There is no greater headline for barn and junkyard treasures than “saved from the crusher.” Even if it’s usually just for a few parts, it makes me pleased to know that a rusty classic is receiving a second shot. The 1956 Lincoln Premiere, however, wasn’t as fortunate as you can see. You’re undoubtedly already aware of how many videos on YouTube are from junkyards.
But almost everything is about walkarounds and buying rust buckets. Needless to say, there’s not a lot of car-crushing footage. If you’re into watching old cars getting crushed into tin pancakes, the video below will help you get your fix. But make sure you’re not into old-school Lincoln rigs because the footage shows a 1956 Premiere being squashed atop a 1959 Chevrolet Bel Air.
While I do get that we need to get rid of cars nobody wants and recycle stuff, it’s rather sad to see a Premiere end up like this. It’s probably because I have a soft spot for the company’s short-lived nameplate, especially the first-generation model, built from 1956 to 1957. And it’s just as sad that early Premieres don’t get as much love as the Continental.
If you’re not very familiar with this model, it was introduced in 1956 to bridge the gap between the Capri and the Continental. The first-gen Premiere had nothing in common with the latter, sharing both design cues and underpinnings with the entry-level Capri. However, it was available with significantly more premium features than its more affordable sibling, including an air conditioning system with overhead ducts similar to those in an aircraft.
The Premiere was also highly customizable thanks to a color palette that included 20 hues and 34 two-tone options. In 1957, Lincoln took it up a notch by offering no fewer than 76 two-tone combos in addition to 18 single colors. Inspired by the Lincoln Futura and Mercury XM-800 concept cars, the Premiere was also notably more stylish than the conservatively looking Continental at the time.
The first-gen version came with Ford’s 368-cubic-inch (6.0-liter) Y-block V8. Fitted in Mercury and Lincoln automobiles only in 1956 and 1957, it arrived with 285 horsepower and 402 pound-feet (545 Nm) of torque on tap. In 1957, output increased to 300 horsepower and 415 pound-feet (563 Nm) of twist. Lincoln aimed the Premiere at the Cadillac Series 62, the Imperial Crown, and the Packard Patrician.
But is the first-year Premiere a rare classic that deserves to be saved no matter what? Well, not exactly. The 1956 version was quite popular back in the day, moving 41,531 units. That’s more than 80% of all Lincoln production for the year. While the two-door convertible is indeed scarce at 2,447 examples, the two-door hardtop and the four-door sedan are relatively common at more than 19,000 units each.
