In the mid-50s, Cadillac was the undisputed ruler of the luxury segment in the American automobile industry. That dominance wasn’t to the liking of its Michigan neighbors. Ford had a go at GM’s supremacy in 1956 when it launched a styling revolution. The Blue Oval’s $100-million styling efforts paid immediately as sales for the newly launched Lincoln Premiere rose to historic heights. Bean counters’ satisfaction aside, the car received formal recognition in the form of an award from the Industrial Designers Institute of New York.
It was the first automobile to be granted the distinction. If money is no object, then changing the entire styling for a brand is easily within reach. Ford had the means and the reasons to burn 100 million dollars to change the face of its high-end Lincoln division. Remember, we’re talking about the early 50s, so that the amount would translate into a ten-digit value in 2023 – 1.14 billion or thereabouts.
But the car that came out in July 1955 and went on sale in the fall of the same year was praised without hesitation by the media and – critically – the buying public. Nearly 42,000 Lincoln Premiere cars rolled off the factory gates for the model’s first year. The marque’s other offering, the Capri, was outsold by a five-to-one ratio. Still, Lincoln produced over 50,000 automobiles that year – nearly twice as many as in 1955.
It was far from Cadillac’s 155,000 units, but it was Lincoln’s best sales year since 1949 – and it would remain at the top of profit charts for a solid ten years. The lineup consisted of two models, each with a two-door or four-door hardtop; the Premiere also offered a convertible (only 2,447 drop-tops were made when the Premiere had its premiere).
The workhorse of Lincoln would be the two-door hardtop, with 19,619 examples assembled (the sedan came in a whisker behind, with 19,465). Well-off American buyers appreciated the “bigger is better” philosophy proposed by Ford’s pompous brand.
The Premiere was long, wide, and quite heavy. Still, the design cleverly disguised the massiveness of the automobile with horizontal accents, neat proportions, and sleek profiles. And the car wasn’t just a Cinderella that looked nice but had little else to boast. The Premiere wasn’t shy of boasting amenities, strongly hinting at the jet-crazed fashion that was the talk of America back in the 50s.
The fresh air vents for the cabin were one of the most striking features of the hardtops, with scoops placed on the rear fenders forcing air through transparent ducts running along the windshield through the headliner. This particular detail is also one that immediately gives away one important aspect about a Premiere’s past: the plastic pipes are susceptible to UV and become brittle and develop a yellowy hue after prolonged exposure to sunlight. If they are still crystal-clear and feel smooth and robust, it’s either because they were replaced at some point or the car has been kept in a controlled environment, away from the sun as much as possible.
It just so happens that there is one such car out there – this Amethyst two-door hardtop, currently residing in Chicago, Illinois, the hometown of Lou Costabile, an insatiable YouTuber with an appetite for classics. (I am going to take my chances and say that the car is pink, but that’s just what my simple man-eyes can detect; science has proven that color perception is different in men and women, hence the incalculable amount of color tones which only ladies can distinguish).
Regardless of the color’s name, in 1956, Lincoln offered a staggering 52 livery options (17 solid and no less than 35 two-tone combos). The featured Premiere has a Starmist White top contrasting the Amethyst lower body. The interior is the same combination (one of the 37 available for the model year). Another cool feature was the dual-purpose side mirrors. Plural, as in two, for both sides – a fabulous piece of equipment in ’56, when mirrors were rarely offered (and most would adorn the driver’s side). Not only did Lincoln install the complete set, but the chrome housings served another purpose: searchlights casings.
The control handles inside the cabin feature flip switches to turn the powerful beams on and off; and, speaking of light technology, the Premiere also had an automatic high beam dimmer – the GM-manufactured Autotronic Eye. Fancy as it might have been, the Premiere was, first and foremost, an automobile, and that meant inherent horsepower. 285 was the mechanical output rating (289 PS) of the 368-CID V8 / 6.0-liter. 401 ft-lb (544 Nm) was more than enough to shave almost two seconds off the zero-to-sixty times compared to the 1955 Lincolns.
Granted, the Premiere’s score was 10.5 seconds – not the fastest in the field, but a luxury car wasn’t built for speed performance. Still, the jump was stunning – and it might have had something to do with the then-new Turbo-Drive transmission developed in-house. Before the Premiere’s launch, Ford had bought the Hydra-Matic gearbox from rivals GM.
Lincoln made the Premiere long, wide, and low to cut Cadillac off: 222.9 inches from bumper to bumper, 79.9 inches from mirror to mirror, and 60 inches from the ground to the top of the roof. That’s 5.66 x 2.02 x 1.52 meters, with a wheelbase of 126 inches (3.2 meters). Curiously, the wheelbase was three inches (76 mm) shorter than a Cadillac Series 62’s. Still, the first-year Premiere was almost seven inches longer overall.
This geometrical difference gave the Lincoln a strikingly long overhang: 62 inches (1.57 meters), one of the all-time biggest in the industry. The dual exhausts concealed in the rear bumper added several inches to the car’s length and caused premature corrosion of both elements. Although power steering and brakes were standard, power windows and seats were sold separately (play the video at the 12:32 time stamp and see how the rear windows rise and go down). The fighter-jet theme dominates the interior, with toggle switches for nearly everything.
Despite its immediate success, the Premiere didn’t last long – after five years, the nameplate was dropped. With a base price of $4,600 in 1956, the Premiere was not a budget-friendly expenditure. This particular example we can see in the video was acquired by its current owner just two months ago for $40,700 – a good deal for a 67-year-old Lincoln with less than 23,000 miles / 37,000 km on its clock.