The Lincoln Continental Story, Part Five
Last month we unveiled one of Lincoln’s most successful Continentals ever, the 1969 Continental Mark III. It was a success story that Lincoln reworked over the following decade with the Mark IV and Mark V…
As the saying goes: “If it ain’t broken, don’t fix it” and no one could accuse Lincoln of messing up a successful formula, as the Continental Mark III gave way to the restyled Mark IV (1972-1976) and the equally successful Continental Mark V (1977-1979). Both cars were broadly like the original progenitor, the Mark III, with long bonnets, a two-door format, formal grille and hood ornament, with hideaway headlights, padded vinyl roof and super plush luxurious interiors and of course their trademark continental spare tyre hump on the boot lid. Out back the Mark III’s elegant and understated lines that echoed the Fifties Mark II were replaced with rather more ordinary units within the bumper that coarsened its appearance somewhat, smacking of more mainstream massproduced vehicles like the Dodge Polara. Yet the Mark series still epitomised the ‘personal luxury concept’ and as such, motoring publications of the time regularly pitted them against their GM rival, the Cadillac Eldorado.
Interestingly, Motor Trend nicknamed this battle for personal luxury top dog position the battle to be ‘King of the Hill’ and pitched the two cars against each other throughout the Seventies, until they faded away (or more accurately, were downsized) at the end of the decade. The 1972 Mark IV was four inches longer overall than the previous car, which translated into more interior room than the Mark III, yet it retained the same 460cu in V8 engine rated at 350bhp and 500ft-lb of torque. This engine remained the sole powerplant available until 1979, when it was downsized to 400cu in.
Despite weighing in at almost 5000lb (they were actually 4956lb) these hefty beasts were still hot off the mark. Road Test magazine achieved quarter-mile times of 17.8 seconds, 0-60 in 10.6 seconds and a top speed of 120mph in December 1971. The source of some of this weight wasn’t just the sheer size of these cars, but the amount of sound-deadening fitted in each one. Ford was renowned for its work on reducing ‘NVH’ in its cars (noise, vibration and harshness) and its flagship mainstream model, the LTD, was advertised in the mid-Sixties as being more silent inside than a contemporary Rolls-Royce. As the absolute Apex of Ford’s offerings, the Lincoln Continental Marks IV and V were even quieter inside.
In 1972 the big Mark IV switched to single exhausts, again probably also in pursuit of a quieter ride, but perhaps more in keeping with its aim of providing ‘civilised’ transportation,
– no hot rod Lincolns here! Outside, the crisp minimalist executive styling of the ’69 model gave way to softer lines and the more louche styling so suited to Seventies American cars of the era. The marketing too was softened: less executive, more handlebar moustache and open neck collar, as epitomised by the now famous ads with Tom Sellick in his modelling days who was photographed in an ad before he found fame as Magnum PI.
Another styling cue that arrived with the Mark IVs was the ‘opera window’ in the rear quarter sail panel of the roof. It was a styling gimmick that stuck through to the Mark Vs and was aped by other lesser marques like the Thunderbird or Cougar of the era. This seemingly innocuous bit of design frippery is perhaps key to understanding what the Marks were morphing into – while the original Mark III had come laden with just about every and any extra luxury that would be optional on lesser cars (about the only option was air conditioning), as the Seventies wore on, Ford realised that offering a plethora of optional extras with the Mark IV and Mark Vs could add to the profit margin on every vehicle sold, as tick-happy buyers ticked away at the option boxes. The opera windows were typical; initially they were optional and they cost $84 a pair, yet about 90% of buyers ordered them when buying their cars, and later in the ’72 model year they would become standard. An electric sunroof was available for $459.10 on the options list, as was leather upholstery at $183.70 or an AM radio with stereo tape deck. Big-ticket items like this enabled dealers to push up the basic list price of $8897 by well over a thousand dollars per ‘unit’. Inside, the plushness was beginning to give way to a more corporate Ford look and the dash certainly betrays some parts bin activity that in some ways makes a Continental dash difficult to distinguish from a gussied-up Ford LTD or lesser Mercury.
Of course, 1972 was a bit of a watershed year for the American car industry as it was the last year before a raft of emissions and safety legislation came into play the following year. From ’73 this legislation transformed the appearance and performance of all American cars as it entered what’s colloquially known as the ‘smog era’. This translated into additional clean air equipment (a nightmare of vacuum hoses and power-robbing detuning) and park bench-style 5mph Federal bumpers, which to many eyes ruined the profile of so many American cars of the era.
The beginning of the end
While understanding the Continental branding at the start of the Seventies was relatively straightforward (there were the Lincoln Continental Town cars and the Continental Mark series), by the endo of the Seventies and the start of the next decade, the Eighties, pretty much everything was branded Continental, almost as if the lexicons ‘Lincoln’ and ‘Continental’ were interchangeable. Although maybe this shouldn’t be so surprising, as there were two versions of the Mark III, Mark IV and the Mark V – the ones in the Fifties and the ones in the late Sixties/Seventies. Starting with the Mark IVs, Lincoln had seen a marketing opportunity to produce special edition cars that were ostensibly created by fashion designers of the time. These so-called appearance packages had well and truly got into their stride by the mid to late Seventies as versions created by Bill Blass, Givenchy, Pucci and Cartier were offered.