Designed by Elwood Engel
Elwood Engel's staff had just developed a Ford Thunderbird model that picked up on themes from the Continental Mark II. Ford president Robert McNamara happened upon it, and he was so taken that he asked Engel to create a four-door to be the new Lincoln. Two weeks later it was done, and it beat out a rival worked up by Lincoln studio chief Gene Bordinat, who attempted to maintain continuity with the huge, garish '58-'60 models. Engel's car went into production almost unchanged, won an Industrial Design Institute award, and established Lincoln as a design leader for the first time in decades.