by Jim & Cheryl Farrell
Originally published in the January-February 2019 issue of Continental Comments (Issue # 346.)
The name Zephyr has been associated with Lincoln longer than the name Continental. Edsel Ford himself selected the name Zephyr for the all new, midsize 1936 Lincoln-Zephyr introduced in November 1935. Even though the Zephyr name was borrowed from a series of new, streamlined diesel locomotives built by General Motors, it certainly gave Edsel’s new car the mystique that it has to this day.
According to the late Dave Cole, writing in The Way of the Zephyr in January 1996, sometime during World War II, Henry Ford II decided to stop using the “Zephyr” part of the name in postwar Lincolns. This was an effort to upgrade the Lincoln brand so that it could better compete in the luxury market. Complicating matters, Lincoln’s new model was not scheduled to be introduced until April 1948 as a 1949 model. At the same time, the decision was made to promote Mercury as Ford’s mid-price entry.
From 1978-83, Mercury produced a mid-size model called the Zephyr. In 2006, Lincoln marketed a mid-size car called the Zephyr. The Zephyr name was dropped for 2007 onward, and the model was renamed the MKZ. Presumably, the “Z” was for Zephyr.
There was one other attempt to revive the Zephyr name on a Lincoln, but that proposal was stillborn. It came shortly before the introduction of the new Lincoln Town Car in 1990. IAD, the British company that made the 1990 Lincoln Town Car prototypes, suggested that Lincoln market a grand touring car model of the Town Car. They called it the Lincoln Zephyr Touring Sedan. IAD built two working prototypes shown in the accompanying photographs taken in the Design Center courtyard in Dearborn, Mich.
The proposed 1990 Lincoln Zephyr Touring Sedan featured lots of exterior blackout trim, blackwall tires, pseudo bucket seats, a center console with floor shift, additional plastic wood in the interior, and a different taillight treatment. The 1990 Lincoln Zephyr Touring Sedan was not produced because management didn’t think the U.S. market was ready for a European-style touring sedan. They may have been right about the market in 1990, but today things have sure changed because all Lincoln passenger cars qualify as European-style touring sedans. That would have probably pleased Edsel Ford very much if he were alive today.
