1940 Lincoln-Zephyr Redesign Updated

The Lincoln-Zephyr, introduced for the 1936 model year, was a streamlined, upper-middle-price-line car comparable to Chrysler Airflows and Buick Roadmasters.  Zephyrs were redesigned four model years later (1940) and facelifted at two-year intervals (1938 and 1942) within each body's production lifetime.  The Zephyr name was dropped post- World War 2 on resumption of production, the design being a facelifted 1942.

I posted "1940 Lincoln-Zephyr Redesign" here, and today's post is an elaboration on that.

The redesigned Lincoln-Zephyr was larger than the original.  Yet it retained several styling features of the 1938-39 facelifted version, especially the front end.  The 1938 facelift included Detroit's first horizontally oriented grille, a styling breakthrough.  So it's likely Ford management (probably in the form of Edsel Ford himself) decided to retain that successful theme on the 1940 redesign.

In the photo set below, the 1938 Zephyr facelift is represented by a nearly-identical 1939 model because my image database has better views than I have for 1938 sedans.  For the same reason, I represent the 1940 redesign with a 1941 model, also nearly identical to the original.  The 1939 Zephyr photo set is of a for-sale car by Harwood Motors. The 1941 Zephyr images are via the web site of the Driehaus Collection.

Gallery

First, the 1938 facelift design.

The 1940 redesigned body has the same 125-inch (3175 mm) wheelbase.  The after part of its profile is slight raised, enlarging the passenger compartment and trunk.  Door cutlines and C-pillars are vertical, creating a more static, less-flowing appearance.  From a marketing standpoint, the intent might have been to make Zephyrs seem more dignified, more upscale so as to better compete with the likes of Cadillac and Packard.  From a styling perspective, a slightly slanted C-pillar would have been better.  Door hinges were redesigned so as not to be exposed.

As for carryover features, note the shapes of the fenders and hood.  Rear fenders seem redesigned, but close in spirit to the 1938 version.  Front fenders seem nearly identical aside from the forward half where changes were required for the newly-mandated sealed-beam headlights.  The hood profile and cutlines are almost the same on both cars.

The width of both cars is virtually the same, so I wonder if the windshields and perhaps some of the hood tooling were retained for 1940.  Grille profiles seem the same, and also the forward hood cutlines aside from the very front.

Aside from the fender shape, the body abaft of the cowling is clearly different from the previous Zephyr design.