What is it about a 2-door coupe that makes it inherently sexier than a 4-door sedan? Does having two fewer doors really change the entire personality of a vehicle?
In some ways yes. From a sheer visual perspective, coupe doors are usually longer, which visually elongates the look of the body while also lowering the roofline for greater “trick” elegant proportions. In many cases, coupes will actually sport altered styling from their sedan counterparts, often with actual lowered rooflines, longer hoods, wider tracks, and frameless doors for a sleeker, sexier appearance.
Yet sometimes, especially in the past, a coupe will not feature any drastic body changes beyond the doors, even retaining the sedan’s roofline, therein making them a “2-door sedan”. Still, no matter how hedonistic, there’s an intrinsic value about a 2-door that just gives it a more exclusive, more fun, and sometimes even sportier than a 4-door. Even if it’s a 1985 LTD Crown Victoria.
Ford of course produced far sexier and sportier coupes during this era in the Thunderbird and Mustang, but even this rather basic and stodgy fullsize 2-door sedan gives off a little more let down your hair vibe than the 4-door. If the 4-door was fittingly a Victoria, the 2-door was decidedly more of a Vicky.
Photographed: South Weymouth, Massachusetts – February 2018
Related Reading:
1986 Ford LTD Crown Victoria 4-door sedan
1986 Ford LTD Crown Victoria wagon
1986 Ford LTD Crown Victoria 2-door sedan
I was looking for a new car in 1985. I was a big-car-guy in the midst of a love/hate relationship with a 77 New Yorker. For about a nanosecond I thought about a 2 door Crown Victoria. Had Ford offered this car with the H.O. Mustang engine with a 5 speed and buckets in a style like that of the 60s Galaxie 500 XL I might have investigated further.
But then my mother had just bought a CV sedan. I didn’t like driving it all in comparison with my Chrysler. The structure was not tight and the powertrain was actively unpleasant. So nope.
Also I could never quite come to terms with the 2 door’s styling on these. The sedans had some awkwardness but these increased that by about a factor of 4. The turbine wheels and fat lettered tires help this one some.
I always thought these looked awkward. At least this one has the Crown Vic front. I remember seeing a ’79 LTD 2-door (the one with the single lamps) and questioning how Ford managed to bring out something like that 2 years after Chevy brought out their stunning 2-door Impala/Caprice.
I’ve only driven the wagon version of the Panther and the one thing that felt awkward was how high the driving position was. I think they called it “Master Position Seating.”
Yes, those early CV 2 doors were awkward. Until you parked one near a 77-79 Chevy 2 door. Then the CV looked really, really awkward. The more formal treatment of the 2 door Panther Lincoln was maybe even worse. I think these Panthers were among the first cars that would have had me choosing a 4 door over a 2 door, even in the days of being single and no kids. In contrast my 84 Olds 98 2 door was a very nicely done design and I was happy to make the utility tradeoff for its good looks. GM got the styling right, Ford did not.
“Command Seating Position” I believe. They raised the roof line and lowered the cowl by 2 inches filling the space with more glass. That was definitely an improvement over the old model, which was like driving a bathtub. I had difficulties driving my Dad’s ’78 LTD because outward visibility was so poor.
I’m in agreement with both of you regarding the Panther’s and Impala/Caprice’s styling.
On that note, as I’ve said before, I’m a big fan of the Chrysler R-body’s styling. It’s a shame Chrysler was not in the position to offer a 2-door bodystyle and to continue its production a few more years, despite its ancient underpinnings.
I wondered what if Ford had continued to made a 2-door Crown Victoria after 1987? Just imagine a 1992 2-door Crown Vic.
I recall that by 1992 and thereafter the MN-12 Thunderbird seemed to be the 2 door equivalent of the CV. By 1995 the tail end of the CV had gotten T-Bird-ish taillights and the T-Bird had made the CV’s 4.6 V8/AOD-E commonly available. The two were much closer in personality than they had been in the 80s.
IIRC someone within Ford (don’t know if it was marketing or executive brass or whatnot) actually commented that they were purposefully mimicking the style of the Crown Vic in the Thunderbird and vice versa as they were making mid cycle updates.
Apparently they thought the customer base was somewhat similar.
When 2-doors have thin B-pillars or none, and the rear side window is conformable in size and alignment to the front (cf. Fiat 130 coupe), then yes, they are definitely sleeker-looking. However, I think it is not so with the Crown Vic, which has a gross discontinuity in the carriage roof with thick C-pillar, and little opera window at the B-pillar. It looks little better than the 4-door as a result.
Did Ford bag the taillights’ shape from that of the Cordoba? Just seeing this car in a 2 door configuration made me think of the Corinthian Coupe.
