LBJ's 1964 Lincoln Continental Convertible Is Our Bring a Trailer Auction Pick of the Day
• A highlight of 1960s American automotive design, the “suicide door” Lincoln Continental was the choice of transport for many a famous person.
• This all-white convertible, up for auction at Bring A Trailer, was the personal vehicle of Lyndon Baines Johnson, 36th President of the United States.
• It was used by LBJ to tour around his sprawling Texas ranch, making this Continental both a mid-century icon and a rolling piece of presidential history.
Politics aside, there are plenty of reasons to admire what a character President Lyndon B. Johnson was. Especially when it came to cars: he owned an Amphicar and was known to terrify unsuspecting passengers by pretending to lose control and “crash” into a lake, where the car simply floated off. He was a big man with a Texas-sized personality, and when he needed something to drive around his 1500-acre ranch, LBJ went big there too.
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Delivered in October of 1963 to the LBJ Corporation of Austin, Texas, this 1964 Lincoln Continental is currently up for auction at the site Bring a Trailer—which, like Car and Driver, is part of Hearst Autos. Bidding sits at $75,000, with the auction slated to end on Wednesday, November 16.
What you get here for your money is both a part of history and a truly elegant machine. LBJ himself could be a bit crude—the recording of a phone call where he orders a pair of pants is legendarily crass—but his taste in automobiles can’t be faulted here.
The fourth-generation Lincoln Continental was the Ford Motor Company’s broadside against Cadillac, and it hit home. Beautiful in the simplicity of its design, it was finished to a very high quality, and it immediately found favor with the nation’s elite. The convertible version was the first four-door convertible offered by an American manufacturer in the post–World War II period.
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Powered by a 7.0-liter V-8 producing 320 horsepower, with a three-speed automatic transmission, the Continental was extremely heavy but not exactly slow. Essentially a roadgoing pleasure yacht, it was meant for relaxed boulevard cruising, the type of glittering transportation you might see powering along the Las Vegas Strip. For 1964, it received a mid-cycle refresh, but the front end was again changed for 1965. Arguably, the ’64 is the prettiest of them.
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Another Continental, this one a stretch limo in black, would ferry tragedy into LBJ’s life. But scarcely one month before the assassination of President Kennedy, this car arrived in Texas as the complete inverse of the weight of rule. Right through until 1969, this white Continental served as LBJ’s pressure release valve as he drove it around his sprawling Texas ranch.
Reportedly, LBJ had his Continentals (he owned two) fitted with snow tires, the better to deal with rough terrain. Among the larger-than-life stories that come with this car is the tale of how he used to often have a tumbler of ice and Cutty Sark whiskey in his hand as he cruised around the ranch. When the cup ran dry, LBJ would stick his arm out the window and rattle the ice cubes; one of the agents from the Secret Service detail following him would hop out and refill the cup. This wasn’t on a public road, so President Johnson appears to have taken the attitude that this behavior was no different than a cocktail while sailing.
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The car has seen some mild refurbishment in its life and has just 16,000 miles on the odometer. Any Continental from this era would be special, and here the presidential provenance adds value for the collector. All you need is your own personal sprawling Texas ranch and maybe a 10-gallon hat, but stick to iced tea.
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