Just ordered this from Diecast Direct. I always loved these "BOATS". There's a place near me (Bakers Auto) that restores old Lincolns. There boneyard has a 100 of them outside that they use for original parts & of coarse inside, "whew" some beauties.
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Spence: "boats" was one term. These things were a mile long. Lead sleds, we used to call them. One of my buddies used to drive them specifically. Not the convertibles, but the sedans. He is Italian, and that's another story, for another forum.
I always liked the models with the suicide doors.
Land Yacht was my term for the 65 Chevy Impalas...
Out here I called em "Prairie Schooners".
Whatever you call the the big Lincolns were really cool. They were sooo big and so slab sided they looked like they were cut from a giant metal bar! The seats where like twelve feet across it seems - in the time befgore seatbelts you could and did get four people in either front or back seat! They looked very elegant with great chrome - I think they looked best in glossy black. And of course, the could scoot pretty good too because they had a monster motor.
Very cool, Spence.
Just love them. We have at least two on the layout.
Roomy! Nice addition Spence!
SPENCE, nice addition! Bet in real life that car weighed in at about 4000 lbs?
These 'Beauties' were so large that the engine compartment could hold an 18 cylinder motor and the coach compartment had two couches, one fore and one aft!
And, rode on springs and shocks of clouds!!!!!!
I once drove my friend's 4-door sedan Mark IV and it was smooth, comfortable, powerful, fast, tuned-up correctly and handled great in tight turns, at pretty high speeds, like a luxury race car.
Now you know why us Italians loved them!!!!!
Ralph
We called those big cars boats too. I had a 58 Olds convertible and it was so cool to drive. It wasn't as big as the Lincoln, but by today's standards it was huge.
Art
I had always liked the 61 - 63 Continental with the 'suicide doors'. It was actually somewhat downsized from the 1960 and earlier models. The slab-sided 61 was a ground breaking design into simplicity and classic style rare in the 1960's. Owned a handsome 63 for awhile back in the late 1970s.
The largest car we ever owned was a hand-me-down (from Mother in law) Fleetwood d'Elegance from 1976 - the last of the truly big Caddys. We jokingly referred to her as the USS Nimitz (The car - not mother in law!)
SPENCE, nice addition! Bet in real life that car weighed in at about 4000 lbs?
More like 4900! Lots of road hugging weight for the soft, smooth ride?
Great car. One does not merely park these beasts, you drop anchor.
In 1958 Lincoln had a TV ad that was a side-by-side comparison with the Cadillac to show the Lincoln was bigger. Then the ad got a bit goofy when they said the Lincoln was better because it was built in a new factory vs Cadillac's old one. At one point we owned a '90 Lincoln Town Car in black. It was a nice car, but I liked my '80 Cadillac Fleetwood Brougham better (black with tan leather).
The term I heard growing up was "lead barge." Nice comfortable car, anyway. I always liked the styling. I never had the chance to drive a real one, since our family's taste and bank account ran more to Chevys and I didn't have any rich friends.
Great car. One does not merely park these beasts, you drop anchor.
Yea, no crumple zones in those baby's....
I had always liked the 61 - 63 Continental with the 'suicide doors'. It was actually somewhat downsized from the 1960 and earlier models. The slab-sided 61 was a ground breaking design into simplicity and classic style rare in the 1960's. Owned a handsome 63 for awhile back in the late 1970s.
The largest car we ever owned was a hand-me-down (from Mother in law) Fleetwood d'Elegance from 1976 - the last of the truly big Caddys. We jokingly referred to her as the USS Nimitz (The car - not mother in law!)
Very funny Sam. It brings to mind, a friend of mine had a late seventies Plymouth station wagon, not sure what model, but BIG. It was the purest white color I had ever seen. I hung the tag on it as MOBY DICK. He hated the name, but it stuck with all our work buddies, and poor old Skip could never shake the name until he sold it. Bob
As a kid I would see this car parked in a driveway at a doctor or lawyer's home. As a bunch of us kids walked by we would say to each other "what a tank". Of course we did not have anything but a bicycle among ourselves.
Great addition Spence, a classic for sure.
Steve, Lady and Tex
Being near Chicago, instead of license plates from the Secretary of State, Art registered his with the US Coast Guard at Chicago Harbor.
John in Lansing, Ill
I remember a James Bond movie (Goldfinger) where OddJob had one (Lincoln) crushed with a gangster inside. I remember they loaded the block of what used to be a Lincoln into a small pickup truck or a Falcon Ranchero or something like that.
That particular Lincoln model is definitely an instantly recognizable Fifties icon, love it or hate it!
I remember a James Bond movie (Goldfinger) where OddJob had one (Lincoln) crushed with a gangster inside. I remember they loaded the block of what used to be a Lincoln into a small pickup truck or a Falcon Ranchero or something like that.
