Today’s concept from glen.h’s collection is the 1987 Lincoln by Vignale, also known as the Vignale Gilda. Rather GM-ish, downright Allante-ish. Well, there’s a reason for that. The Vignale was specifically created as a me-too response to Cadillac’s ill-fated Allante, which was just about to go into production. See; we can do one of those too; but maybe we”ll hold back and see how the Allante makes out. Good call.
The front view clearly shows where the MN12 Thunderbird and Cougar got their narrow pinched front ends. Looking at the top picture, it’s pretty clear that it predicts the MN12’s design direction in profile to a fair extent too. So maybe the money spent wasn’t totally in waste.
Update: I missed this shot from the rear, which shows that Lincoln was still attached to their beloved “continental spare”. At least it’s very minimalistic; I’d have to see it properly from the rear to really judge it effect.
That is a well proportioned, gorgeous car. The MN12 cars weren’t anywhere this nice, IMO, and were somewhat cheap looking. In an ideal situation, this should’ve been a Lincoln.
Every styling cliche in the book here. Not an inch of originality.
It’s hard to be original when everything has already been done . . .
It looks vaguely like a Subaru-something…
Indeed. Allante meets XT-6?
It looks a lot like the Mazda Cosmo coupe of roughly the same period. Given the Ford/Mazda tie-up of the time, they could’ve badged that thing a T-Bird and done a lot worse…
Well, there’s an idea for next year’s April Fool’s post: put T-Bird badges on a Cosmo. ThunderCos, the first rotary Thunderbird…
I wonder how viable that would’ve been.
Lincoln-ised Subaru XT.
At first, I thought I was looking at the Olds Achieva concept.
It’s a good looking car but it does not look like a Lincoln at all. That lower body cladding just seems a little too cheap-looking and the wheels aren’t right at all.
I agree, it could have sat in the showrooms quite nicely alongside the Mercury Capri
There’s a bit of Mark VIII (pre-facelift) in the head-on shot as well, I’d say.
The guy in the photos has that look like “I hope my friends don’t see that I am driving a me-too Alante”
So generic late-80s, to me. The only view that I really like is the straight-on front.
Looks a bit like that Tornado Trofeo you featured a few days back.
The love child of a Trofeo and a Capri!
This car remained a well kept secret for a good reason.
I would have said Cutlass Supreme and perhaps Ford Probe, but yeah. That design – and color scheme – struck me as very Oldsmobileish.
He look like the bad guy from RoadHouse, nice Fantasy Island white suit.
Ben Gazzara!
Thats it.
Damn, I was thinking the same thing!
I sort of like it, but I agree with G.G. that it doesn’t really look like a Lincoln. With that red stripe it could be a Mercury.
Is that a removable hardtop? Delicate and lovely pillars all around.
Never even knew this existed, the interior is straight out of the 1989 ThunderCougar.
Me either. And no kidding!
The odd part is the color matched steering wheel, door switch plates and center console weren’t color matched in the 1989 debut. They were all just universal black. It wasn’t until 92/93 that all of those matched interior color. Sadly right before the all new interior showed up in 94.
Is that Michael Gross from Family Ties?
Lincoln doesnt mean anything here so this is just a ford concept, a little Probe in it and a dash of Subaru for good measure, would it have sold?. The Allante did though noone seems to have anything nice to say about them, this may have been a success if it didnt grenade regularly.
It really reminds me of the W-body Regal coupe.
Though, I do see a lot of styling elements that trickled down into the MN12/FN10s. The front end of the GEN I Mark VIII and the hood of the 91-95 Cougar definitely owe a lot to this car.
That’s it! The side profile has some Grand Prix in it though. Maybe it’s the body cladding.
I’m seeing a resemblance to the Buick Reatta.
I could see why they at least toyed with this idea, there was the Allante, the TC-Chrysleratti and the Reatta, plus a proposed Oldsmobile 2+2 sport coupe that was killed.
Ironically, Ford had an in-house Italian designer in Ghia, but had debased the name by using it for a trim level. Not only does this car look lie an XT in profile, the front end is very similar to the 1976 Lagonda sedan. Pinifarina’s Allante was nowwhere near as innovative as some of the firm’s earlier work.
How come no one looked to Ital Design for this project?
There would have been a Mercury version with the light bar going all the way across.
A vestigial Continental spare.
Except it’s not even round.
There is a pic of the rear taken at a standing height here:
http://www.carstyling.ru/en/car/1987_lincoln_by_vignale/images/27023/
and another with the car repainted maroon here:
http://www.allcarindex.com/auto-car-model/United-States-Lincoln-Vignale-Gilda/
Running up Colorado Hwy 170 today into Durango I drove past a single-wide trailer with a Mark VIII and a similar vintage Thunderbird parked out front. I thought perhaps I had found a certain TTAC writer’s mountain retreat.
ugly.