Thursday, March 5, 2020

Early Lincoln-Zephyr Body Types

The Lincoln-Zephyr, launched for the 1936 model year, was the best-selling mass-produced American car with advanced styling in the mid-1930s.

Its Wikipedia entry is here, and the first installment of a much longer profile can be found here.

The first Lincoln-Zephyrs came in two body types, a four-door sedan and a two-door sedan.  Three more types were added during the next two model years.  All are illustrated in the Gallery below.

Unless otherwise noted, images are factory-source photos.

Gallery

Near-overhead view of a 1936 four-door Lincoln-Zephyr.  I include this image because it shows the boat-shaped (in plan view) body and the teardrop-shaped fenders.  Oh so very 1930s Streamline.

A more conventional view of a '36 four-door.

Here is the 1936 two-door sedan.  For 1936 and later this body type was called the Coupe Sedan.  This body style sold poorly.

A coupe body was added for 1937.  It had the same wheelbase as the sedans, so its proportions seem a little odd.  Even so, coupes outsold Coupe Sedans by a ratio of more than three to one that year.

Another image from on high, this showing the long trunk of the coupe.  The back window (backlight) is almost the same as those on sedans.


Two views of a 1938 Convertible Sedan, Barrett-Jackson photos.  This body type was going out of fashion for the entire industry, so it isn't surprising that fewer than 500 were sold that year.

The new 1938 Convertible Coupe did somewhat better, with sales of around a thousand.  Image via RM Sotheby's.

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