Okay, so Lincoln is, for real, bringing suicide doors back to the fancy but unfortunately slow-selling Continental sedan. Just not very many of them, and those that do get snatched up by buyers are destined to become instant collector’s items.
Lincoln announced this morning that in celebration of the Continental’s 80th birthday, it’s putting out a limited run of 80 special edition models with the iconic center-opening doors that were first introduced on the 1961 Continental.
This is corporate America, so of course they can’t call them “suicide doors.” Thus, this car is the Lincoln Continental 80th Anniversary Coach Door Edition. They’re not being done in-house, but rather by Cabot Coach Builders, as Car and Driver notes.
In addition to the doors, this Continental sports a six-inch longer wheelbase, a pass-through rear seat console with a stowable tray table and Lincoln Black Label personalization. It’ll be super nice, in other words. And power stays the same: 400 horses from a 3.0-liter twin-turbo V6.
Pricing hasn’t been officially announced but The Detroit Free Press says they’ll retail for at least $100,000 each.
My take? I think it’s nice, and I hope I get to see one eventually, and not just at an auto show. It’s definitely a bummer that Lincoln’s only making 80 of these, as it’s probably the Continental that should have come out in the first place. But hey, when was the last time you saw a major, mainstream automaker put out such an unusual limited-edition car? I wish more car companies would do stuff like this.