Streamlining in cars really became a thing in the early ‘30s, but it was a process of trial and error that took a little sorting out. Chrysler’s odd-looking Airflow bowed in 1933, but it was not a huge success – unlike its Peugeot 402 and Fiat 1500 copycats, launched two years later. The 1934 Tatra T77 looked much better, but it was technically very unique. Most major makers were pretty timid in adopting streamlining, save for a few token low-production models like Pierce’s Silver Arrow, Volvo’s Carioca or Renault’s Nerva Grand Sport. Then, of all manufacturers, Ford jumped into the fray.
Unveiled in November 1935, i.e. at the same time as the aforementioned Peugeot, Fiat and Volvo designs, the Zephyr was a true game-changer for Lincoln as a marque and for automotive streamlining.
Lincoln was hitherto a very elite chassis maker, measuring up to Duesenbergs, Pierce-Arrows, Cadillacs and senior Packards. The Zephyr was not a coachbuilt car and its $1200-1400 price meant it was aimed at the Buick Limited / LaSalle / Chrysler Airflow / Packard 120 end of the market – expensive, but not exclusive.
From an automotive design perspective, the Zephyr’s main contribution was that glorious ship’s prow of a front end. It was the product of several attempts by designer John Tjaarda (1897-1961) and body manufacturer Briggs to develop a groundbreaking streamlined shape, something truly modern.
Tjaarda’s first draft (top right) was bold. It was essentially a Tatra 77, albeit over a year prior to that car’s unveiling. Great minds do think alike. By late 1933, with a lot of input from Briggs engineers, the Tjaarda rear-engined streamliner had evolved into something that could be put on the road (middle right and drawings on the left), and Ford took an interest. But the location of the engine had to change, leading to the bulbous 1934 car at the bottom right, which brought back an unwelcomed Airflow vibe.
Fortunately, Tjaarda and the Ford stylist Bob Gregorie found a way to blend the initial rear-engined prototype’s distinctive straight and pointy nose into the front-engined Zephyr, ingeniously transforming the shape of the car into something far more aerodynamic (and just plain dynamic).
The integration of the headlamps into the fenders was also masterfully done – certainly not a world first, but the attention to detail and aesthetics was most commendable, and these also became very influential: for starters, the basic Zephyr front end design was very skilfully scaled down to the Ford line for 1937.
Briggs manufactured the all-steel bodies of course, the Zephyr being a sort of hybrid “unit-body-on-frame” type of deal, not unlike the Airflow – not quite a unit body like the Citroën Traction Avant, but much more solidly made than the wood-framed sedans many still had on offer. The suspension, on the other hand, was 100% Ford and thus pretty humdrum (and definitely not humdraulic) even for the times, with leaf-sprung solid axles front and back and mechanical brakes. But this being a Lincoln, the engine was something a little special.
Well, they did have a reputation to uphold, didn’t they? Since your common-or-garden Ford sported a V8, anything using the name Lincoln had to have a V12. But this V12 was, unlike the huge Lincoln K Series chassis’ engine, a reasonably-sized (267ci / 4.4 litre and 110hp) and sensibly-priced item. Meaning it was a flathead Ford V8 with four cylinders added. So whatever issues the V8 had (and they were legion), the twelve had also, but 50% more so.
For 1937, Lincoln fielded a new range-topping “Town Limousine” variant – essentially a highly-trimmed six-window sedan with a separation, which didn’t sell too well. The coupé is a serious contender as car of the year in my fantasy garage. There were also convertible cars available, both in two- and four-door guise, but streamliners always look more homogeneous with metal tops.
Art-deco and Streamline Moderne styling made for exquisite dash designs, didn’t they? One does wonder, though, how used-friendly this particular one would have been, with those scattered bakelite controls, that ten-foot-pole of a shifter and a steering column that looks ready to impale the driver’s rib cage at the slightest provocation.
There is an appreciable amount of room at the back – not always a given, when prewar cars are concerned. How many rear passengers’ jaws, noses or brows require stitching after an emergency brake propelled them on the front bench’s strategically-placed chromed bar?
The Zephyr was no more of a death trap than any other car of the period, though. And it probably handled better than some of them, including the early Tatras. The only major weak point, according to most sources, was the temperamental nature of its weak-chested V12, especially its tendency to overheat. At least one car was modified with a double grille, in an attempt to remedy this malady. The cure might have been worse than the disease, in that particular case. Later Zephyrs, from 1938 onwards, wore different grilles, but none really solved the V12’s hypercaloric predispositions.
For the Zephyr’s dramatic (and singular) nose, along with its overall styling, has to be its main claim to fame. At the stroke of a pen, Tjaarda and Gregorie made the Airflow look uglier still, Packards seem outdated and Cadillacs rather bland. The 1936-37 Zephyr sold extremely well, saving Lincoln and turning the marque into a major player at the higher end of the market. It truly was the wind of change.
Related posts:
Curbside Classic: 1937 Lincoln Zephyr V-12, by Robert Kim
Cohort Classic: 1937 Lincoln Zephyr Caught In Its Lair, by PN
This is how Ford stagnates and stands still demonstrate by the Cx of the following vehicles : Lincoln Zephyr 1937 estimate at 0.44 , Ford Sierra Xr4i 1982 : 0,32 , Ford Taurus 1986 : 0,32 , Ford Taurus 2nd gen : 0,30 , Ford F-150 ( ICE ) 0,56 .
