One of these days, Ken Burns needs to do one of his patented PBS
documentaries on the history of Ford Motor Co. He’d cover the birth of
the Model T with flickery black-and-white footage. He’d feature the
company’s World War II Arsenal of Democracy period, when B24s were
produced at the sprawling Willow Run complex. And he’d reflect on the
creation of the spectacularly successful 1964 Mustang. But most
importantly – to a lot of us automotive history fans, at least – it
would include a proper recognition of Edsel Ford.
No, not
Ford’s Edsel, that 1958 disaster that became shorthand for product
failure until, well, the Pinto, Vega and Aztec came along. But Edsel,
son of Henry, who led his father’s company for nearly 25 years before
being stricken with cancer, dying 15 years before his namesake car’s
belly flop.
Edsel was a remarkable man, but he’s been
forgotten. And I bring all this up, because I detect a distant echo of
his well-calibrated taste and sense of drama in the appealing new
Lincoln MKT. If you check old images of the 1941 Continental, you’ll
recognize that car’s split-wing grill on the MKT. The magnificent ’41
Continental was Edsel’s baby through and through. Its prototype was his
personal car during his winters in Palm Beach, becoming so popular with
his peers that they demanded copies. And the Edsel feel is bubbling
elsewhere under the MKT’s surface. Sure, the car’s styling tiptoes on
the garish here and there. But, to my eyes, it never stumbles over the
line.
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One of these days, Ken Burns needs to do one of his patented PBS
documentaries on the history of Ford Motor Co. He’d cover the birth of
the Model T with flickery black-and-white footage. He’d feature the
company’s World War II Arsenal of Democracy period, when B24s were
produced at the sprawling Willow Run complex. And he’d reflect on the
creation of the spectacularly successful 1964 Mustang. But most
importantly – to a lot of us automotive history fans, at least – it
would include a proper recognition of Edsel Ford.
