Just Cars Blog: Lincoln

Showing posts with label Lincoln. Show all posts

Thursday, July 17, 2014

cool image, first time I've ever seen Mustangs leaving the factory

Found on http://vandertorque.tumblr.com/ via http://nerddecarro.tumblr.com/post/55266215039/nerd-de-carro-no-facebook

Thursday, June 19, 2014

the first ladies Bubbletop Lincoln, the Camelot Continental

U.S. Secret Service Vehicle 297-X

The single piece plexiglas roof afforded protection from the elements for the President and First Lady Jackie Kennedy during public events. It was made of the same material used for the nose gunner compartment on B-24 bombers in World War II. However, it was not bullet resistant. The Bubble Top converted into a formal limousine using black vinyl panels that were stored in the trunk. The panels were lost after the car left government service.

Built to order by Hess and Eisenhardt of Cincinnati

The Elwood Engel-designed and new-for-1961 Lincoln Continental’s stature and expression made it a natural fit with the Kennedy White House; a confident, expansive but also generation-shifting environment that combined homegrown American success with flair, style and sophistication.

Ford Motor Company had a long-established relationship with the White House fleet, making it natural for the Treasury Department’s Secret Service to turn to Ford to supply the automobiles that transported the President, his family and their official guests. Ford, in turn, relied upon Hess & Eisenhardt of Cincinnati to make the numerous changes that White House fleet service required.

Known by its Secret Service fleet number, 297-X, the new car was intended for more extensive use.
It proved to be so successful in both practical and aesthetic terms that a second car was requested by the Secret Service.

Over its years in the White House fleet, the Continental Bubbletop’s luxurious and spacious interior hosted an endless stream of dignitaries, diplomats and important guests. In addition to Jacqueline Kennedy, who favored this car among the many available to her, passengers included Pope Paul VI, Mrs. Lopez Mateos, the First Lady of Mexico, President Lyndon Johnson, Luci Baines Johnson, Vice Presidents Hubert Humphrey and Spiro Agnew, Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos and wife Imelda, and the Apollo astronauts and their wives.

As a result, this Continental Bubbletop remains without doubt one of the most important parade cars in America’s history.

It was in the White House fleet until 1970, after which it was donated by the Ford Motor Company to the Henry Ford Museum in 1972.

In 1985, 297-X was purchased by and displayed at the Imperial Palace Collection before entering a private collection, where it remained until early 2005, when it joined the John Quinn collection.

It has been meticulously and consistently maintained throughout its life, first by the U.S. Secret Service, to whom reliability and the comfort and security of passengers is paramount, and later by a succession of caring owners who recognized its unique historical significance. Its odometer shows only 15,276 miles at the time of writing, although it presumably covered many more than that in the belly of the U.S. Air Force cargo planes that carried it on many ceremonial trips abroad.

Info from http://www.rmauctions.com/lots/lot.cfm?SaleCode=MO10&CarID=r170&fc=0 prompted by and article and full gallery in the Cars and Parts magazine, formerly Auto Enthusiast, August 2014 issue

Tuesday, June 10, 2014

Desinged by Zocchi, painted by Hollenbeck, pinstriped by Himsl... that is one hell of a list

1956 Lincoln Mark II, photo from http://www.carbuffs.com/zocchilincolnmark56.htm

Wednesday, March 19, 2014

Ford Fairlane Hemisfair.... connected to the Ford Sponsorship of the Hemisfair in San Antonio, in 1968

It seems the huge financial success of the New York Worlds Fair 1964 had some investment types thinking they needed to try to cash in on the idea again, quickly. So in 1968 San Antonio was chosen.

It seems that this World’s Fair didn’t have a whole lot to offer in the ways of retrofuturistic design and cool technologies, but one should consider what was going on while this Fair was open elsewhere in the world to appreciate what it was doing. Vietnam was at its highest, man was about to walk on the moon and the Summer of Love was about to begin, so this was a pretty interesting time.

HemisFair ’68 was the first officially designated world’s fair (or international exposition) held in the southwestern United States. San Antonio, Texas hosted the fair from April 6 through October 6, 1968. More than thirty nations hosted pavilions at the fair. The fair was held in conjunction with the 250th anniversary of the founding of San Antonio. The theme of the fair was “The Confluence of Civilizations in the Americas.”

Cultural events at HemisFair included theme exhibits, such as Confluence/Cosmos, which presented space exploration, and "El Encanto de un Pueblo," which displayed 5,000 toys and miniatures from the Alexander Girard Folk Art collection in a series of miniature "views" of Latin-American village life.

The fair sponsored a lavish production of Giuseppe Verdi's Don Carlo, an exhibit of major art works from the Prado Museum in Madrid sponsored by the government of Spain, touring stage shows, performances by celebrity entertainers, and appearances by such groups as the Ballet Folklórico de México and the Bolshoi Ballet from Russia.

Major corporate exhibitors with individual pavilions included Eastman Kodak, Ford Motor Company, General Electric, General Motors, Gulf Oil Corporation, Humble Oil (now Exxon Company, U.S.A.), IBM, RCA, and Southwestern Bell. Frito Lay/Pepsi-Cola (see FRITO-LAY CORPORATION) presented a spectacular outdoor event, "Los Voladores de Papantla" (The Flying Indians), and Coca-Cola's pavilion featured the Krofft puppets.

HemisFair, which opened in the spring of 1968 with an announced start-up cost of $156 million, was financially troubled from the beginning. Attendance never matched expectations, and the fair lost money, a reported $7.5 million, despite Mayor Walter McAllister's pledge that the exposition would not cost San Antonio taxpayers "a thin dime."

On the other hand the fair attracted more than 6.3 million visitors and focused international attention on the city and state. But the site did not become the permanent unifying element that its planners had envisioned. Instead, multiple uses were found for the permanent structures that were left on HemisFair grounds, such as the Tower of the Americas and the Institute of Texan Cultures

info from http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/lkh01

is it weird I've never seen or heard of this Fairlane? Have any of you seen or heard of one?