1947 Lincoln Continental Convertible - Convertible

One of the most luxurious cars of its time

The last American production 12-cylinder car

A stunning color combination

In largely original condition

John Tjaarda, a Dutch-born industrial designer who had emigrated to America, was well ahead of his time in the early 1930s. Automobiles, he believed, should be streamlined, feature unitary construction and, ideally, have their engines mounted right at the back. While working for the »Briggs Manufacturing Company«, these ideas resulted in a futuristic study for Ford, shown at Chicago’s »A Century of Progress International Exposition« in 1934. One man who saw more in it than a mere styling exercise was Edsel Ford. Henry Ford’s son already had a keen eye for good design and recognised in Tjaarda’s ideas the foundations for a more modern Lincoln.

Dearborn, however, was not quite ready to go that far. The engine moved back to the front, the V8 became a V12, and Eugene T. »Bob« Gregorie developed Tjaarda’s basic concept further together with Edsel Ford. The result arrived in 1936 as the Lincoln-Zephyr, whose streamlined shape not only looked unlike most American automobiles of the day, but also sold accordingly well. Two years later, Gregorie and Ford gave the Zephyr an even more elegant front end. And it was on this basis that the Continental eventually emerged – Edsel Ford’s automotive vision of European elegance, interpreted the American way.

Then came the war, and with it a temporary end in 1942. When Lincoln was able to resume passenger-car production in 1946, entirely new models were still some way off. So the pre-war designs were brought back. The Zephyr name disappeared, but the car beneath it remained and was now simply called Lincoln. Internally, the model line continued to be known by the letter H.

For 1947, the H-Series received yet more chrome and an even more imposing front end. Beneath its long bonnet remained the side-valve V12, now displacing 305 cubic inches, or almost exactly five litres. Its roughly 130 hp had a considerable amount of automobile to move. Not that a Lincoln like this was ever in much of a hurry. It was no sports car, but an American luxury liner – long, elegant and appropriately propelled by twelve cylinders.

That leaves the 1947 Lincoln sitting fascinatingly between two eras. Its roots stretched back to Tjaarda’s futuristic designs, its shape had evolved under the influence of Edsel Ford, yet it was built for an America that, after the war, was already looking firmly ahead. In 1948, it was all over. With the completely new generation for 1949, the old shapes disappeared – and so did the V12, the last American twelve-cylinder engine in a production car.

This 1947 Lincoln Convertible in »Moss Green« still gives a sense of what Lincoln’s advertising slogan promised in those years: “Nothing could be finer.” That rings particularly true with this example, which has survived to this day in remarkably untouched condition and thus still presents itself much as Lincoln originally intended. It came to Austria in 2013, having previously belonged to a lady in Indiana since 2000. The impressive convertible has spent the past decade resting in a collection and now awaits a sympathetic recommissioning before returning to the road. Once those twelve cylinders are running again, the Lincoln can prove for itself that its old advertising promise was anything but an empty one.