The Lincoln-Zephyr came after Ford had absorbed Lincoln Motor Company, making it a fully Ford product with full instrumentation.

Lincoln-Zephyr, like its maker, has a rich, storied history. This particular nameplate was launched for the first time in 1936, riding on the glorious wings of the smash-hit Ford Zephyr. It's important not to mistake Ford Zephyr or Mercury Zephyr with Lincoln-Zephyr. All three are separate nameplates with distinct features. It's obvious, isn't it, that the Zephyr brand was a successful, ubiquitous Ford product. It was first introduced in 1935 before assuming the Lincoln nameplate the next model year.

The 1941 Lincoln-Zephyr shares the luxury heritage of its bloodline. As the name already implies, the car was built by Ford Motor Company's Lincoln division. This would be the last Lincoln-Zephyr, as its production ended in 1942. "The last of the bloodline" is a significant record, but the 1937 Lincoln-Zephyr was the most sought-after Zephyr model due to its decidedly elegant and aerodynamic aesthetic.

The Lincoln-Zephyr model line gave competitors like Packard One-Twenty and Chrysler Airflow a run for their money by straddling Ford V8 DeLuxe and Lincoln Model K, consolidating the power and price of both marques into one. Matter-of-factly, Lincoln led the way in fantastic-looking luxury cars back in the 1930s.

As you may have noticed, “Lincoln-Zephyr” sounds like a merging of two brands, which was the case. The Lincoln-Zephyr came after Ford had absorbed Lincoln Motor Company, making it a fully Ford product with full instrumentation. The 1941 model was available as sedan, coupe, convertible, and club coupe body types.

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Lincoln-Zephyr gets the credit as the inspiration behind Lincoln’s longest-running marquee, the Lincoln Continental. The automaker dropped the Zephyr name after the Second World War, but continued building cars based on the Lincoln-Zephyr platform.

One of the defining ways Lincoln-Zephyr stood out from competitors was by toting a V12 engine, where others strutted around in V8 and inline-8 engines. The small 75° cast iron cylinder block V12 was not the same V12 motor powering the K-Series Lincoln. Ford replaced the Lincoln K-Series with Lincoln Custom from 1941 to 1942, the same production years as the 1941 Lincoln-Zephyr.

Zephyr’s 4.8-L V12 was based on Ford's Flathead V8. Admittedly, this was not the best engine technology, but its compact qualities promoted a low hood. Zephyr is a front-engined rear-wheel drive with a curb weight of 3,835 lbs. The car was much lighter than it looked. The motor could produce 118 hp at 3,500 rpm and 220 pound-feet of torque at 2000 rpm.

The engine was tied to a 3-selective sliding, column-mounted synchromesh transmission system. The suspension system consisted of front and rear traverse springs with a front dead axle, rear torque tube, and hydraulic brakes.

As mentioned earlier, the 1941 Lincoln-Zephyr was offered in various trims. They include a 5-passenger 2-door Coupe, 5-passenger 4-door Town Car, 6-passenger 2-door Convertible Club Coupe, 3-passenger 2-door Coupe, and 6-passenger 4-door sedan. The 4-door sedan was by far the bestselling of the trims, having sold 14,469 in total. The Brunn-designed Town Car trim was the least-selling, with only 5 units built.

In its two years of production, the 1941 Lincoln-Zephyr sold 17,756 units intoto. Barring the 1931 AA truck, the Lincoln-Zephyr was the first-ever Ford vehicle to feature an all-steel roof. The car’s unibody construction was thanks to John Tjaarda’s (Zephyr’s designer) fascination with airplanes. It featured a low-raked windshield, integrated fenders, and a low coefficient of drag. The 1941 Lincoln-Zephyr is an all-American car assembled at Lincoln's assembly plant in Detroit, Michigan.

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The Lincoln-Zephyr cars were a commercial success story. They accounted for a goodly portion of Lincoln vehicle sales in the 1930s and early '40s. Lincoln did not build many Zephyrs for each model year, per se, but the models brought in most of the sales in the company's roster each year.

The first model year Lincoln-Zephyr sold 15,000 units, and that was 80 percent of all Lincoln vehicle sales that year. The original MSRP of the most popular 1941 Lincoln-Zephyr trim - the 4-door sedan - was $1,493, approximately $29,521 in today’s money. In general, the trims had price tags ranging from $1,430 to $1,800.

Wouldn’t it be nice if you could pay $29,000 for a top-of-the-line luxury sedan, say, a 2020 Lincoln Continental? We'd like that too, but the reality is $42,305; that's the starting price of a new 2020 base level Lincoln Continental. The price goes as high as $70,205 for the Black Label Continental. Thankfully, the 1941 Lincoln-Zephyr is a premium classic you can buy for less than $30,000 on a good day.

Visit ClassicCars.Com, and you might find the 1941 Lincoln-Zephyr sedans for as low as $29,995 or as high as $62,995. Nearly $70,000 is no joke, but considering that this pre-war 5-passenger 2-door Coupe has about 12 of them reportedly still intact in the whole world, the value of this car has only one trajectory – up.

Remember what we said about the 6-passenger 4-door sedan being the bestselling of the trims? That’s because Ford built more than 14,000 of them, which means you’re more likely to snag a 6-seater, 4-door 1941 Lincoln-Zephyr Coupe than you would the 5-passenger 2-door Coupe that had just 178 made.

Barring the Brunn Lincoln-Zephyr Town Car, the 2-door coupe is the rarest 1941 Lincoln-Zephyr. Mind you, “rare” does not automatically translate to “best.” Want some advice in your quest for a 1941 Lincoln-Zephyr or any rare classic? Conduct your own research based on your noble intentions (collecting) or not-so-noble intentions (buying to sell for a profit).

By the way, they’ve resumed making the Zephyr. The modernized luxury marque is already past the concept stage, although the American market may have to wait a long time while the sedan romances the Chinese market.

Philip Uwaoma, this bearded black male from Nigeria, has single-handedly written more than a million words in the form of articles published on various websites, including toylist.com, rehabaid.com, and autoquarterly.com. Of all the websites and platforms Philip’s work appears on, the absence of his name attached to the articles published on Auto Quarterly is the only one that makes him moan; “ghostwriting sucks.” Albeit, Philip still won’t shy away from writing as a ghost. After all, it's the value he adds to human life with his pen that fuels his passion for writing. He has no dog, no wife- yet- and he loves Rolls Royce more than he really should.