Finished in Zephyr Garnet, this 1938 Lincoln Zephyr Coupe has a certain custom car charm to its demeanor, thanks largely to the slight chassis rake, color and signature grille and nose design. Only 2,600 Zephyr coupes were produced in 1938, but Zephyr production overall generally accounted for a very large percentage of total Lincoln sales. Filling the gap between the Ford Deluxe and Lincoln Model K, it offered customers an alternative to the LaSalle, Packard 120, Buick Roadmaster and Chrysler Airflow. Powered by a 267 CI V-12 engine with a Stromberg downdraft carburetor, oil-bath air cleaner and 3-speed manual transmission, its chassis is fitted with a transverse leaf-spring suspension, both front and rear, and mechanical drum brakes. The body boasts chrome bumpers with bumper guards, twin sideview mirrors, a single-piece windscreen and rear fender skirts. The tan interior features a bench seat upholstered in tan cloth with matching door panels, a gray steel dashboard with a center-mounted, circular instrument cluster, a matching Banjo steering wheel and an in-dash clock. The Zephyr rolls on wide whitewall tires with color-matched steel wheels, while chrome hubcaps sustain the streamlined, futuristic look of the Zephyr. The kickoff for the Lincoln Zephyr came from Edsel Ford, who, with designer Eugene Gregorie, created a streamlined vehicle that exhibited notions of boat styling, all of which was popular in the day. Edsel noticed a market shift away from large, formal, imposing vehicle designs toward more aerodynamic styling with Art Deco influences, and he wanted Lincoln to keep up. Interestingly, the original idea was said to have come from a design concept created by the Briggs Manufacturing Company, designed by John Tjaarda and unveiled at the 1933 Chicago World’s Fair. The Briggs-Tjaarda car was radical to say the least, featuring a rear-engine chassis and a hyper-streamlined two-door body—far too extreme for a Lincoln production car. But, Gregorie reworked the basic idea and created a more conservative but youthful design that more easily accommodated a standard chassis, thus creating the Lincoln Zephyr.
