Operation Reckless Purchase
Classic American|November 2017

1969 Lincoln Continental

Buying a 1969 Lincoln Continental at auction isn’t something to do on a whim, although Ed and Neil Gazzard did and now don’t regret it a bit…

Mike Renaut
Operation Reckless Purchase

Ed Gazzard and his brother, Neil, now happily share this1969 Lincoln Continental, but originally they hadn’t really planned on buying it. “I’d been looking for a Cadillac from 1969 or ’70,” remembers Ed, “but when I saw this Lincoln advertised I just thought ‘that’s brilliant’. It was at a Brightwells’ auction in Hereford and scheduled to sell with no reserve one Wednesday lunchtime. I told Neil that we’d kick ourselves if we didn’t bid and then it sold for next to nothing, so I travelled up. It’d looked better in the photos. I didn’t even know if it ran properly and the catalogue description said it needed recommissioning. I didn’t fancy tackling it alone, so Neil and I decided to share the car.”

“We fell for it because of those suicide doors, to be honest,” admits Neil. “We won it on our last bid – we wouldn’t have gone any higher for it.” It wasn’t a total leap of faith since Neil had previously owned some American cars. “I had a 1978 Monte Carlo that I paid £400 for and then an ex-United States Air Force Dodge D200 truck – that was a monster, nothing in the way of brakes, but good for pulling trees down…” Ed had owned a 1990 Cadillac Brougham: “It had the 5.7-litre LT1 engine, with 190bhp. It was very usable and did motorway speeds easily. It was sold because the Champagne colour started to turn pink…”

This story is from the November 2017 edition of Classic American.

Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 8,500+ magazines and newspapers.

This story is from the November 2017 edition of Classic American.

Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 8,500+ magazines and newspapers.

MORE STORIES FROM CLASSIC AMERICANView All
On your Mark VII
Classic American

On your Mark VII

In our sixth instalment of the Continental story, we’re looking at the seventh iteration of the Continental Mark series: the evergreen Mark VII, a powerful, aerodynamic coupe that looks as fresh today as when the covers were first pulled off 37 years ago…

time-read
7 mins  |
August 2021
Mercury Cougar
Classic American

Mercury Cougar

A ‘posh’ Mustang? It could only be the Mercury Cougar …

time-read
3 mins  |
August 2021
Chrysler Concept 70X
Classic American

Chrysler Concept 70X

Safety as a marketing concept for cars? Well, Richard Heseltine reckons we have Ralph Nader to thank for that. This month Richard examines a concept vehicle that was a direct result of the sudden interest in vehicle safety after Nader’s campaigning…

time-read
2 mins  |
August 2021
Stock or modified?
Classic American

Stock or modified?

Evans debates the merits of keeping your classic in factory condition or adding upgrades to make it more suitable for today’s roads

time-read
3 mins  |
August 2021
HEAVY METAL COLLECTION
Classic American

HEAVY METAL COLLECTION

With a bit of luck we might be able to fly to the US again by the end of the summer. If Los Angeles is on your itinerary, then make sure you include the Petersen Museum for a very special exhibition that’s been extended due to the pandemic. Keith Harman explains why…

time-read
3 mins  |
August 2021
Patience is a BARRACUDA 1970 Plymouth Barracuda
Classic American

Patience is a BARRACUDA 1970 Plymouth Barracuda

We’re often reading about people who have an ideal car in their mind, and who wait decades until that dream becomes a reality. We meet another beautiful dreamer, Tom Aspinall, and his Detroit-inspired dream from Mother Mopar…

time-read
8 mins  |
August 2021
1960 Cadillac Sedan De Ville Johnny Cash's CADILLAC?
Classic American

1960 Cadillac Sedan De Ville Johnny Cash's CADILLAC?

Country crooner Johnny Cash famously sang about a Cadillac created by a worker at the Cadillac factory – One Piece at a Time – as he, errr… took bits of car home over a period of years to create a car… but was it a ’60 or a ’61 or a…?

time-read
6 mins  |
August 2021
1929 Lincoln Limousine NICE JAG MATE!
Classic American

1929 Lincoln Limousine NICE JAG MATE!

It’s not often we come across a Gatsby-era luxury car that has been in the UK since the roaring Twenties and with the same owner since 1966! Meet Derek Brown’s magnificent 1929 Model L seven-passenger Limousine…

time-read
6 mins  |
August 2021
Remembering The K-Car
Classic American

Remembering The K-Car

Evans looks back to the humble compacts that saved Chrysler…

time-read
3 mins  |
February 2021
Classic American

Idaho Red!

This early 1965 Ford Mustang still looks to be wearing most of its original paint and proves the point: it’s only original once!

time-read
7 mins  |
February 2021