“On this earth there are, in truth, so many new experiences that I desire but rarely to live over any part of my past life, not even the happiest moments of the finest hours I have known.”—Edwin Way Teale
Edwin Way Teale was a naturalist who wrote a series of books on the American seasons. While I’m not interested in the scientific names of flora or fauna and am a dilettante to most things natural, I own Teale’s entire series, simply for his musical prose and admirable attitudes toward living. I reflect on the statement above whenever I ruminate on my youth. In truth, I’ve evolved rather than changed in any appreciable way, so although my 19-year-old self was a few percent more self-righteous and intractable for no reason, his interests and demeanor were much the same. He was also inclined to pull over when he saw a car for sale on the side of the road. The jury’s out on whether he wrote about himself in the third person.
One day in 1996, my dad and I were out on an errand. He was driving my sister’s ’89 Probe for some reason, and I was a passenger on a mild October evening, one that reminded me of those old commercials for Andy Griffith gospel albums, where Sheriff Taylor’s golden voice shone through those wispy clouds before the sky went dark. Parked in the shadows on the north side of the busiest road in town was a battleship gray 1960 Lincoln. I don’t remember if it was a Premiere or not, but I’m certain I startled Dad into pulling off the road to look.
A hand-written sign in the windshield told me that I could have it for a thousand dollars. It sat on four flat tires. The air cleaner was on the seat. It smelled like the basement of my hundred-year-old house during those seasons where neither the furnace nor the air conditioning are running, but it didn’t matter because the owner might as well have been asking for 40 gold sovereigns in exchange for their monolithic Lincoln. Dad and I looked it over for probably 10 minutes, and I certainly would have fallen silent in extreme focus, just as I still do when I’m contemplating bad decisions.
Oddly, I’ve never gotten over that Lincoln, although I have no real desire to actually own one these days. One dreamlike image is still clear in my mind: I’m driving the Lincoln on a fall evening, I-75 South, the far right lane, windows up because there’s a chill in the air. I’m not speeding, not in any hurry. The sun is going down. Andy Griffith clouds. At the time I first saw the Lincoln, I was exploring the Beatles’ later catalog, and my favorite song from Abbey Road was “Sun King.” That quiet opening guitar is playing on the radio.
It wasn’t until later on that I realized that “Sun King” was an homage to a song that is perhaps even greater, “Albatross” by Peter Green’s Fleetwood Mac.
Unlike Fleetwood Mac’s lineup, my taste in cars has not appreciably changed over the last 25 years. I’ve added some new models to the list, but I would like now the things I liked then. On the other hand, even at 19, I had no misgivings about the Lincoln – it was a neglected version of a car that many love to hate. If I hadn’t seen it on the side of the road, I wouldn’t have entertained actual ownership at all.
Which doesn’t matter. I’ve bought too many old cars to regret the ones I missed out on (OK, maybe not the ’65 Catalina or the FIVE early Rivieras that have sent me home empty handed). With that being said, if I come across the same 1960 Lincoln with a thousand dollar price tag on it, there is a 100-percent chance it’s coming home with me. I may not want to go back, and I may not have anywhere to put the largest unibody car ever made, but one must learn from the late, great Mr. Teale. There are so many new experiences, even when the dreams are familiar.
Thanks to AGuyinVancouver for the pictures on the Cohort.
I like Lincolns, but not these.
It seemed as if Ford regretted launching these barges immediately after christening. The 1958 styling was an eyeful and for the next two years, stylists tried to tone these whales down, and lower their prices so that they’d find homes. It seemed to be an immediate flop, a final straw breaking McNamara’s back. After Continental, after Edsel, after the failure of the “Big M” to compete head to head with Chrysler, Oldsmobile and Buick, these enormous beasts smelled like another failure and Lincoln tried to save itself.
Too ginormous, too much all around. I admire them, but it would be like caring for an aging elephant – a bottomless pit. But then, I might be wrong. The pleasure of having an aging elephant that was well care for and still in good shape, could be fun and interesting.
But I believe that this kind of vehicle, in this condition, should be adopted by someone with experiences in elephant care.
By 1960, any problems discovered during the preceding two years had been corrected within budget, and what you could have had here is a big giant car that got 7 miles per gallon of premium gas.
Woof!
McNamara was only in charge of Ford, he was not responsible for Lincoln and was vocally against Edsel. He left Ford when JFK requested his presence as Secretary of State. Among the mechanical things he championed was the swing wing F-111 which was supposed to be the Swiss Army knife of jets.
McNamara became General Manager of the Ford brand in 1955. In 1957 he was promoted to vice president and group executive for cars and trucks, so he would certainly have been responsible for Lincoln too, but that was after the ’58s would have been locked in.
McNamara was Secretary of Defense.
… and also the President of the entire Ford Motor Company for a short time before moving off to the New Frontier.
“Silent in extreme focus, when I’m contemplating bad decisions”
GREAT LINE. Best line of the year.
I’ll bet MacNamara was like that when he decided to go ahead with this Lincoln.
And quite a few other things that McNamara may have contemplated.
(I agree, great line!)
Thanks! 🙂
I worked on one years ago what a nite mare to do a water pump ! 3 thermostats & wen I was only a 135 lbs knee on the air cleaner to land the pump on engine ! lol it probably would of made more sense to take the hood off ! as it opens from the cal area ! these cars were under tired ! as they are Very heavy wallow buckets ! & braking is just a little better than Fred Flintstone brakes ! lol now I am comparing it to my 61 caddy conv. which was like a sports car in comparison but all cars from this era are kewl looking !! 1955 to 1965 what a great styling & funkyness ! never to be repeated again ! sad
These cars were so over the top, and drank so much 28 cent hi-test gas, even the cheapskate wealthy complained. So, Lincoln lowered the compression ratio, horsepower ratings, and by 1960, went to 2 bl carbs, in an effort to increase it’s fuel mileage. 375 hp, to 350, then down to 315.
One has to contemplate how much Lincoln changed from the 1955 model and then to 2 other completely differing ones, the 56-57 model, usually generally accepted as really nice, to the 58-60 version, usually accepted as overwrought, and then again to a completely different one in 1961. I suppose one could argue that few marques underwent such a huge design change, 4 very different styles, in just 6 years. For a luxury brand, that seems almost unimaginable. But then, the big 3 did all make huge design changes at about the same time for all their product, so perhaps it was just a fluke of timing where the whole industry went bonkers. That said, I like the crazy presented in the form of this Lincoln. Absolutely impractical, oddly styled yet somehow appealing to my eyes, and a fitting ode the designers riding the crazy train of the mid to late 1950s.
I pass this every day, just 2 blocks from me. You can buy it, but the asking price is 10x the 1996 amount. I’m hoping it will go to an appreciative owner who will do right by it.
It was profiled here, when it was in better shape:
https://www.curbsideclassic.com/blog/snowside-classic-outtake-1960-lincoln/
OK, that is super cool. It’s too bad the owner didn’t have better storage for it.
Darn I wonder what happened to it, owner kept good care of it and it has the Uber rare 1960 cruise control option
Not opposed to outrageous flamboyant gas guzzling land yachts, but they have to be fixable. Unibody Lincolns are significantly harder to repair and source parts for than their body on frame Cadillac competitors. Everyone loves a ’59 Caddy.
Did Lincoln have two sets of engineers and designers at war with each other? It’s difficult to believe the same people were responsible for the Mark II and ’61 Continental.
Apparently, Robert McNamara himself was responsible for pushing through the ’61 Lincoln. From what I remember in reading about it, he was going to give Lincoln one more chance at real profitability, and he saw Engel’s clay Thunderbird proposal and asked him to make it into a four-door Continental, and that was that.
For not being a car guy McNamara did have a sense of what would sell and what wouldn’t. In addition to the exquisite ‘61 Lincoln, he was a champion of the four seat Thunderbird and, of course, the Falcon, both sales successes. He hated the Edsel and was overheard saying shortly after its introduction that the car would never make it.
