1983 Lincoln Quicksilver Concept Car

The 1983 Lincoln Quicksilver is a little-known concept car that's noteworthy in that it still exists and escaped Ford Motor Company, being up for auction at least twice.

Ford previously used the Quicksilver name on a preliminary project for its 1960 redesign.   I showed two Quicksilver drawings in this post.

It seems that the concept car was designed as well as built by Ford's Carrozzeria Ghia subsidiary rather than at Dearborn, Michigan.  Besides that, it was based on components from an AC Cars vehicle, not Ford.

Yet another unusual detail is that the Quicksilver has been called a "mid-engine" car.  No, the motor isn't located between the front and rear seats.  It seems to be just in front of the rear axle line (and perhaps overlaps it).  A rear-engine car's motor is placed abaft of the axle line, so mid-engine seems to mean farther forward, but not at a car's front.  That said, by 1983 mid-engine cars were mostly sports cars or racing cars -- not passenger sedans.  And the rear weight bias usually makes for handling problems such as I encountered with my Porsche 914 on snowy roads in Upstate New York in the early '70s.

All this suggests that the Quicksilver, taken as a whole, was not a serious proposal for a production car.

Mecum Auction's Web page has more background regarding the Quicksilver.

Photos below are via Mecum and an undetermined site.

Gallery

The Quicksilver was designed when Ford was aggressively exploring aerodynamics, and it was once of several concept cars that were wind tunnel tested: its drag coefficient was 0.30, according to Mecum.

The wheelbase seems very long, though I don't have its length measurement.  On the other hand, the impression of length could well be due to the small wheels/tires.

Rear vision seems somewhat limited.

Given the motor's location, I wonder about the various openings at the front.  It could be that the radiator was there and long piping connected it to the motor.  The side air vents towards the rear seem to be intended for cooling the engine compartment.

Although the shape is aerodynamically efficient, the 1970s crisp, linear detailing found on three-box production sedans has been carried over to the Quicksilver.  Aside from its length and engine placement, the design is fairly attractive.