At the Ford Motor Company in 1955 the Lincoln division was left behind, but maybe it was all for the best.

There were big changes in the Ford Motor Company’s product lineup for 1955, but oddly enough, Lincoln wasn’t a part of them. The Ford and Mercury divisions received major makeovers that year, but Lincoln was left behind, as Ford’s luxury brand carried on for a fourth year on a product cycle that began in 1952. (See our feature on the ’52 Lincolns here.) Still, there are some Lincoln observers who will tell you everything worked out for the best.

Lincoln’s solid ’52 ladder-frame chassis carried forward as before, with the same 123-inch wheelbase—six inches shorter than Cadillac, seven inches shorter than Imperial. Thus, the ’55 Lincoln was much the same agile package that had been so successful at La Carrera Panamerica, the 2,000-mile Mexican Road Race, winning the stock car category three straight years in 1952 through 1954. In the March 1953 issue of Mechanix Illustrated, car writer supreme Tom McCahill declared the Lincoln “one of the finest handling American cars I have ever driven” and “America’s finest automobile.”

There were some cosmetic changes for 1955: longer rear quarter panels with reverse-sweep tail lamps to lengthen the profile, and a light touch-up at the front with tunneled headlamp rings and horizontal chrome bars added to the grille. On the hardware side, the Lincoln Y-Block V8 got a boost in displacement from 317 to 341 cubic inches (via a .140-in larger bore) and a new rating of 225 hp, while the GM Hydra-Matic was finally out of the picture. Lincoln’s first in-house automatic for ’55 was Turbo-Drive, essentially a beefed-up Fordomatic with a first-gear start under heavy throttle application and power-downshift available at up to 76 mph.

With the Cosmopolitan discontinued after ’54, the two trim levels were now Custom and Capri. The deluxe Capri outsold the base Custom by a giant margin, possibly due to its  variety of attractive interior combinations. Body styles were limited to a two-door hardtop coupe and a four-door sedan for the Custom, while the Capri line included a convertible. Like Cadillac, Lincoln did not offer a station wagon in these years as both premium brands pointedly avoided the wagon market, seeking exclusivity.

While the ’55 Lincoln was largely a carryover, there were major changes underway at the brand that year. In April of 1955, Lincoln was spun off from Lincoln-Mercury to become a standalone division, and Ben Mills, one of the original Ford Whiz Kids, was appointed general manager. With a $100 million product development plan, Lincoln was shifted upmarket to compete with Cadillac head on. While the 1956 Lincoln was eight inches longer, more luxurious, and grander in most every way, it’s possible to conclude that—depending on your personal taste and driving habits—maybe the ’55 Lincoln is the more enjoyable car.