1956 Lincoln Premiere

The Lincoln Premiere was produced from 1956 through 1960 and was an exclusive, luxury car that was positioned below the company's Continental Mark II during 1956-1957 and above the Capri. Body styles included a convertible, a 2-door hardtop coupe, and a sedan, all having room for six passengers.

For 1956, both the 2-door and sedan had similar production figures with around 19,500 examples each. The convertible was much rarer, with just 2,447 examples built. The Premiere hardtop won an award from the Industrial Designers Institute for excellence in automotive design.

The Premiere, like all Ford Motor Co. products for 1956, was fitted with a plethora of safety features including improved door latches, deep-dish steering wheel, and heavily padded seatbacks and door panels. An optional factory air conditioning system was available which ran through overhead ducts in a similar fashion to an aircraft. The cool air was directed to the roof via a pair of clear plastic ducts visible through the rear window located at each side, connecting upward from the rear package tray.

Standard equipment included four-way power front seats and power windows. Power was from a 368 cubic-inch Lincoln Y-Block V8 engine with a Lincoln four-barrel carburetor and delivered 285 horsepower at 4,600 RPM. The Mark II engine was also a 368 CID V8, but with a Carter four-barrel carburetor and delivered 300 horsepower. A Turbo-Drive automatic transmission was standard equipment. Optional equipment included power brakes (ninety-eight percent of all 1956 Lincolns were equipped with this option), air conditioning, power four-way front seat, power windows, heater, radio, whitewall tires, and an automatic headlight dimmer. Nearly all (99-percent) of Lincolns had heaters and 98 percent rode on whitewall tires. Power windows were also popular with 86 percent being equipped with the feature.

1956 was the year Lincoln replaced the 6-volt for a 12-volt electrical system.

by Daniel Vaughan | Oct 2017