The Lincoln Continental was America’s only four-door, six passenger convertible. Painted in Presidential Black, this one from 1962 absolutely oozes quality and is sixties luxury motoring at its finest.
Continental sales had already doubled after the major redesign in 1961 and 1962 saw a further rise of 19 percent. Not much had changed visually for ’62, just a redesigned grille and front bumper. It was clear that Lincoln were doing something right.
Continentals were famed for the wide opening doors that hinged to the body instead of the center pillar. These type of doors were known as ‘suicide doors’ and were quite popular on much earlier cars from the 1930s. Lincolns were somewhat unusual as even their convertibles were 4-door cars.
The sedan used a combination of nylon and leather but the convertible seats were all leather as standard. You could, however, upgrade the sedan seats to all-leather for $100.
The Continental was a luxury car and as such you could expect power brakes and steering, automatic transmission, powered windows and power door locks as standard. There were also nice touches such as walnut paneling on the instrument and door panels.
Interestingly although power seats were an option at $119 and 96% of all continental buyers opted for them – including the original owner of this car.
Every ’62 Continental came with a 430 cubic inch V8 engine that output 300 horsepower. This is paired with a Turbo Drive automatic transmission.
Lincoln managed to sell 3,212 Continental convertibles in 1962. If you wanted one back then it would have cost you $6,720 (base price) which was several hundred dollars more than a Cadillac Sedan de Ville.
This ’62 Lincoln Continental is currently for sale on eBay. (follow the link for lots more photos)