The Continental Mark series, later renamed the Lincoln Mark series, was a line of personal luxury cars produced by Ford from 1956 to 1960 and again from 1969 to 1998. It began with the hand-built Continental Mark II, the most expensive car sold in America at the time.
Lincoln Mark at a glance
| Maker | Ford Motor Company / Lincoln-Mercury Division |
|---|---|
| Production | 1956–1960 and 1969–1998 |
| Assembly | Wixom Assembly, Michigan (1958–1998) |
| First model | Continental Mark II, 1956–1957 |
| Mark II price | about US$10,000, the dearest American car of its day |
| Mark II built | 1,800 |
| Final model | Lincoln Mark VIII, to 1998 |
| Layout | mainly two-door coupes |
| Signature feature | spare-wheel bulge in the boot lid |
| Rivals | Cadillac Eldorado from 1969 |
Based on one source, the English Wikipedia article on the Mark series.
History of the Lincoln Mark
The Mark line grew from the 1940–1948 Lincoln Continental, the car that created the personal luxury segment. Lincoln’s exclusive K-series was being replaced by the more affordable Lincoln-Zephyr, and Edsel Ford wanted to revive the idea of the 1929–1932 Lincoln Victoria coupe with modern European-influenced styling. After the 1953 arrival of the limited-production Cadillac Eldorado, Buick Skylark and Oldsmobile Fiesta, Ford decided to build an equally exclusive car and in 1955 created a separate Continental Division above Lincoln.
Its only product was the Continental Mark II, launched for 1956. Hand-built, with a two-door coupe body, a spare-wheel styling motif carried over from the 1940s Continental and a four-point star emblem still used by Lincoln today, it cost about $10,000 and was the most expensive car in the United States. Only 1,800 were made before it was withdrawn after the 1957 model year. Ford then folded Continental into Lincoln-Mercury, and from 1958 to 1960 the Mark III, Mark IV and Mark V continued as heavily equipped, expensive versions of the standard Lincolns, looking much like them.
After a break from 1961 to 1968 the series returned as the Continental Mark III for 1969, now competing with the Cadillac Eldorado rather than Rolls-Royce. It kept the spare-wheel boot lid and a hardtop coupe roofline, and it shared its underpinnings with the Ford Thunderbird as most later Marks did. The Mark IV and Mark V that followed were among the largest two-door coupes ever built. The downsized 1980 Mark VI added a four-door sedan for the first time, and the 1984 Mark VII moved to the smaller Ford Fox platform and reverted to coupe-only form, with a smaller spare-wheel bulge for aerodynamics.
For 1986 Ford ended the confusion between the Continental and Mark names by officially adding the Lincoln nameplate to the Mark VII. The 1993 Mark VIII became much sleeker and brought substantial chassis and powertrain upgrades, using the platform of the 1989 Ford Thunderbird and Mercury Cougar. It was the final generation: demand for personal luxury coupes fell in the 1990s as buyers moved to four-door sedans and SUVs, and Lincoln dropped the Mark VIII after 1998 without a direct replacement. From 1958 to 1998 the Mark cars were built alongside Lincolns at Wixom, Michigan.
Design and features
- Spare-wheel boot lid: the styling motif taken from the 1940s Continental and used on almost every Mark.
- Four-point star: the emblem introduced on the Mark II and still part of Lincoln’s identity.
- Flagship status: for decades the Mark was the most expensive Ford Motor Company car in America.
- Thunderbird underpinnings: from 1969 the Marks shared their chassis with Ford and Mercury coupes.
- Coupe-only tradition: two doors except for the four-door Mark VI of 1980.
Lincoln Mark versions
- Continental Mark II (1956–1957): the hand-built original, 1,800 made.
- Continental Mark III, IV and V (1958–1960): luxury versions of the standard Lincoln.
- Continental Mark III (1969–1971): the series restarted as an Eldorado rival.
- Mark IV and Mark V (1972–1979): among the largest two-door coupes ever built.
- Mark VI (1980–1983): the only four-door era of the line.
- Mark VII (1984–1992) and Mark VIII (1993–1998): smaller coupes on Ford platforms.
The Mark series grew out of the Lincoln Continental and shared its last platform with Ford Thunderbird coupes; its closest rival was the Cadillac Eldorado. More Lincolns are in the Lincoln collection.
Video: 1998 Lincoln Mark VIII LSC Start Up, Quick Tour, & Rev
Video by the uploader on YouTube.
Sources
- Lincoln Mark series, English Wikipedia: origins, generations, platforms
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