I was surprised that even Oldsmobile was thinking of using a similar style of taillights on an early design proposal for their ’77 B-body.
http://autosofinterest.com/2016/01/10/latest-entry-1977-oldsmobile-delta-88-proposal/
My brother purchased (I am guessing) the last year of this 2 door coupe/sedan CV, from the middle row of a trusted used car lot. His wife was obsessed/worried about their active pre-K kid falling out of the rear doors of a more mundane 4 door car.
It was that triple graphite gray (paint, vinyl top and velour interior) so popular in the mid/late 1980’s, with an indicated 78K on it. We spent the first weekend of his ownership with polishing compound, Turtle Wax carpet and velour cleaner and Mother’s caranuba cleaner/paste wax combo. It “Cleaned Up Well”; much to my brother’s pleasure.
Quiet and soft riding, with a freezing c-c-cold air conditioner, always starting on the first try, it gave my bro and his wife competent yeoman service for several (six or seven) years. I can’t recall us even changing the spark plugs in it! Just oil and fuel filter changes and a bottle of “Red Line” brand fuel injection cleaner every spring.
Not everyone wants/needs a low to the ground, hard to get in/out of, snarling exhaust, rough riding “Sports Sedan” as their daily driver.
“Not everyone wants/needs a low to the ground, hard to get in/out of, snarling exhaust, rough riding “Sports Sedan” as their daily driver”
Which is why, for better or worse, CUVs are now more popular than sedans in the U.S.
Agree!
Back in the late 80s two different 2 door Fords (well, one was actually a Mercury), came up for sale on the small Navy base where I was stationed. One was a 81-82 Mustang, with that 225 ci V8. But the attraction was (to me anyway) that it had the faux convertible vinyl roof so that it had the appearance of a triple white convertible. The other car was a slightly newer Grand Marquis 2 door in white over a medium blue interior (IIRC), also a very attractive car for a Mercury fan. A co-worker bought the Mercury and I lost out on the Mustang because I was turned off by the V8 with the power of a 4 cylinder.
I still look for that very rare car: a GM 2 door.
At the same time of purchasing the above mentioned CV coupe, bro and I checked out several Impala/Caprice 2 door coupes.
The 1977-78 “Bent Back Window” 2 doors caught our attention, the later model, more squared off models not-so-much.
I seem to recall the Chevy 2 doors being slightly more roomy inside that the Fords?
Compared to the CV’s 302 fuel injected engine, the Chevy’s dog 305 V8 engines felt rough running and slow, without the extensive sound deadening/insulation of the Fords. Almost every 4 to 8 year old Chevy we looked at had cracked dashboard tops, worn seats (driver slide in edges) and sun damage to the plastic interior pieces.
Clearly Ford had higher quality interiors that the Chevies did.
That’s funny since I had the opposite impression. Back in the ’90s 2 family friends had an ’83 Ford Crown Vic 4-dr and the other had an ’83 Pontiac Parisienne (a Caprice with a Pontiact front clip for all intents). I got lots of ride time in both, and the Pontiac was clearly the winner. It just felt nicer and had better seats in a nice red cloth. The Ford was dark brown inside with dk brown velour inside but it just didn’t seem as nicely put together, or as comfy. Also the ride didn’t seem as good as the Pontiac.
Evvvahhhhh budddys diffnt.
1985 and up the Ford’s fuel injection would have made me look twice.
Although I wonder if the Crown Victoria/Grand Marquis core customer (as long as they weren’t blue oval loyalists) were more likely to cross shop the Caprice or the GM H-body FWD sedans?
“Although I wonder if the Crown Victoria/Grand Marquis core customer (as long as they weren’t blue oval loyalists) were more likely to cross shop the Caprice or the GM H-body FWD sedans”
In my part of the midwest the common situation seemed to go the other way. I knew a number of longtime GM customers who migrated to the Panther cars in the 80s. After my mother got her CV in 85 some neighbors asked how she liked it. They put a new MGM into the garage, a garage that had never seen anything but a GM car for as long as I could remember. Another was a friend’s father who was a diehard Olds man and would actively trashtalk my buddy for his Ford-love. The old guy ended up with a MGM wagon, said it surprised him how much he liked it.
This also happened in the southeast.
It’s strange how places differ. In our area people never cross-shopped the domestic brands, probably because of the employee discounts. You were either a one-company family for life or made the jump to some one of those accursed foreign jobs.
“Vicky” fits this one perfectly. Amazing find, and great photographs, Brendan – these two-doors were always thin on the ground. I actually like the more formal shape of these 2-door LTDs, even if I don’t necessarily prefer them over the svelte, bent-glass 1977 – ’79 Impalas / Caprices.
