Introduced on April 22, 1948, the 1949 Lincoln line was the carmaker’s first new postwar passenger car. Like its Ford and Mercury siblings, Lincoln received a complete redesign for ’49, and the luxury brand was treated to coil-spring independent front suspension, a big new 336.7 CID L-head V8, and the GM Hydra-Matic automatic transmission.
Body designs were all new as well, including one body style that would last just a single year, the Town Sedan with its dramatic fastback roofline.
Fastback body styles were red hot through much of the 1940s. General Motors led the trend with swoopback models for all five of its car lines—Chevy, Pontiac, Olds, Buick, and Cadillac—while Packard, Nash, and Hudson also joined in. Ford Motor Co. largely avoided the movement, with this notable exception.
The Lincoln Town Sedan (body type 74), offered only on the premium Cosmopolitan platform with a 125-inch wheelbase, used much of the same sheet metal as the conventional Sport Sedan four-door (type 73), but with a long, sweeping greenhouse stretched to the rear bumper.
Designed by E.T. “Bob” Gregorie, the stylist responsible for many prewar Ford classics, the Lincoln body package of 1949-1951 incorporated several novel features, including suicide (front-opening) rear doors. Curb weight for the big Cosmopolitan sedans was a hefty 4200+ lbs, and luxurious interior materials and appointments made a positive impression.
However, many critics will say—with considerable justification—that these Lincolns bore too much resemblance to the Mercury of the same period. That’s an especially fair assessment of the Lincoln base series, which shared its chassis and basic sheet metal with Mercury. Among these cars, the fastback Town Sedan definitely stands out.
Hedging its bets, the Lincoln division offered two distinct four-door sedan styles in 1949: the fastback Town Sedan and the standard three-box Sport Sedan (illustration below). While the two models were identically priced at $3,238, the conventional Sport Sedan was the clear winner in the annual sales sweepstakes with 18,906 units produced, compared to just 7,302 units for the fastback, and for 1950, the exotic Town Sedan was removed from the lineup.
The ’49 Lincoln fastback remains a rare sight today at car shows and auctions, so if you happen to encounter one, be sure to check it out.
