I believe this color is what Lincoln called Palomino Buff, a perfect name for all of the 1950s cowboy shows. This 1955 Lincoln Capri is located in Spokane, Washington, but I guess a person could still put a set of Texas steer horns on the front of the hood. The seller has it posted here on craigslist, and they’re asking $19,500. Here is the original listing, and thanks to Curvette for the tip!
This car would have been around $3,900 brand new in 1955. That’s a steal, not just because $3,900 is hardly a drop in the bucket today, but that equivalent to only $48,747 today. That’ll hardly get you a new… anything, let alone a loaded luxury car. Wait, I mean, a luxury SUV. Do they even make cars anymore? The first-generation Lincoln Capri was made for model years 1952 through 1955, and then things got space-age, really quickly.
The seller says this car is rust-free, but being a staunch doubter of almost everything, especially ads where someone is trying to sell you something, those deep scratches and pits under the paint above the left rear wheel (shown without the rear fender skirts) sure look like bodywork to me. It must be something else, since they say it’s rust-free. What do you think? Technically, an “unrestored” vehicle could still have some paintwork here and there. Unfortunately, we don’t get to see even a passing glimpse of the passenger side exterior, not even a thumbnail or a reflection in a mirror. Nothing. It would be great to see that side.
The interior looks really nice, and Lincoln offered what they referred to as the Turbo-Drive automatic transmission. It also has one of the oddest dash views that I’ve ever seen. It almost looks like a 1930s car or something from Russia. This doesn’t scream luxury dash to me. It’s really weird. Sorry to all of you die-hard Lincoln Capri fans, but dang, they really could have done so much more here. Maybe that’s the point: less is more? No, it’s weird, sorry. Lincoln referred to this car as having “flight deck instruments,” so maybe they’re meant to be understated like the cockpit of a fighter jet of the era. The leather seats look almost perfect, both front and rear.
I hope the air cleaner is in the trunk. The seller lists this engine as a 351, but it would originally have had Lincoln’s one-year-only 341-cu.in. OHV V8, which was rated at 225 horsepower and 342 lb-ft of torque when new. They say it has a C6 transmission, but it would have originally been backed by the smooth-shifting BorgWarner-sourced Turbo-Drive three-speed automatic sending power to the rear wheels. The seller doesn’t say anything about how this nice-looking car functions, but at this asking price I’m assuming it works great. Hagerty lists the high value for a 1955 Lincoln Capri as $19,433: how much would you pay for this apparently modified ’55 Capri?
Lots of questions here, but this looks like a pretty decent start, (potential) warts and all! Nice find!
Ok. I know I’ve said this before. But one of my all time favorite cars AND Movies is this ’54 Lincoln from Moonshine Highway. Its interesting that in ’54 you got the 4 speed Hydramatic sourced from GM, but then as Scotty already mentioned for ’55 the 3 speed Turbo Drive automatic. These are handsome cars!