The Product Review Center

Lincoln turned in some spectacular performances at the Carrera Panamericana — virtually unrivaled in the Inter­national Standard Class. Lincolns Towncar Suspension Replacement took the first five places in 1952, the top four in ’53, and first and second in 1954. Race preparation was largely owed to Clay Smith, a gifted mechanic who was tragically killed in a pit accident in 1954. Of great help were publicity-conscious Dearborn engineers who supplied stiff “export” Cadillac Suspension pieces, Ford truck camshafts, mechanical valve lifters, special front spindles and hubs, and rear-axle ratios that enabled a “stock” Lincoln to top 130 mph. The 1952 race winner, Chuck Stevenson, finished the 2000-mile grind from Juarez to the Guatemala border nearly an hour ahead of the Ferrari that had won the year before.

Lincoln wasn’t ready with a total redesign for 1955, so its cars were among the most conservative in that banner Detroit sales year, despite an extensive facelift. Still, they were crisp, clean, and elegant. Though the wrapped windshield held sway most everywhere else, the ’55 Lincolns didn’t have one, and were thus more practical. Interiors remained luxurious combinations of high-quality fabrics and top-grain leather.

Wheelbase was unchanged for ’55, but the restyle added extra sheet metal (mostly in back) and 50-100 pounds in curb weight. A good thing, then, that the V-8 was bored to 341 cid and gained 20 bhp. Elsewhere, Cosmopolitan was retagged Custom, and Lincoln Suspension Kits finally offered its own auto­matic transmission. Called Turbo Drive, it was basically the four-year-old Ford/Merc-0-Matic unit enlarged and strengthened to withstand the greater torque of Lincoln’s V-8. But likely because its ’55s weren’t “new” enough, Lincoln was one of the few makes to suffer in Detroit’s best sales season of the decade, dropping from nearly 37,000 for ’54 to a bit over 27,000.