Maybe not being a “car guy” is what made McNamara good at knowing what would sell. We have a confirmational bias in the hobby – enthusiasts think that the stuff they love is what the public is wanting, when the reality is that more people want stuff enthusiasts turn their nose up at. As proof, the best sellers are often considered appliances by enthusiasts, and their favorites languish on the lots until no longer built.
I am starting to think the best business case for building a new car is to run it by a group of enthusiasts. If it is a hit, make 100 of them as ‘special editions” and charge twice what you thought reasonable. And then make as many as you can of the one that the enthusiasts disdain. Because that car will likely be the one that the masses lap up like a hummingbird drinking nectar.
Mass market stuff has to have mass appeal. That usually means more boring than daring, more conservative than flamboyant, and that has always been the case.
And…right on cue the negative comments flow. The Lincoln everyone love to hate, indeed.
Though I’d never buy one, I rather like these. To me they epitomize what ’50s Detroit styling was all about: carefree, wretched excess. What’s not to admire about that? Ugly, yes. but these have a sort of, I don’t know, brutalist presence that even contemporary Cadillacs and Imperials/Chryslers lacked.
Plus those cars you see coming and going at the big car auctions, where ’50s dockets are filled with them. And you can’t spit at a classic car show without hitting a ’59 Caddy. Way too common and cliche for my taste. I’ll take one of these any day.
A recent re-run of Phantom Works on Motortrend TV chronicled a resto of a 1960 Lincoln, and yes, the water pump was a huge issue. According to the show, Lincoln resto experts won’t touch those because of the water pump issues thaty apparently cannot be resolved successfully.
They finally got it to work , but for how long? Add to tjhat drum brakes all around and the narrow tires, and you have an unstoppable barge.
Still, a unique and desirable monster in my book.
I’m not familiar with the water pumps on these (crank driven?), but I wonder if you could adapt an electric water pump somehow. I get that these are frustrating to work on; it seems that all Wixom built unibody Fords/Lincolns were (I own a ’63 T-Bird that’s a little frustrating).
I’ve worked on a few of these Lincoln 430s. Water pumps were hard to change, but otherwise nothing special. They were belt driven like any other car. On a Lincoln though, even Stretch Armstrong would have had trouble changing one of these without removing the forward opening hood.
One other complication was parts. At some point in the 430’s life cycle, Ford increased the impeller shaft diameter. Original pumps became scarce. To use the larger shaft pump we had an extra step of adapting the connecting hardware like the pulley and fan spacer.
Ah, so just standard Ford parts changing. I was thinking of the power steering pumps that were apparently crank driven on some older Lincolns, not the water pump. Thanks for clearing that up.
Yes, it was the power steering pump that was directly at the front of the crankshaft on the 430, and the windshield wipers were driven by the hydraulics, truly bizarre. I knew this from a ’64 Continental that my dad owned.
It is a good thing one of these did not cross my path before I hit about 22 years old, because I would have been powerless to resist it. I am quite sure I would have learned many hard, expensive lessons had one of these come home with me. Still, their appeal remains. Why, I do not know. They are not desired like Cadillacs of the period and do not have the redeeming mechanical qualities of the Imperials. But these lumps are so outrageous in their oddball kind of way, I still kind of want one.
My being fundamentally broke and living at home was all that kept me from becoming a ’60 Lincoln owner. 🙂
For those who think the 1959 Chevy is bad looking, this one tops them all. Lumpy is the best description I could come up with as you mentioned.
I’m just glad I bought a 1959 Pontiac Bonneville in 1963 rater than one of these big lumps.
I am probably one of the few people who prefers the 58 to 60 Lincolns over the 61 to 69 suicide door JFK Lincolns. I also love the 75 to 79 Continentals/Town Cars. My favorite Cadillac of all is the 58 Fleetwood Sixty Special.
My favorite Cadillac of all is the 58 Fleetwood Sixty Special.
Oh, my.
Hey, I like them too!
I am, also, a fan, of the 1958-60 Lincolns(not to mention, the same MY “Squarebirds.”) So, yes, there are a few of us.
Ford was really trying to do something between 55-60.
It is all kind of crazy.
