Golden Anniversary - 1971 Lincoln Continental

Henry Leland's Lincoln Motor Co. may not have been established with the intent to build some of America's finest prestige cars--history buffs know Leland tried to build Liberty aviation engines for this country's effort in the Great War, but peace came before production ramped up--yet that is what the company did, both under his watch and that of Henry and Edsel Ford. Lincoln's fortunes rose and fell in its first half century, but the outlook was bright in 1971, when it celebrated 50 years of automotive production by creating a distinctive, limited-production variant of its most venerable nameplate: the Continental Town Car Golden Anniversary Edition.

The Continental was Lincoln's "halo" car from its debut in 1939, and would similarly create a stir in the industry in the form of the ultra-luxury 1956 Mark II and influential 1961 sedan and convertible. It was fitting that the one-millionth Lincoln automobile built wore that badge, being a Continental sedan that left Ford's Wixom, Michigan, plant on March 25, 1968. That blue four-door model represented the end of the unit-body Continental, though, as the 1969 model year would be its last before this car was thoroughly redesigned, creating a new paradigm for American luxury cars in the 1970s.

The 1970 Continental may have been evolutionary in its styling, retaining the crisply formal air of its predecessor, but it was very different under the skin. Ford's engineers used body-on-frame construction, devising a full-length, box-rail frame that could share mechanical components with the full-sized Mercury Marquis and Ford LTD. And yet, counterintuitively, this new design was more space-efficient and lighter than the unit-body it replaced. The 1970 model was very close in dimensions to the 1969 model--127- versus 126-inch wheelbase, 225 versus 224.2 inches in overall length, 79.6 versus 79.7 inches wide--but this new car had a wider track, was notably roomier inside and weighed 4,719 pounds, 292 pounds less than before.

Special blcak leather upholstery and deep-pile carpets were mandatory with the Gold Moondust Anniversary trim; note the special gold-plated plaque above the glovebox. The rim-blow steering wheel and AM radio were standard equipment, while the dealer installed the original owner's personalized plate.

Like the previous generation, the new Continental could have two doors or four, but only the two-door was a true hardtop; the new sedan had slender B-pillars that were disguised between frameless door glass. And the older Lincoln's trademark "clap" doors were gone, replaced by front-hinged rear doors that were believed to hold more appeal for conservative buyers cross-shopping Cadillacs.

When the 1971 Continental was unveiled, it exhibited minor, effective visual refinements. The runaway success of the bold, polarizing 1969 Mark III had given the stylists working under Ford design chief Eugene Bordinat, the confidence to reimagine the 1970 Continental with a tall, self-assured grille treatment that incorporated Mark III-inspired, vacuum-operated headlamp covers, along with horizontal taillamps that emphasized the car's substantial width. This model year refined what came before, retaining the horizontal-bar grille in a simpler form; a Cord 810 influence is clear, with the body-color header panel, six tightly-spaced bars and body-color headlamp doors. And the bumper-mounted taillamps traded their six red horizontal segments per side for nine vertical ones.

The Continentals built for Lincoln's 50th year were also carry-over in mechanical terms, with their four-barrel-carbureted, 460-cu.in. OHV V-8 engines featuring 10.5 compression and making a gross-rated 365hp at 4,600 RPM and 500-lb.ft. of torque at 2,800 RPM, despite the addition of emissions controls. That torque was routed to the rear wheels through a three-speed Select-Shift automatic, while power assist for the steering and front disc/rear drum brakes was standard equipment. An appropriately supple ride was provided by the coil spring suspension, which incorporated ball joints and an anti-roll bar up front, and a transverse stabilizer worked with the live-axle rear. Illustrating Lincoln's engineering sophistication was the specification of Michelin 225R-15 radials, rather than bias-belted tires.

