 1,600 pounds

over a standard Cosmo Sedan.  Actually, the custom coach finish work itself

accomplished this.  The retractable running boards were later removed from

White House Number One, due to clearance problems.  One other Secret

Service car, a Cosmopolitan Convertible, was fitted with such running

boards.  The Parade Car remained in the White House service until 1961, and

was driven over 100,000 miles.  It was last used by President Kennedy in

1963, during a tour of Europe.

                             NINETEEN-FIFTYONE

    The 1951 Series 1EL and Series 1EH Lincolns were officially introduced

to the public on November 15th of the preceding year.  It was the beginning

of the end for these bulbous beauties.  By Lincoln standards, their sales

record had been phenomenal, the best in the company's history.  By the new

Ford Motor Company standards, it wasn't good enough.  Now off the drawing

boards and into engineering testing, the "Race Era" Lincolns were waiting. 

Advertising and brochures underwent minor date and illustration changes,

but only enough to classify them as 1951.  On the cars themselves, the face

lift job was mostly bright metalwork and chrome.  The exception was the

Series 1EL, on which the entire back end was redesigned.  This, of course,

was also done to the Mercury which shared the same body.  The back fenders

were extended rearward past the trunk, an obvious design response to the

Cadillac tail fin but far from a copy.  The rear bumper actually followed

the curvature of the fender extension.  What a wonderful opportunity to

have added a Continental spare tire kit, at least to the small Lincoln.  By

slightly insetting a spare into the trunk and bringing the rear bumper

straight across the back, a Continental kit might easily have been

installed.  This could have become a unique distinguishing feature between

the small Lincoln and the Mercury.

    These Lincolns had suffered from lack of window area, which resulted in

poor visibility, so this year the rear windows were enlarged slightly.  The

Cosmopolitan still retained the two chrome divider bars in the rear

three-piece window.  Both models, especially the small Lincoln, had always

tended to look much like a California Barris custom,and were not well

endowed with greenhouse area (glass-enclosed cabin area).  The increased

open area required additional structure to be added to the steel roof frame

and the addition of a box section to the rear window sill.  There was a

variety of side moldings offered this year.  Wheel well wings were dropped

from the Cosmopolitan.  The body side molding was long, wide, and

straight.  A forward leaning blade or dorsal was located at the leading

edge of the chrome strip, but was not always installed.  In Lincoln

advertisements, the model name appeared below the chrome strip on the

quarter panel, in the same location as in the previous year.  In actuality,

it was located above the chrome strip directly over the front wheel well. 

The small Lincoln offered an additional chrome side panel molding, and was

a lightning-bolt strip that followed the fender mold line with a fluted

filler plate at the center jog point on the strip.  It was a less than

attractive trim option.  The Cosmopolitan used a wide bright metal rocker

panel kick plate.  Both the Lincoln and Cosmopolitan got new trunk latch

trim plates.

    Fender skirts were now optional on the small Lincoln, but remained

standard equipment on the Lido Coupe.  Most advertising pictured the

Lincoln with rear fender skirts, but many units were shipped without them. 

The Cosmopolitan continued the use of fender skirts.  Newly redesigned

taillights were installed, and replaced the round tri-star.  These new tail

lights were oval, and looked much like a miniature version of what would

appear on the 1952 Lincolns.  The grille was changed again this year,

probably only because it was easy to do.  The front parking light chrome

trim now wrapped around to the front fender well, and the center grille bar

was an arch with five chrome flutes mounted on top.  A new, more massive

front bumper had two large bumper guards that formed the lower grille. 

This was a styling trend that Lincoln would incorporate into various models

for the next eight years.  The hood ornament and the hood nose logo

remained unchanged.  The headlights were moved outboard.  Hub caps were

restyled, and looked ever so slightly like the Cadillac hub caps.  They

were plain and without a center logo.

    The available body styles were unchanged from last year.  The Series

1EL Lincoln offered the Type L-72B Club Coupe, the Type L-72C Lido Coupe,

and the Type L-74 Sport Sedan.  The Lido Coupe featured a canvas or vinyl

top, and bright rocker panel molding.  The Series 1EL Cosmopolitan offered

the Type H-72B Club Coupe, the Type H-72C Capri Coupe, the Type H-74 Sport

Sedan, and the Type H-76 Convertible Coupe.  The Capri Coupe featured an

optional leather top, and custom interiors.  The Lincoln trademark of

center opening doors would not be carried into the next model year.  These

would be the last Lincolns to use the "suicide door" arrangement until it

was used again on the Engle Continentals in 1961.  They would be phased out

for good at the end of the 1969 models.  The Mercury sedans would never

again use the forward-opening rear door, even on the models which shared

body parts with the Lincoln.

