Kennedy's convertible Lincoln Continental limo lives in infamy as the car the year-old president was shot in on November 22, in Dallas. A Continental Mark V that served as President Kennedy's personal car was also up for grabs, but that car didn't sell, despite its historical significance.
The pandemic may have dealt a blow to global markets and resulted in mass unemployment, but the classic-car market is still going strong. Many large auction houses quickly pivoted to online-only events, brokering some of the most expensive web-based car sales ever. The Lincoln Continentals that crossed the block last week didn't set any sky-high records, but in any case, you can take a closer look at the historically significant cars below.
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Kennedy in Dallas. The rear doors are 8 inches thick and as heavy as the massive, main-cabin door of a Boeing In contrast, the open-top car that President John F. Kennedy waved from on a sunny day in Dallas, Nov. The Continental's low-slung, angular lines and rear-hinged "suicide" doors were a bold departure at the time for Lincoln styling and seemed to personify the fresh-faced Kennedy and the new frontiers he espoused for the country. The car was as glamorous and camera-ready as he was.
I think it's the best looking Lincoln since the model. The firm's other high-profile clients included the Queen of England. In the process, the car gained Secret Service codenames - SSX and X - and the grille of a model, so it appeared right up to date. Its most radical equipment was a six-piece roof system composed of clear plastic panels that were stowed in the trunk and a rear seat that could be hydraulically raised more than 10 inches for better visibility of its occupants.
There were two radio telephones, akin to walkie-talkies or CB radios rigged to telephone handsets. The car's most notable extra was its length, three-and-a-half feet of it, gained by cutting it in half and extending the rear passenger compartment to create more room and to fit a middle row of forward-facing jump seats that folded away when not in use.
The Kennedy limousine, a modified Lincoln Continental, had virtually no safety features. Barack Obama's modern limo, called "the Beast," is a mix of car, truck and tank. It is full of features auto experts speculate about but the Secret Service refuses to discuss.
Here are some of the features of both:. On that fateful day in Dallas, those jump seats were occupied by Texas Gov. John Connally and his wife, Nellie. Amidst the noise and excitement, an elated Mrs. Connally looked back at Kennedy and famously told him, "Mr. President, you can't say Dallas doesn't love you.
Moments before the first gunshot rang out in Dealey Plaza, the limousine made the sharp left turn onto Elm Street. The pair of flags mounted on the front fenders of the long car billowed in the breeze.
Kennedy waved to bystanders from the open convertible's back seat. A bouquet of red roses given to her earlier at Love Field lay between them on the button-tufted seat. Even the weather seemed expertly choreographed. The midday sun illuminated the limousine - a calculated effect, thanks to the silver metal flakes mixed into the car's Presidential Blue Metallic paint, designed to gleam under bright lights.
That shade was specified instead of traditional black because it looked crisper and more defined in black-and-white photographs and on television. When three shots rang out at Dealey Plaza, Kennedy and all of the passengers in the limousine were completely exposed.
Today, the headlights function as the flashers, white on the outside and red on the inside. An automotive icon. A death car. A historic artifact. It was literally driven out of one era and into the next.
Since William Taft converted the White House stables into a presidential garage in , vehicles used in presidential motorcades had always been stock vehicles. Small modifications were made, but at their mechanical guts, they were the same cars driven by ordinary citizens. Following the Kennedy assassination, they became specialized armored behemoths. And unlike Kennedy, its journey did not end in Dallas. Photo: Ford Motor Company. Production of new cars had been halted during World War II, and automakers returned to the marketplace in the s with some of the most elegant and ambitious vehicles ever made.
A new American culture was created, and it revolved around the car. On June 29, , President Dwight Eisenhower signed legislation that created the Interstate Highway System, which connected the country like never before. What better literal vehicle to traverse the open continent than the new Lincoln Continental, which had just returned to production after an eight-year hiatus.
Flush with optimism, Ford opened the Wixom Assembly Plant on April 15, , where it would manufacture Lincolns on the western edge of the Detroit suburbs. Photo: AP. Building a new presidential vehicle required a massive undertaking. Ford designers and Secret Service officials began sketching plans in Months earlier, the same hands that built the Lincoln along the assembly line had pulled levers for Kennedy in the presidential election. Engineers transformed a stock vehicle into one fit for the president.
Over two months, they lengthened the car by They raised the height of its fold-up roof by 3. Rear seats could be mechanically raised, allowing the president to be more easily seen by onlookers.
Designers concealed door handles in long, straight bodylines. One of the final touches was the paint job. Designers selected midnight blue, a minimalist color that Crayola had added it to its spectrum only in Under the sun, it shone a deep, metallic blue. In the dark of night, it appeared black. Shortly after the car joined the White House garage on June 14, , Kennedy left a standing order that the roof be left off the Continental so long as weather permitted, a desire he reiterated during a trip to Tampa, Fla.
Rain showers cleared the Dallas area by mid-morning on Nov. In the years that followed, the decision to travel through the heart of a hostile city without a roof would be scrutinized by the Warren Commission, but neither the bubbletop nor vinyl one were bullet proof or even bullet resistant.
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