It was in late August 1970, that Ford's Lincoln-Mercury Division announced the 1971 Continental Golden Anniversary Edition. This special model would be based on the Town Car option, which first appeared in 1969, and featured special badging and upgraded interior materials, including color-keyed extra-soft leather upholstery and door panels, deep-pile carpets, a napped nylon headliner, glovebox vanity mirror and more. This new Golden Anniversary Edition would include a commemorative gold-tone dash plaque indicating it was one of a limited quantity of Town Cars built to commemorate the 50th year of the Lincoln motor car, a pair of 22-carat gold-plated keys in a display box, and personalized owner monogram plaques for the driver's door and dashboard. It would include those Town Car interior material upgrades, and buyers could select from the full paint, vinyl roof and interior color palette.

This 460-cu. in. V-8 has not been apart in its 85,500 miles, although the four-barrel carburetor was rebuilt and an exhaust manifold gasket was replaced. The automatic climate control system uses GM-sourced A/C components. The black canister on the driver's side holds vacuum for the headlamp covers and door locks. The mouse-damaged original hood insulation pads were replaced.

Lincoln did offer a unique and appropriate treatment for the Golden Anniversary Edition that was not available on the Continental coupe or Mark III, that being the "J9" Gold Moondust metallic enamel paint combined with a black Cavalry Twill-grain vinyl roof and black soft leather interior. Out of 28,622 Continental sedans built in 1971, just 1,575 were Town Cars: 535 used standard Lincoln paint choices, and 1,040 were specified in Gold Moondust Anniversary trim.

Our feature car is one of the few Golden Anniversary Continentals still extant. This Town Car was ordered in the spring of 1971 by ABC, the American Broadcasting Company, as a company car for its long-serving vice president, Simon Siegel. Simon specified its options, including an electric rear window defroster, signal-seeking AM radio and the Sure-Track Braking System, a computer controlled rear-wheel ABS developed by Kelsey-Hayes. The loaded Continental cost $7,016.50--the rough equivalent of $41,815 today--a substantial discount off MSRP that this prominent company received through Ford's "X Plan" for VIPs.

This flagship Lincoln is now in the care of Simon's grandson, Steve Siegel, who explains, "This car was my grandfather's 'gold watch,' given to him when he retired in 1972. He'd had the car registered with the specially-issued New York plate, 'TV-77,' which indicated ABC's television production company status and its '770' AM radio station number. I remember being a kid in the 1970s, when five of us would be in the back seat, sliding left to right, as he'd take a turn. Back then, I loved watching the speedometer, which is a horizontal tube filled with a weird fluorescent yellow liquid that moved with the speed," Steve recalls.

"Simon drove the car into the 1980s. He passed away in 1991, and the car went to my father. At that point, the odometer showed about 85,000 miles, and there were scrapes and dents in the body sides, which were repaired when I had it repainted for him in 1992. My father would start it once in a while, and take it to the local Lincoln-Mercury dealer for servicing. They disconnected the Sure-Track system when they could no longer get parts. He stopped taking it there when the service manager told him they didn't want to work on it anymore, and they'd help him junk it, for a tax credit! The car sat in his garage until 2013, when he told his five children to take it, or he'd give it away." Steve was the only one with a garage big enough to house it.

He found that mildew had grown on many surfaces of the Continental's plush interior, but the body and paint remained in good condition. After Steve and his son cleaned the interior, he renewed the fluids, swapped old Champion spark plugs for new Autolites, and changed a blown-out exhaust manifold gasket. The Autolite carburetor was rebuilt to accept today's ethanol-laced gasolines, and the front brake calipers and brake hoses were replaced. Upcoming projects will include re-coring the radiator and rebuilding the original master cylinder. And the car runs much better on premium fuel than the regular fuel his father had been using, he notes.

"It's longer than my 1995 Suburban, and is like a battleship to drive. If you have a corner coming up, you have to turn the wheel in advance, and it's like radioing the engine room, 'Full turn starboard!'" Steve says with a laugh. "It's a lot of fun to see the reactions this car gets when it's on the road. It represents a moment in time--this was what successful executives drove in those days, not Mercedes or BMWs. It's really special that four generations of our family have sat in those same original leather seats. Simon's great-grandchildren have worked on and ridden in this car. It will eventually be used as a limousine in their weddings."