Thread: 1954 Lincoln Cosmopolitan

Never seen one of these before.

1954 Lincoln Cosmopolitan 2 door hardtop. Powered by a 317.5 CID V8 and Hydramatic automatic transmission

Lincoln - eBay (item 170585337300 end time Jan-07-11 18:54:13 PST)

Nice. What really jumped out at me were the seat belts. I don't recall seeing seat belts as OEM for a '54. Added?

There were no seat-belts in those times.

Originally Posted by thebigspendur

There were no seat-belts in those times.

Sure weren't and no air bags either. I've hit more than one windshield and twisted more than one steering wheel, damn near like a pretzel, with my arms and chest, in crashes in my younger days. My favorite Continental was the '57, I think it was, with the Continental kit on the back. Next fav was that real long hooded one they made in the late '70s or early '80s. A real boat.

The first car I remember my parents having was a 57 Dodge with the pushbutton transmission. It DEFINITELY did not have seat belts, as evidenced by the scar across my eyebrow that came about as a result of my hanging onto car door handles. We were going around the curve of a cloverleaf and I leaned to counter the force of the motion of the car and that lean lead to my pulling back on the handle, so of course the door came open and I was holding onto the handle so I my four year old self got dumped out of the car onto the pavement. Yup, a seat-belt would have been really handy back then.

Originally Posted by thebigspendur

There were no seat-belts in those times.

Seat-belt wearing became compulsory in the UK in the 1980s. One of my friends is a consultant anaesthetist. He said one of the things that was very noticeable as soon as seat-belts became compulsory, was that almost immediately there were far fewer organs available for transplant.

Originally Posted by thebigspendur

There were no seat-belts in those times.

They were options. I have a 1955 Chevy that has them. Lap belts only. I think the first airbag was back in the 70's and offered by Chevy. FYI, 1955 was first year of small block Chevy Motor. 265 CI.

Little off topic, but i had '69 Dodge Monaco 2D with 440 when i still was handsome. There was no seat belts.
Still curse the day i sold it although i'm not sure if i could afford to drive it with the gasoline prices we have today. Maybe the best car i ever had.

I don't remember exactly when they came out but seat belts were lap belts only for a number of years. Even NASCAR racing cars didn't use shoulder harness until after champion Joe Weatherly was killed. He lost it and hit a wall sideways an his torso hit the door of the car and his head actually smacked into the wall killing him. That was around 1960 and shortly thereafter shoulder harness became mandatory in NASCAR.

I think seatbelts were added to the car as I had a '62 import that had to have them added.