    Sundry optional accessories were available on the Lincoln.  They

included items like a rear window wiper, engine compartment light, driving

lamps, a tripod jack, curb buffers, rear door guards, seat covers, hand

operated Seeing-Eye spotlight, undercoating, a Porcelainizing finish

coating, hydraulic power windows, and white sidewall tires.  An external

sun visor was available for the standard Lincoln only.  Heater and radio

were optional.  The radio had a four-position tone control, i.e., normal,

bass, high fidelity, and low noise.  A vacuum operated power antenna, and a

rear-seat speaker were optional.  High fidelity used a single speaker, as

stereo had not yet been adapted to car radios.  The accessories received

the full marketing treatment.  They were grouped under headings like

Utility and Safety options.  Utility listed exhaust pipe extension, license

plate frame, and trunk lid lock.  The Safety group listed a flashing

parking-brake-on signal light, push-button operated windshield washer,

backup lights, and outside rearview mirror.  Interior options included a

wide new choice of colors and fabrics.  The interior hardware like door

handles, and matched the instrument panel knobs.  The standard Lincoln had

a robe rail (or egress assist handles) on the back of the front seats.  A

new non-glare rearview mirror was standard equipment.  A lighted vanity

mirror behind the sun visor was optional.  New door switches operated the

restyled interior dome light.  The Lido and Capri Coupes offered an

additional selection of custom deluxe interiors.

    Mechanical changes included a redesigned baffle in the top of the

radiator tank to prevent air pockets from forming.  A higher pressure

radiator cap was also used.  Both of these modifications were effected to

aid engine cooling.  A stronger idler arm steering support was used for

better steering stability.  The engine itself was increased in horsepower

slightly, and now developed 154 horsepower at 3600 RPM (275 foot-pounds). 

This engine would be the last of the Lincoln flatheads.  It was a sturdy

and powerful engine, but still suffered from minor oil consumption and

vibration problems.  In a further effort to lessen vibration, the shaft

bearings and tappets were individually hand-fitted.  Exhaust port cooling

size was increased, which improved the directional flow through the exhaust

tubes.

    The new rear axle was high speed, a 3.31 to 1 ratio.  An improved

Holley 885-FFC two-barrel carburetor was designed to perform better at high

altitudes.  These two factors combined to improve the large Lincoln's

performance both in the mountains and on the plains.  These were probably

also good reasons for Les Viland's winning the March 8th Mobilgas Economy

Run.  He took the Grand Sweepstakes prize in a standard Lincoln with

overdrive.  His winning average was 25.448 MPG.  Even though Hydra-Matic

was standard on this year's Lincolns, a manual transmission with overdrive

could still be ordered.  Overdrive combined with the new high-speed axle

produced a final rearend gear ratio of 2.38 to 1.  Fully aired 8.00X15

tires helped, but "ol' Feather Foot" (as Les was nicknamed) managed mainly

to accomplish this high gas milage through skillful use of the

accelerator.  The run was carefully planned in advance, right down to the

timing of the traffic lights at the starting point in downtown Los

Angeles.  Maintaining an exact cruising speed allowed the car to enter each

intersection on a green light.

    The Lincoln used in the Economy Run was impounded by the officials who

looked for any non-stock modifications, and there were none.  In July,

Motor Trend magazine used Viland's practice car to perform a similar

economy test.  They reported that even though the Lincoln's mileage was

over 8 MPG better than the Chrysler and Cadillac entries, such mileage

could be obtained at a steady 45 MPH in a stock Lincoln automobile.  Test

reporter Griffin Borgeson put the large Lincoln through some additional

tests.  He reported that the Lincoln had a top speed of 100.67 MPH, and

obtained an average speed of 97.08 MPH over four runs.  From a standing

start, the Lincoln turned the quarter mile in 19.9 seconds.  The Lincoln's

clocked time from 0 to 30 MPH was 5.6 seconds, and from 0 to 60 MPH was

15.8 seconds.  Borgeson further commented that the 5.5 turns from lock to

lock in the steering, and the soft front suspension caused the Lincoln's

tires to shriek with agony.  His report went on to praise the hydraulic

tappets, and excellent crankcase ventilation on the large flathead engine.

    The Korean War curtailed most automobile production to some extent, but

Cadillac still out produced Lincoln three to one.  The bulbous Lincoln's

lack of popularity was borne out on the used car market, and these large

Lincolns lived up to their unbecoming nickname of beached whales.  The

Lincoln and Packard Blue Book prices for a four-year-old automobile were

about one-third that of a Cadillac.  All too often, these heavy motorcars

were carted-off to scrap metal furnaces to rise like a phoenix as steel for

yet another new model.

    In terms of production numbers and management efficiency, these Lincoln

models represent the threshold of the modern automobile.  There are all too

few of these fine examples of a milestone in the automobile engineering art

form in existence today.  These 1949 through 1951 models could easily be

labeled as the beginning of the modern Lincoln automobiles, but they were

not.  Instead, they were the end of an era.  The new Lincolns being

developed for the 1952 model year introduction would set the design

standard into the early 1980s.  Then once again, as before, technological

developments would effect major changes in the industry and in the Lincoln

motorcar.  But, then that is another book, isn't it?

    It is fitting indeed that the last designs of Edsel Ford and E.T. "Bob"

Gregorie should survive in these, the last unique Lincolns.  Henry Martyn

Leland's dream of a permanent motorcar could not possibly have given him a

vision of his legacy.  Nor could the artistically gifted Edsel Ford have

conceived that his hobby-like puttering with coachbuilt and custom

automobiles would leave behind a worldwide respect for the motorcars known

as Lincoln and Continental.