I remember the Edsel sales pitch to dealers, so I know the official marketing spiel. Yet, it wasn’t just about Edsel. There were compacts. There were supersized cars. There were $10Grand coupes. It was also about Continental, Big Mercuries, and then there were these Lincolns. Too many moving pieces, during an economic downturn, and after winning the 1957 sales race against Chevy. Lots happening.
Just trying to launch large Mercurys was enough and Ford didn’t stick with it long enough, thanks to the entire plan going sideways. Just trying to launch Edsel would have been enough. Just trying to get through the 57-58 Recession would have been enough. Launching the Falcon. Insanity.
So it seemed that Lincoln was told to make a unibody supercar bigger than anything ever seen on the road before? Big? That’s a plan? It was kind of what Mercury was told to do. Load up a giant Mercury with every space-age gadget conceived and then get out of the way of the thronging crowds?
Edsel wasn’t the only flop at Dearborn. Continental flopped. Mercury flopped. Lincoln flopped. They were all multi-million dollar losses unprecedented in Ford’s history. Was there one overriding error made by Ford that created all this awful?
Ford got lucky with Falcon, Comet, 4-seat Thunderbird, 1961 Continental and 1959 Bat-Wing Chevrolets. Because by the time this 1960 “Sun King” Lincoln showed up, there was a lot of smoldering wreckage to survey.
Fantomworks did a restoration on one of these cars and getting parts was a nightmare. It was only built for three model years and sales were low. I don’t think it shared many parts with other Ford or Lincoln models. The iconic 61 Lincoln makes this car look like a dinosaur.
John Najjar, the principal stylist of the ‘58 Lincoln, was fired (or replaced, to put it more nicely) in August 1957, even before the car went on the market. He was given another job and stayed with Ford for many years, but apparently was never in charge of styling a particular model again.
His extensive interviews with the Henry Ford Museum are fascinating and well worth the investment of time in reading them, especially his encounters with Henry Ford, who seems to have picked him more or less at random for a job in the styling department.
http://www.autolife.umd.umich.edu/Design/Najjar3_interview.htm
Man, I loved everything about this post – the imagery, the music, the reference to literature I didn’t know about before today. (Great pictures, AGuyInVancouver.)
Thanks, Joe!
Nice essay—thanks! I guess I like the (slightly) toned-down 1960 design compared to the ’58 and ’59, but I only “know” these from photos, and still hope to see a real one someday–I doubt I’d be disappointed. Interesting to learn of the maintenance challenge (water pump). Here’s a quiet-money brochure photo, FWIW:
You’re welcome! I like the ’60 better than I like the ’58/9, too. It’s still wild, but in a good way.
Here’s another lost puppy that needs some help:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/203479748526?hash=item2f60568fae:g:54UAAOSwuNdgtn6B
Here’s one that needs no help! The ’58-’60s used vacuum wipers, ’61 and up used hydraulic. The 60 had one of the best interiors of the time, of course it was only used one year. Virtually every body panel was changed for ’60, used for one year. What were they thinking?
That’s that Lincoln color “Sapphire Metallic” that I’ve always liked. If I bought the silver/gray one I referenced above, I would consider re-painting it Sapphire Metallic with a Starmist White roof.
I’m one of a few who has always loved the 1958-60 Lincoln/Continental line, with no qualifiers, apologies, or excuses. They make a huge statement, and while managing to capture all of the jet age essence of the late 50’s, they aren’t derivative. Though I have a hard time picking a favorite, I think the 1958 Premiere might be the one for me… I love the functionality of the reverse slant window on the Conti, but the shape of Premiere’s glass looks just that much better to my eyes.
It took awhile for the understated elegance of the 1961-up to speak to me, but I fully get it now. It’s interesting to consider that these two cars from the same manufacturer, whose mission is pretty much identical, came out within a year of each other.
You could make the case for boldness and no half-measures regarding the making of changes. Lincoln went through several quite an evolution from the baby whales of the early 50s to fairly decent looking cars in the mid 50s to the radically styled gimmick laden, but fascinating, barges of 58-60. Give Ford credit for thoroughly shit-canning that and starting fresh with the 61s. They did just about everything right with it.Timed with the election of JFK they were in the public’s eye and became classic and iconic.