Ah yes. Poor "Mr. Solo" in "Goldfinger" (1964 release). They crushed an empty shell, but even at that it would have been a lot of weight for a '64 Ranchero. A bit of trivia is that they used the prototype Ford Mustang and Aston Martin DB5 for the film. A fiberglass replica (on a falcon chassis) was cut up.
Loved those 61-65 Continentals with the suicide back doors. Even the convertible had four doors. Saw a '64 convertible a few months back. A work of art.
Hey Matt: Thanks for the trivia. Stuff I did not know. Bob Severin
Although this wasn't Lincoln's first unit construction car, I'd bet it's their biggest....or the worlds biggest unit construction car for that matter.
Bruce
When I was a teenager my buddy's father collected suicide door Lincolns. He had four or five from the early '60s in a big barn on his property. They were only black or white but all of them ran. At our car dealership I watched a guy pull in with a showroom condition 1964 Chevy Impala SS. Every old timer, including me, came over to get a closer look. The driver was thrilled and gave us the grand tour. Sure brought back memories.
Hey Matt: Thanks for the trivia. Stuff I did not know. Bob Severin
Bond films, until recently, used to feature prototype stuff that was scheduled to hit the streets roughly when the films were released. Examples included:
- 1964 Ford Musting (also the 1964 Thunderbird Felix Lighter was driving and other 1964 Ford models -- the Lincoln, the Country Squire Wagon and the Ranchero)
- 1964 Aston Martin DB5
- The "WetBike" featured in Spy Who Loved Me (predecessor of Jet Skis)
- The "Diver Tow Vehicles" from Thunderball.
- The Bell Jet Pack. This never made it to the public.
- The BMW Z3 Roadster from "Golden Eye"
- The BMW Z8 Roadster from "The World is Not Enough".
- The Gyrocopter "Little Nellie" from "You Only Live Twice" which also featured a prototype Toyota 2000GT Roadster (Sean Connery was too tall to get into the normal hardtop.) Don't know if the roadster ever actually made it into production.
- Bede BD5J kitbuilt mini-jet from "Octopussy".
- That squirrely little speedboat from "The World is Not Enough". Single seat boat that had a huge Chevy V8.
What can I say? I'm a fan on Bond films, especially the villians. If you're going to pull of a crime, go big or don't waste your time. That's what they tell me in my megalomaniac support group.
Spence: "boats" was one term. These things were a mile long. Lead sleds, we used to call them. One of my buddies used to drive them specifically. Not the convertibles, but the sedans. He is Italian, and that's another story, for another forum.
I always liked the models with the suicide doors.
Boats is right. They're so big they have to turn left just a little bit before they turn right. This, of course, scare the wits out of oncoming traffic.
Hey Matt: Thanks for the trivia. Stuff I did not know. Bob Severin
Bond films, until recently, used to feature prototype stuff that was scheduled to hit the streets roughly when the films were released. Examples included:
- 1964 Ford Musting (also the 1964 Thunderbird Felix Lighter was driving and other 1964 Ford models -- the Lincoln, the Country Squire Wagon and the Ranchero)
- 1964 Aston Martin DB5
- The "WetBike" featured in Spy Who Loved Me (predecessor of Jet Skis)
- The "Diver Tow Vehicles" from Thunderball.
- The Bell Jet Pack. This never made it to the public.
- The BMW Z3 Roadster from "Golden Eye"
- The BMW Z8 Roadster from "The World is Not Enough".
- The Gyrocopter "Little Nellie" from "You Only Live Twice" which also featured a prototype Toyota 200GT Roadster (Sean Connery was too tall to get into the normal hardtop.) Don't know if the roadster ever actually made it into production.
- Bede BD5J kitbuilt mini-jet from "Octopussy".
- That squirrely little speedboat from "The World is Not Enough". Single seat boat that had a huge Chevy V8.
What can I say? I'm a fan on Bond films, especially the villians. If you're going to pull of a crime, go big or don't waste your time. That's what they tell me in my megalomaniac support group.
Did you read the Ian Fleming books first? I remember reading the original books as a teenager. My mind would get lost trying to conjure up the scenes portrayed in their pages. I could envision all the places, traps and characters old James came across. Good memories for sure. Those were some of my best days to be sure. Reading was a great thing for me. TV replaced it, but i still enjoy it when I can pull myself away from the tube. Bob
Bob, I read most of the Fleming books as well. Remember reading a couple of them flat on my back in a hospital bed with my head & neck in traction from a car accident at age 21. They gave me some neat 'mirror' glasses that allowed me to read at 90 degrees. Dr No had Bond sliding down a tube into a subterranean tank with a giant squid in it! Those books were terrific and really worked your imagination
Caught the 'hollow' black Continental only a few years ago watching Goldfinger as it was lifted by the crane...