Spy Shots: The 2017 Lincoln Continental is actually happening

Whether you like the Lincoln Continental Concept or not, it’s coming, and to be honest, we here at egmCarTech couldn’t be more excited.

Why? Well, it’s the return of the Continental nameplate for one thing. The other involved the fact that this could be Lincoln’s next chance at making itself relevant once again, outside the confines of black cab fleets and retirees. Also, we couldn’t be happier to see Lincoln ridding themselves of their awful MK-name theme.

Click here for our original post on the 2015 Lincoln Continental Concept from the 2015 New York Auto Show.

How do we know it’s coming? Some spy photos surfaced and were published on CARandDRIVER, just only a few weeks after the Continental’s original debut at the New York Auto Show.

Now, if you are still skeptical, yes, the Continental Concept did look a little bit like a knocked-off Bentley Continental Flying Spur. But regardless if you look at it that way, the more pertinent point remains: Lincoln’s willing to experiment and they just might have a fighting chance at regaining their chutzpah.

Unfortunately, despite the short overhangs and the sleek, wedge-like three-box profile, the Continental won’t be rear-wheel drive based as implied by the design. It’ll still ride on a front-wheel/all-wheel drive Ford platform. At least, with the current proportions, they do a decent job at hiding it. Either way, all-wheel drive will be standard and fitted to Ford’s current CD4 architecture, the starting point for the successful Fusion and new MKZ.

Ok, it’s not all pretty, bright, and shiny with the Continental Concept and its potential production variant. There’s still a fair amount of us hanging on to hope for an eventual rear-wheel drive model from Lincoln. But either way, we’re pretty familiar with Lincoln’s position that they’re not really trying to go after the full-size rear-wheel drive crowd with this model, but rather see themselves competing with Buick, Acura, and even some Hyundais and what-not.

So we’ll just have to see.

– By: Chris Chin

Source: CARandDRIVER

Photo Source: KGP Photography + others