THE CONTINENTAL MK. II – A CELEBRATION

In 1956 a car with power assistance for the brakes, steering, front seat, windows and even the quarterlights, an AM radio with an electric aerial and whitewall tyres, was not so much luxurious as downright extravagant. Inside, the upholstery was either leather by Bridge of Weir of Scotland or a selection of cloth trims and you could also have your name engraved on a plate on the centre of the passenger compartment floor. The only option was air conditioning, but anyone who could afford $9,695 for a Continental Mk. II would probably be able to raise another $595.

This was the car of choice of Frank Sinatra, Elizabeth Taylor, Elvis Presley, Dwight D. Eisenhower, Nelson Rockefeller and the Shah of Iran. Each Continental was given a road test before it was despatched to the dealer and it was said that any engine deemed not to comply with the highest standards was shipped to Lincoln for use in their cheaper models. The brochure stated that here was a grand tourer that was “aristocratic but in a quietly modern way” and viewings of the Continental Mk. II were by invitation only, to ensure showrooms were visited only by prospective owners of the right calibre.

The original Lincoln Continental entered production for the 1940 model year. However, when the marque unveiled its new post-war line-up in 1948, there was no new model as senior management thought it did not fit with the company image. However, four years later Dearborn’s management commissioned an in-depth market research which identified a major weakness in their product line-up; namely, a lack of rivals to compete with GM’s more expensive offerings.

As a result, Ford repositioned Mercury as a Buick competitor, and re-introduced the Continental as a brand in its own right, priced above standard Lincolns. On the 1st July 1952, the company established ‘The Continental Division of the Ford Motor Co.’ with its own factory. The Special Products Office, headed by Edsel’s son, William Clay Ford developed the Continental Mk. II, which made its bow in October 1955 at the Paris Motor Show. It was indeed an elegant machine, even if Ford’s sales manager Jack Davis wanted a false spare tyre mounting.

An impressed Motor Trend magazine stated that given the standards of the Continental Mk. II it made “even a $10,000 automobile seem more of a bargain.” Power was from a 6,029cc V8 combined with automatic transmission and despite weighing 4,825lbs, the top speed was 115 mph. Buyers could also choose from 39 interior trim options and an incredible 215 colour combinations. Alas, while 2,550 examples left the factory in 1956, sales fell to 446 in 1957 and the company was reputed to have lost approximately $1,000 with every example.

Ford originally intended the Continental Mk. II to cost $7,500 but at $10,000 it was twice as expensive as a standard Cadillac or a Lincoln Premiere. The Continental division eventually merged with Lincoln-Mercury and the last Mk. II’s were built on the 8th May 1957. Its production lines were turned over to a new Ford marque named Edsel while the 1958 Mk. III was closely linked to the existing Lincoln range. By 1959, Continentals wore Lincoln badges and Tom McCahill wrote in Mechanix Illustrated of November of that year, “The styling for 1960 has gone very shoe-boxy and appears as square as a Nebraska congressman.”

Meanwhile, enthusiasts of fine American machinery never forgot the 1956 model. And here is what I wrote after an encounter with a UK-based example:

On leaving the Continental Mk. II it strikes me that it was a car of but not in the Fifties. It was launched at a time when even the cheapest US family sedans reflected an age of a consumer confidence, a time when virtually every brochure seemed to boast an ‘O-matic’ device. But the Mk. II largely eschewed gimmicks and it was never intended to be an ostentatious display of its owner’s affluence. The air of rectitude of the Continental is in keeping with the grand tourers in the tradition of the Cord 810, the Duesenberg Model J and the Auburn Speedster. At launch 62 years ago, Ford considered that it had created an alternative to a Rolls-Royce but that is to undersell a fine machine. It is a Continental Mk. II – and therefore has nothing else to prove.