One of the most celebrated American cars ever produced was designed in 35 minutes  Here’s the story of the 1939 Lincoln-Zephyr Continental.

If you’re interested in a deeper dive into the design and creation of the Lincoln Continental prototype, MCG enthusiastically recommends the book Edsel Ford & E.T.  Gregorie by Henry Dominguez, SAE 1999, which we relied upon extensively for this article, including the first-hand accounts. 

Accodring to its creator, E.T. “Bob” Gregorie, the Continental was designed in around half an hour. Starting with a one-tenth scale drawing of a Lincoln-Zephyr sedan, the Ford styling chief laid a sheet of sheer vellum over it and quickly traced out the new car’s lines, lower and sleeker. When he showed the sketch to Edsel Ford later that afternoon, his patron and boss said, “That’s it! Don’t change a line on it! How fast can you have one built?”

The first prototype was built in the body engineering shop at the Warren Avenue Lincoln plant, miles away from the  Ford styling department in Dearborn. A production Zephyr was cut apart so its hood could be lowered several inches and lengthened around a foot. The front fenders were lengthened a similar amount and the windshield and cabin were moved to the rear on the stock  Zephyr chassis. Since Edsel was keen on taking the car on his Florida vacation that winter, it was a hurry-up job. Lead was used extensively in the bodywork. It’s said the prototype weighed nearly 5,000 lbs, around 1,400 lbs more than a production Zephyr.

By February 23, 1939, the prototype was ready for review. The Lincoln-Zephyr special convertible coupe, as  Gregorie then called it, was parked outdoors on the east side of the Warren Avenue plant so Ford photographer George Ebling could capture this familiar set of pictures. Across the railroad in the background is the Rinshed-Mason automotive paint factory. Both the Lincoln and R-M plants are now long gone.

Edsel was pleased when the prototype was a sensation with his friends in Florida society—he said he could  have taken 200 orders on the spot. The Continental was an affirmation of his exceptional taste, but more importantly for him, it could provide his Lincoln division with a much-needed new model now that the obsolete Model K was  selling in mere handfuls. The Continental entered production in 1940 and continued for eight years.

All three of Edsel’s sons—Henry, Benson, and Bill—drove the first Continental on the 1939 Florida vacation. Bill would later say that with all  that added lead in the bodywork, the prototype would barely stop. Hastily fabricated, and probably crudely, it’s fair to guess, the original prototype was eventually destroyed. But a second 1939 prototype, built for engineering development, still survives today in the collection of the Edsel and Eleanor Ford House.

A Continental signature feature, the exposed spare tire (below), was actually an afterthought. As the hand-built prototype neared completion, Gregorie discovered that the abbreviated trunk could not accommodate a spare tire. (A full-szed clay was created, but after the prototype.) With no time to redesign and modify the bodywork, Gregorie consulted with Edsel and together they decided to hang the spare tire outside in the traditional bygone style. The famed Continental spare, imitated and emulated by Lincoln and others for decades, was an accident.