Lincoln Continental Mark

Continental Mark at a glance

The cars are listed in our Ford catalogue; later Mark models and the rest of the brand are covered in the Lincoln catalogue and in our article on the unusual history of Lincoln cars.

Timeline

The Continental Mark II: 1956–1957

The Mark II was developed by the Special Product Operations team that William Clay Ford led from 1952, with John Reinhart as chief stylist, Gordon Buehrig as chief body engineer and Harley Copp as chief engineer. Ford made the team a separate Continental Division in April 1955. Paris saw the car first, at the October 1955 motor show; the American presentation in Dearborn came afterwards.

The design was a long two-door coupe with a low roofline and gentle curves, and each car was built and painted largely by hand. Power came from the 368 cu in Lincoln Y-block V8 with a three-speed Turbo-Drive automatic built by Lincoln and Borg-Warner. The 1956 rating was 213 kW (285 hp) with 545 Nm, raised for 1957 to 224 kW (300 hp) with 563 Nm. German Wikipedia gives 0–100 km/h in about 12 seconds and a top speed of 184 km/h.

The base price of US$9,966 in 1956 made it the most expensive American-built car of its time; in 1957 it cost US$9,695. Air conditioning was an option at US$595 in 1956. Even at these prices Ford reportedly lost nearly US$1,000 on every car. Wikipedia counts 3,005 cars including three prototypes and 13 pre-production vehicles; German Wikipedia splits production into 2,550 cars for 1956 and 444 for 1957. No factory convertible was sold, but two 1956 coupes were converted, one by Hess & Eisenhardt and one by Derham.

Owners included Dwight Eisenhower, Barry Goldwater, Frank Sinatra, Elvis Presley and Elizabeth Taylor. The Continental Division itself closed in July 1956, and the last Mark II was built on 8 May 1957.

Mark III, IV and V: the big unibody Continentals

For 1958 Ford changed strategy. Instead of a hand-built coupe for about US$10,000, the new Continental Mark III had to sell for under US$6,000, according to a 1958 target quoted by BangShift. It shared its unibody structure with the new 1958 Lincolns and was built with them at the new Wixom plant in Michigan. Curbside Classic calls these cars the world's largest unibody automobiles, and Wikipedia notes that the 1959 and 1960 Town Car and Limousine were the heaviest American standard-wheelbase sedans built after the Second World War.

The cars were sold and serviced by Lincoln-Mercury dealers, but documents and serial numbers carried the Continental name, not Lincoln. Only the 1960 Mark V was advertised as a "Lincoln Continental". The most recognisable feature was the reverse-slanted "Breezeway" rear window, which could be lowered for ventilation. It was fitted to the Mark III and to the Mark IV and V coupes and convertibles.

Figures from Wikipedia's 1958–1960 Lincoln data; the weight is the approximate figure quoted by BangShift for the 1958 Mark III.

The 430 V8 and its decline in power

The 430 cu in MEL engine (7,044 cc, 109.2 mm bore, 94.0 mm stroke) was shared with all Lincolns of these years. In 1958 the Continental Mark III used a Holley four-barrel carburettor, and buyers could order the Super Marauder version with three two-barrel carburettors and 298 kW (400 hp). Compression was lowered for 1959, and the rating fell again for 1960, so the last Mark V had 45 kW less than the first Mark III.

Body styles and the rarest versions

The Town Car and the Limousine had a forward-sloping rear window instead of the Breezeway glass, and the Limousine added a glass partition behind the driver. With only 297 cars between them, they are the rarest Continental Marks.

Why the series ended in 1960

The big Continentals arrived at the start of a recession, and sales never met Ford's hopes. Wikipedia reports that Lincoln lost more than US$60 million from 1958 to 1960, partly because of the high cost of developing the new unibody cars. Curbside Classic writes that Robert McNamara was "about ready to take Lincoln out to the woodshed". For 1961 Lincoln-Mercury replaced the Mark V and both Lincoln series with one Lincoln Continental, developed from a last-minute redo of a Thunderbird design, and the Mark name disappeared for eight years.

The Mark name after 1960

The Mark series came back for 1969 with the Continental Mark III, a personal-luxury coupe, followed by the Mark IV (1972–1976), Mark V (1977–1979), Mark VI (1980–1983), Mark VII (1984–1992) and Mark VIII (1993–1998). Until 1985 these cars were still badged Continental; from 1986 they were sold as Lincolns. From 2005 to 2008 Lincoln also sold the Mark LT pickup based on the F-150. These later cars belong to the Lincoln line-up rather than to the 1950s Continental Marks described here.

Collecting the Continental Marks today

The Mark II, with about 3,000 cars and its list of famous owners, is the best known of these cars among collectors. Hagerty describes a 1956 example as one of 189 cars in its colour combination, a sign of how much attention collectors pay to original specification. The 1958–1960 cars were built in larger numbers, but their convertibles, Town Cars and Limousines are rare today. To compare their data with rivals such as the Cadillac Eldorado Biarritz, use the 1cars comparison tool.