Lincoln Continental - New York 2015
The vast American luxury sedan makes a triumphant return
Looks like a V8, actually uses Ecoboost V6
This in turn triggered a spectacular social media scrap with the real Bentley, where design boss Luc Donckerwolke clearly reckoned the American Conti was far closer to imitation than flattery. "I would have called it a Flying Spur and kept the four round lights," he wrote on his Facebook page, before posting "do you want us to send you the product tooling?" on the page of David Woodhouse, Lincoln's design director. Proper handbags.
But while you can't deny there's a strong similarity between the two cars, Lincoln can argue that it's been producing vast, square-rigged saloons for longer than Bentley has. Remember The Matrix? That featured a 1965 Lincoln Continental with suicide rear doors with more than enough presence to out-act Keanu Reeves during the time they shared together; at the same time Bentley was still doing curved wings.
Lincoln is happy, Bentley less so
We're also told that something very similar will be going on sale as early as next year in the 'States, and there are also rumours that the production version will get the Focus RS's super clever torque biasing four-wheel drive system, although probably not the Ford's drift mode.
There's zero chance of it coming to the UK, sadly - certainly not unless you want to ship one in yourself. But just think how much fun it would be to drive one into the Bentley car park and see the reaction...
Word on the street is that this car was designed with the intention of making a significant push into the Chinese market -- where incremental sales and lifetime customer value are likely to be greatest.
IIRC, 3.0 liters is the cut-off in China for favourable taxation. Additionally, the interior of this car is heavily biased toward the back-seat occupants. Well-to-do Chinese like to be driven in their cars; Americans and Europeans prefer to drive themselves.
The design language of some exterior elements is also decidedly Asian (Kia-esque grille for example). Little can be seen of Lincoln heritage of the early 1960s -- the halcyon days of Lincoln design that many Americans associate with Lincoln (see also the photo above from The Matrix).
IIRC, 3.0 liters is the cut-off in China for favourable taxation. Additionally, the interior of this car is heavily biased toward the back-seat occupants. Well-to-do Chinese like to be driven in their cars; Americans and Europeans prefer to drive themselves.
The design language of some exterior elements is also decidedly Asian (Kia-esque grille for example). Little can be seen of Lincoln heritage of the early 1960s -- the halcyon days of Lincoln design that many Americans associate with Lincoln (see also the photo above from The Matrix).
I do think the chrome sill is quite reminiscent of the Kennedy era Continental, though.
IIRC, 3.0 liters is the cut-off in China for favourable taxation. Additionally, the interior of this car is heavily biased toward the back-seat occupants. Well-to-do Chinese like to be driven in their cars; Americans and Europeans prefer to drive themselves.
The design language of some exterior elements is also decidedly Asian (Kia-esque grille for example). Little can be seen of Lincoln heritage of the early 1960s -- the halcyon days of Lincoln design that many Americans associate with Lincoln (see also the photo above from The Matrix).
Typical American rubbish. Bentley will be worried lol
Typical American rubbish. Bentley will be worried lol
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