I think this one has a very purposeful stance as a two-door. There’s a strong, angular Ford family resemblance this one has.
This was indeed a very exciting find! I actually swung into this Whole Foods on a recent Friday evening on my way home from Boston after handing out with my friend for the afternoon and this was right there. I can’t tell you the last time I saw one of these. The only other 2-door I can recall seeing is a same color combo Grand Marquis a local drives that I see a few times a month on average.
I actually prefer the 2-door LTD Crown Vics to the same body 4-door the more I look at it.
In general, the 2-door car has the advantage that if you like to drive with the window open the air doesn’t rush in right by your left ear like it does in a 4-door. I know, you can open the back window too on a 4-door….
But if you park in parking lots often, those longer doors can be a disadvantage.
I always liked these 2-doors. Back in the day they were frequently more popular that 4-door versions of the same car. Many families owned 2-door cars, because some o them had a fear of children riding in the backseat opening the doors and then falling out (this was before seat belts and child safety seats).
This Crown Vic reminds me of the big full-sized Ford LTD coupes driving by “Barnaby Jones,” although the last car I remember him driving was a ’76-78 LTD Landau, although I suppose he could have driven a ’79 during the last year of the series.
The quarter window kills it, it has a larger glass area than the framed door glass (like the 87-93 Mustang) and the big B pillar between them makes it look lost in one giant pillar like an oversized opera window. The padded landau top this one and 99.99% of box panthers had masks this somewhat, but that has it’s own mortal aesthetic sins.
I don’t know if a unique roofline would help any though, and definitely not shortened proportions. Face it, these weren’t pretty, they look like overinflated Granadas.
It seemed like everything coming out at this time was squared off. Looking at the profile of the above photos of the vehicle and many others on the web, the one thing that really kills the design of the new Panthers is the squared-off wheel wells. the’ 78 LTD/Marquis did not have squared-off wheel wells.
Funny how Ford in 1979 introduced two significant new designs with what appears to be two completely separate directions.
The ’79 Mustang/Capri were striking. The LTD/Marquis were not.
Yeah I know….it’s my opinion.
It might be the Blackwall tires throwing me off but the tires on this car appear to be bigger than factory stock.
Regular cab, long bed pickups are much sexier than mega cab,stumpy box trucks.
I reject the premise of the question.
An amalgam of two LTD CV’s my father-in-law had at the same time. The four door was this color with the turbine wheels and the two-door was blue.
I drove both quite a few times, with the two-door being much more heavily optioned. For whatever reason, the two-door seemed a bit smaller but that was simply optics as it wasn’t.
However, I can tell you the doors on these two-doors are Heavy. His blue one came from Chicago (it got it from the mother of a friend’s estate) and it had a nasty rust spot on the driver’s door. One day while at a salvage yard in Kansas City I found a pristine driver’s door for it. Taking it off it was all I could do to carry that puppy out to my car – a ’86 LTD CV four-door. It didn’t fit nicely into the trunk (why Ford didn’t design the truck to accommodate such a door is beyond me) and it took a lot of rope to get it situated.
That two-door went a while longer but a hard to find vacuum leak is what did it in for him.
I am a dedicated fan of two door cars; for some reason driving around in a four door vehicle just makes me feel old(er). I understand that four doors are more practical than two but I can count on the fingers of one hand the times than anyone has ridden in the backseat of one of my coupes. The only four door cars that I have had as daily drivers were my 1963 Plymouth and my 1965 Pontiac, both purchased for relatively little money back in my student days. The only real problem with my two door obsession is that two door vehicles are thin on the ground at this point; thank goodness for the Mustang, I plan on keeping mine until I can no longer get into or out of the driver’s seat. As always, YMMV.
I think 2-doors look better than their 4-door brethren in most cases.
That being said, I think the last time I owned a 2-door car was in the mid-90’s (a 1989 Sunbird convertible).
Agree with the idea that coupes feel different but as with almost all American cars since the beginning of the 80s, I struggle to see any styling merit in this one, its as if they gave up, and this was the company that produced the 60s Lincolns, one of the most beautiful cars ever
I’ve said it many times, but only one person agreed with me, that some cars just don’t work as 2dr’s….Granada’s look horrible as 2dr’s, so do Tempo’s and Mark VI’s. Crown Vics don’t work as 2dr’s either. To me their not proportioned right. So I disagree that 2 dr’s “change a cars personality”. On the other hand, once again according to my style preferences, some cars like the N.O.V.A. quintuplets look horrible as 4 dr’s, those only work as 2 dr models.