The Lincoln Continental was an automobile produced by the Lincoln division of Ford Motor Company between 1939 and 2002. Despite often sharing underpinnings with less-expensive Fords, the Continental was usually a distinctively styled, highly equipped luxury car. The flagship model Lincoln during most its run, the Continental name conveyed special cachet in the product line. In 1961, the Continental was completely redesigned by Elwood Engel. For the first time, the names Lincoln and Continental would be paired on a car other than one in the Mark series. The design was originally intended to be the new 1961 Ford Thunderbird, but the concept was enlarged and slightly altered before being switched to the Lincoln line by Robert McNamara. One of the most striking features of the new Continental was its size. It was two feet shorter than its predecessor. So much smaller was this car, that advertising executives at Ford photographed a woman parallel parking a sedan for a magazine spread. The new Continental's most recognized trademark, front opening rear doors, was a purely practical decision. The new Continental rode a wheelbase of 123", and the rear hinged doors were hinged from the rear to ease ingress and egress. When the Lincoln engineers were examining the seating buck that styling had made up, the engineers kept hitting the front hinged door of the buck with their feet. The rear hinged doors solved the problem. To simplify production (in the beginning, anyway), all cars were to be four-door models, and only two body styles were offered, sedan or convertible. Therefore, the rear doors were hung from the rear and opened from the front. This "suicide door" style was to become the best-known feature of 1960s Lincolns. The 1961 model was the first car manufactured in America to be sold with a 24,000 miles (39,000 km) or 2-year bumper-to-bumper warranty. The 1961 Lincoln Continental was really Engel's design masterpiece, considered by many to be pinnacle of Lincoln style. Even the dashboard was his design. This may have been the last time a single individual was responsible for the complete design of a production car. The 1961 Lincoln's striking, understated elegance immediately won a major design award and was widely copied by other manufacturers -- note the similarity of the 1963 Cadillac and the 1963 Buick Electra. Continentals of this generation are favored by collectors, and have appeared in movies such as The Matrix, The Last Action Hero, and Inspector Gadget movies, the TV series Pushing Daisies, and recently it shows in the opening sequence of the TV series Entourage.

A thoroughly anachronistic vehicle -- albeit a magnificent one. A V-12 convertible, but at 5,000 pounds, far from sporty in the modern sense. A posh, expensive car ($3,395 in 1936, a lot of money then), but lacking almost all of what we would consider luxury features. And despite its mammoth wheelbase (131 inches) and considerable size, basically a two-seater (the rumble seat makes it at best a fair-weather 2+2) with minimal luggage space. But it does not lack for presence.