Depending on where loyalties lie, each of us can point to a different decade in automotive industry as being the best of them all. After all, we have over a century of car making to choose from, and each decade brought something special with it.
For me, the best decade would be the 1960s. Trapped between the booming post-war years and the Malaise Era, those short but intense ten years pretty much transformed the industry and put it on the path it still is on today. I mean, just think how many cars made back then exist today, either as models still in production or as collectibles whose value seems to never stop going up.
Always looking for cool cars to write about, we constantly come across fine mechanical examples from that era, but few of them seem to speak 1960s as much as the Lincoln Continental we have here.
Although the Continental family was technically born much earlier, with the 1939 Edsel Ford prototype, this car is part of the fourth generation of the model that ran from 1961 to 1969, and that makes it an integral part of the Swinging Sixties.
Despite being a luxury car, the Continental was made in quite large numbers, so finding one today is not exactly difficult. It may be a bit trickier though to stumble upon one in as good condition as we have here.
Described as a “combination of excellent original condition and high-quality refinish work,” the soft yellow beauty lived all of its life in California, where it was driven for just 57,000 miles (91,700 km).
Work on making the Continental shine included a bare-metal refinish, body work, the restoration of the stainless and chrome trim, and the addition of a brand new black top.
Inside, the car still has the original leather seats, door panels and dashboard, and all the comfort systems, including the climate control, power windows, and antennae, work as they should.
Under the hood hides a reworked 462 ci (7.6-liter) engine, the largest available at the time, working with the help of an automatic transmission and rated at 340 hp.
This example of fine American motoring can be had off the lot of a dealer called Classic Car Studio for $49,900.