If we include electric models such as the Mach-E with 0,29 , modern Ford raises its score a little .
As we know that the pick-up has replaced the car on a daily basis and that even with an F-150 Lightning which supposedly has 0.44 of cx ( Even though it is ‘magnificent’ to have a useless pickup truck for most people) the Cx has not progressed.
On the other hand: all types of energy have seen their costs progressed.
I’m already waiting for the replies stating that the Cx is not everything and that the frontal and total surface area of the vehicle must be taken into account.
While we’re at it, let’s give the name Cx to a pick-up…the French did it :https://www.curbsideclassic.com/blog/cc-cohort/cc-global-outtake-a-citroen-cx-pickup-with-integrated-cover-cxamino/
Citroen chose “DS” for the resemblance in pronunciation to the French word for “god”, and thus suspect that “CX” was less about aerodynamics than sex – they say it sells anything, after all – and I will be the first to say that the full frontal area is indeed very commonly taken into account with the latter.
This Lincoln is excellent .
The coupe in particular makes me swoon .
-Nate
Oh dear me no, the coupe looks like 4′ 8″ Queen Victoria in a bustle – tiny head with a behind that goes on forever.
The surfaces and detailing of the ’37 Lincoln Zephyr vault it to the TOP of early “streamline” design efforts. Fresh, elegant and not overdone, but riding in that interior……uhh-scary by our current standard’s???? Still, a beautifil design with the 4 door looking simply superb! 🙂 DFO
Crash safety was obviously not a priority in the design of the Zephyr, but if you come to grips with the V-12 engine’s weaknesses, these cars are really not bad in modern traffic. With overdrive, they don’t feel strained at freeway speeds, the ride is surprisingly composed, the brakes aren’t terrible, and the interior is both comfortable and a delight to look at.
Very very nice cars, the detailing close up is amazing and some still exist here mostly now with the V12 installed I saw a couple many years ago in a junkyard with V8s installed, probably to keep it out of wrecking yards after the 12 failed to proceed but they ended up there anyway.
That museum seems to be loaded with classics! Where is it?
This was from the Toyota Museum collection at Nagoya, as will several upcoming posts. A goldmine of a place.
Is it just me, or does that middle, right side drawing look just like a scaled up version of the Volkswagen beetle front end?
100%.
I was thinking the same.
Lovely devices but for the bang-on front view, where they look decidedly peevish, like some disapproving and choleric PG Wodehouse character. Just needs a monocle.
This was improved for 1939, I think.
It was too, on looking. A lot.
The expatriate English journalist Alistair Cooke (1908-2004) (the apocope “expat” not in general use until the 1950s when Graham Greene’s (1904-1991) novel The Quiet American (1955) appears to have given it a boost), used a 1936 Zephyr for his tour in 1942 through 30-odd US states, his essentials for the trip including five re-tread tires (with the Japanese occupation of Malaya, rubber was in short supply and tires hard to find), a gas-ration coupon book and credentials from his employer, the BBC (British Broadcasting Corporation). It was a journalist’s project to “discover” how the onset of war had changed the lives of non-combatant Americans “on the home front” and his observations would provide him a resource for reporting for years to come. Taking photographs on his travels, he’d always planned to use the material for a book but, as a working journalist during the biggest event in history, it was always something done “on the side” and by the time he’d completed a final draft it was 1945 and with the war nearly over, he abandoned the project, assuming the moment for publication had passed. It wasn’t until two years after his death that The American Home Front 1941-1942 (2006) was released, the boxed manuscript having been unearthed in the back of a closet, under a pile of his old papers. As a footnote, although the Zephyr’s V12 engine has always been notorious for the deficiencies in its cooling system, there was in the book no mention of overheating or other foibles so either the radiator and plumbing did the job or he thought the occasional boil-over so unremarkable he made no remark.
Hold the mayo! I had to look up “acopcope” (whose pronunciation sounds like some sort of multi-legged arthropod, but I digress).
The book sounds wonderful.
I can only imagine the old V12 would’ve chewed through the fuel ration-book to a standstill post-haste, even if it didn’t boil its heads too often and stop Cooke that way.
The Zephyr V-12 wasn’t cripplingly thirsty compared to other American prestige cars, especially with overdrive. Compared to something like an 8 HP English Ford, it was of course very profligate, but 4.4 liters wasn’t a huge capacity for a upper-mid-price American car.
One who could attest to the 8 HP Ford being more economical than a “big” V12 was Sir Henry “Chips” Channon (1897–1958), a rich American expat who became more English than the English, eventually serving for a quarter-century odd in the House of Commons. After marrying an heiress to the Guinness fortune he bought a Rolls-Royce Phantom III which used a 7.3 litre V12 but when fuel rationing was introduced after the outbreak of World War II, he was compelled to switch to using his boyfriend’s Ford 8 HP, its 933 cc (57 cubic inch) side-valve four consuming less than a quarter the fuel the Phantom needed to go the same distance. In the early 2020s, Channon’s diaries finally were published in unexpurgated form and they’re a fun read, almost worth the effort for the footnotes alone.