Ford Designers Al Mueller and John Orfe
What would 1950s unrestrained creativity be without at least one reactor loader?
Before The Mustang
Ford’s reaction to the success of the 1960 Corvair Monza.
The Continental Mark IV—A Contest Of Wills
Semon “Bunkie” Knudsen versus Lee Iacocca
Stylerama—Ford’s Answer to GM’s Motorama (Almost)
Perhaps it was a good thing that the program was cancelled.
Lincolns That Never Were
The ebb and flow of Continental proposals that never saw production.
Continental Mark II—End Game
Axe the Continental. Full steam on the Edsel.
Henry Ford’s Plastic Car
Henry Ford’s soy bean, lightweight, $400 car. Concrete molds. Didn’t smell so good.
A Tale of Two Mercurys—Turnpike Cruiser and the XM-800
That these cars represented an opposite design philosophy from Harley Earl’s show cars from the same era would be an understatement.
Women in the 1950 Mexican Road Race
We don’t need no stinkin’ seat belts.
Design of the 1961 Thunderbird Sports Roadster and Italien
Just get the right guy to like it.
1961 Thunderbird Design Development
Last minute all-nighter clay marathon. “Vertical stabilizers.”
Alex Tremulis: Elephant Ears, Theater Receipts, and Other Stories
Alex Tremulis—Antics at Ford
D-523, The First “Cougar”
The D-523 Cougar—From Styling Study to show car to movie star.
The Continental Mark II Retractable Hardtop
The back story to the Continental Mark II retractable hardtop.
The Origins of Ford’s Retractable Hardtop
Gil Spear’s Retractable Hardtop Presentation and resulting Sytris 3/8-scale Model.
Who Designed the 1949 Ford?
The controversy over who designed the 1949 Ford.
George Walker and the 1964 Lincoln Continental Mark IX
Corporate politics and the aborted Mark IX.
The 1957 Ford Mystere Story
The mystery of the Mystere revealed.
The Lincoln Futura/Batmobile, Part 3: Interview with George Barris
George Barris answers questions about the acquisition and development of the Batmobile in a 1995 interview.
The Lincoln Futura, Part 2: The Batmobile
The story of how Futura, the belle of the ball, turns into Creuella, the Batmobile.
The Lincoln Futura, Part 1
Inspired by a Bahama’s fishing trip with Bill Mitchell. Bill Schmidt came back with an idea for the Futura; Mitchell with an idea that lead to the XP-755.
McNamara’s Interchangeability Study
McNamara had clay models created to test parts interchangeability between car models (like GM).
The ‘59 Chevrolet and the Ford Quicksilver
“On seeing the ‘59 Chevrolet clay model, Ford designers soon convinced themselves that GM had somehow caught on to what Ford was doing and was purposely trying to mislead them.”
Lincoln in a Box
Some 900 new 1936 Lincoln-Zephyrs also went overseas—shipped in crates.