In 1961, the Continental was completely redesigned by Elwood Engel. For the first time, the names Lincoln and Continental would be paired on a car other than one in the Mark series. The design was originally intended to be the new 1961 Ford Thunderbird, but the concept was enlarged and slightly altered before being switched to the Lincoln line by Robert McNamara. One of the most striking features of the new Continental was its size. It was two feet shorter than its predecessor. So much smaller was this car, that advertising executives at Ford photographed a woman parallel parking a sedan for a magazine spread. The new Continental's most recognized trademark, front opening rear doors, was a purely practical decision. The new Continental rode a wheelbase of 123", and the rear hinged doors were hinged from the rear to ease ingress and egress. When the Lincoln engineers were examining the seating buck that styling had made up, the engineers kept hitting the front hinged door of the buck with their feet. The rear hinged doors solved the problem. To simplify production (in the beginning, anyway), all cars were to be four-door models, and only two body styles were offered, sedan or convertible. Therefore, the rear doors were hung from the rear and opened from the front. This "suicide door" style was to become the best-known feature of 1960s Lincolns. The 1961 model was the first car manufactured in America to be sold with a 24,000 miles (39,000 km) or 2-year bumper-to-bumper warranty.
source: http://lincolncontinentalcars.webs.com/thehistory.htm
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