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Cool Old Press Photos: The '57 LincolnBy Brian Lohnes Posted 01/08/09

We’re going to mark this one under styling gaffe. The big news for Lincoln in 1957, as seen by these photos and the press release, was the introduction of a quad-headlight front end. The move to four lights was interesting on a couple of levels, the first of which was the fact that four headlights were illegal in most states, hence the mention in the release that the lights can be used according to state law. The reasons for this are unknown to us at this time; despite our research we can’t really find a definitive answer as to why quad headlights were considered dangerous. There was probably some arcane political reason behind it.

The second reason that this was a questionable move was the fact that the '56 Lincolns were some nice cleanly styled cars. In our opinion, when lined up next to a '56 model, the '57s are garish. The rush to be “first” with four headlights was probably the main driver behind the restyle. Remember, this is also the same period that FoMoCo unleashed the Edsel on the world, and that wasn’t exactly a dream exercise in styling either.

With a production decrease of about 15,000 cars from 1956-1957 we think the public agreed with us.

Check it out below: