Will Lincoln's new "face" be a familiar, and beloved, one?
Lincoln has recently announced that its most recent corporate "face," the bold twin-grilles based on the early '40s Lincolns, will be replaced on its next generation of cars. I have no idea what the replacement will be, but I'd like to see a contemporary version of Lincoln's "Parthenon" grille. While some felt it was a ripoff of the Rolls-Royce radiator shaped grilles, it was stately, and definitely said "Lincoln" when you saw one.
For this chop, I used a Rolls Royce Phantom Coupe for the base of this Continental Mark IX coupe, so yes, I actually did rip-off Rolls' radiator shaped grille, lol. I've been working on a much more avant garde Lincoln coupe, based on the new Kia GT concept car, but it's quite an intense chop, really a cleansheet design study, so to clear my head tonight I decided to work on a quick chop. I love the way it turned out, though!
In addition to the formal grille, eagle-eyed aficionados will recognize classic Lincoln traits such as hidden headlights, a mid-body contour line similar to the '56 Mark II, small vertical powered vent windows, and characteristic wraparound Lincoln Continental taillights. LED running lights in the front fender blades update Lincoln's once ubiquitous wrapped parking lights.
Sweet, I like it!
ReplyDeletethanks, and welcome to the blog, Chef!
ReplyDeleteThe fact that such a large car has vague gaps between each opposing sheet metal is truly remarkable. Lincoln does need to return to the old gilded age of building along with modern touches & technological advances. They have done a great job with their latest offering of consumer products, but they need to do something completely different to stay ahead.
ReplyDeleteThought provoking and inspiring ,Casey. Beautifully done. The contour character line really works well.
ReplyDeleteWoody,my money is riding on a production version of the C-Concept. I can only hope when it is introduced, it has a front like Casey's! I think a small sized urban ultra luxury car would give Lincoln a niche of it's own.
With the C and then something like this Mark IX, they'd be unbeatable.
Looking forward to your Kia Gt based Lincoln!
Andy
Malibu
What I have always appreciated about Lincoln is that they were usually sleek to the Cadillac's brash. Like a ying to the yang. This coupe definitely fits that bill. Sleek and handsome yet muscular.
ReplyDeleteThat is a Lincoln! I wish Lincoln still made there cars like that.
ReplyDeleteThis is actually an "appropriate" Lincoln Mark. The story of the Mark III is that Henry Ford II told the design team to put a RR grille on the Mark- he was right. Ah, the days before Mr & Mrs Zilch in focus groups told designers what to do.
ReplyDeleteLincoln is moving away from the ugly split grille? Thank God. All the people that remember that from the 40s are dead. Duh. They need to get inspiration from the Mark II,III,IV and the 1960s sedans. Or just follow this blog!
Michael W
Personally i LOVE Rolls Royce and i wish Lincoln would make a good looking car like them instead of taking a Ford and slapping a Lincoln logo over it, although they are the same company, they should design different cars for both.
ReplyDeleteWe have been waiting on this... Baby...is
ReplyDelete