But Grand though it Was
Conventional wisdom has long held that the Continental Mark II lasted only two years because Ford Motor Company lost $1,000 on condo bangkok for sale each one sold. The Continental Mark II was introduced in 1952 to answer requests for a modern successor to the classic first Continental line of 1940-1948, but it was also part of a bullish expansion plan. With Ford just returned from the financial brink and the company’s future seemingly boundless, management decided to take on giant General Motors by going from two divisions to five: Ford, a separated Lincoln-Mercury, Continental, and one to handle a second medium-price make that ultimately emerged as Edsel. Actually, the Mark II was never intended to make money — and that was why the 1958 Lincoln Mark II concept car never made it to showrooms.
The third model contemplated was a two-door retractable-hardtop convertible that was not inspired by the 1957 Ford Skyliner. However, the “Lincolnize” decision wasn’t made for six months, during which time management considered holding for a while with just the Mark II coupe to see how sales would fare. What stopped them was a Mercury cost expert sent in to make the Mark profitable. The “retrac” was actually engineered at Special Products in 1954 as the sole Mark II model, only to be rejected when program costs threatened to spiral out of sight. The idea wasn’t passed on to Ford Division until after the decision to go with cheaper Lincoln-based 1958 Continentals.
Appearing for 1956 on a 126-inch wheelbase, the Mark II was priced at $10,000 — breathtaking for the day, but reasonable given an unusual amount of hand labor and high luxury content. Everything else was standard, including full power equipment. But grand though it was, the Mark II never really got its chance. By the time it arrived, the ebullient executives who conceived it had been replaced by sober accountant types for whom no car was sacred unless it made money. Indeed, air conditioning was the sole option ($740).
Creation of the Mark II was assigned to a new Special Products Division (which later became Continental Division) under William Clay Ford, younger brother of company president Henry Ford II. In fact, many still rank the Mark II design as one of Detroit’s all-time best. The result was an elegant close-coupled hardtop coupe, impeccably made and completely free of period fads. Styling, chosen in 1953 from 13 different proposals, was the work of a stellar in-house team comprising John Reinhart (fresh from Packard), Gordon Buehrig (of Auburn-Cord-Duesenberg fame), and young Robert Thomas, with an assist from Thirties coachbuilding great Raymond H. Dietrich.
