Howard Hughes’s Boat-Tail Lincoln Shows Up On eBay

By Jen Dunnaway

Editor

This ride has been all over the collectors’ market in the last year or so–most recently last June, it set many tweed caps spinning when it sold at the Leake Auction in Tulsa for a record-setting $1.08 million (read a nasty and indignant editorial scoffing over the Lincoln’s sale here). Aviator Howard Hughes originally purchased this Lincoln K Model V-12 open-top limo in 1936, then fitted it with its weird riveted-aluminum half-fuselage for obscure Howard Hughes reasons: the bulbous silver body has been variously described as (most obviously) an aerodynamic aid, a pod for stashing expensive camera equipment, and a test bed for experimental aircraft components (the rambling eBay seller’s description even links the car’s design to Hughes’s germophobia. Wha..?). In any case, it’s now up for auction at the bargain-basement starting price of $850,000–not bad for this economy, though it’s pretty likely the seller is going to be taking a loss on it. Check out the auction!