For those who agree that the 1956-57 Continental Mark II is without any question the most beautiful car made in the fifties. Not since the introduction of the Model A nearly thirty years before had a product of the Ford Motor Company been subject to such advance publicity and press-agent hijinks. But Ford, or more correctly the Lincoln Motor Car Division, hadn't had such a product since the introduction of the original Lincoln Continental 15 years earlier. It was so special, in fact, that the Continental Division was created just for this unique car. Debuting on October 5, 1955, the Continental Mark II carried a jaw-dropping price of $10,000-fifty percent more than the most costly Cadillac of the same year. With a long hood, short deck and a trunk sculpted to hold the "continental" spare in a semi-upright position, the new Conti captured the proportions and sporty yet elegant spirit of its handsome predecessor, and succeeded in becoming the "modern classic" that Ford officials had hoped for. The embodiment of the "long and low" look of the time, the Continental's frame was specially engineered for a very low profile and required a three-joint driveshaft. Despite its lowness, the Mark II actually provided more headroom than the regular 1956 Lincolns. The build quality of the Continental Mark II was impeccable, rivaling the careful construction lavished on cars like Rolls-Royce. The materials, too, were the best, and critically inspected at every stage of each car's construction, after having passed severe quality and durability tests. For instance, exterior chrome was subjected to a 10-day salt spray test. Scottish leather was used in the upholstery of each car. Transmissions were tested prior to being attached to engines, then the completed units were subjected to a rigorous dynamometer test. Front sheet metal was test fitted to the body before final assembly and painting. And only lacquer was used in the painting process. Fourteen quality control stations were placed in the assembly plant at critical stages. When completed each car was, of course, exhaustively road tested before release for delivery. But the quality story didn't end at the dealership. A field service program ensured that any complaints or defects were rapidly corrected for the customer. Plus, a team of factory service engineers was dispatched throughout the country to personally investigate and remedy any serious or repeat complaints. With its high price and slow-moving production line, the Mark II was never expected to be a high-volume moneymaker for Ford, but was instead intended to be the flagship for Lincoln's re-entry into the luxury car field. It likely never made a penny for the company but succeeded admirably in establishing Lincoln in the top rank of U.S. cars again. Production for 1956 and 1957 totaled 2,994 cars. Today, the Continental Mark II is an avidly collected automobile and has been designated a Milestone Car by the Milestone Car Society. They enjoyed a very good survival rate, much like early Thunderbirds, because people recognized that they were true "special interest" cars from the day of their introduction. Because of their complexity and the quality of the materials originally used, a full restoration on a Mark II can quickly get expensive. They are prone to rust, like most cars of their time, and a complete new interior could clobber your checkbook mercilessly. There are a good number of well-preserved, largely original cars available and some older restorations that may need freshening rather than another major teardown. Unless you have the requisite skills and time to tackle a body-off rebuild of a Conti you'd be better off setting your sights on one of these cars. If you buy one with factory air, so much the better. This was the only option on these cars and is a rarely seen one today. 1956 Continental Mark II - An American Rolls Royce The Continental Mark II was introduced in October, 1955 at the Paris Auto Show. It was offered in only one body style, a two door hardtop coupe and was a virtually hand assembled car with a price tag of $10,000. The Mark II was powered by a more or less factory blueprinted (the parts were hand selected from production runs) Lincoln V-8 engine with 368 cubic inches. Every luxury feature known in 1956 was available on this car. All were standard except air conditioning which was a factory option and the electric eye dimmer which was a dealer-installed option. The Mark II was very exclusive not only because of its price but because it was to be offered only to 'selected' buyers. Presumably, this would weed out the riff-raff. There is no evidence that this selectivity was ever enforced; if you could come up with the money, you could buy the car. Famous (and infamous) Mark II owners included Nelson Rockefeller, Barry Goldwater, Frank Sinatra, Cecil B. DeMille, R.J. Reynolds, Bill Harrah, Elvis Presley and the Shah of Iran. The Continental was priced way above the average luxury car. In 1956, you could buy a new Cadillac for around $4,000; a new Rolls Royce could be had for just over $10,000. The high price tag and lack of other body styles limited sales. The Mark II was carried over into 1957 with very few changes. Production was halted in May of 1957. In all, about 3,000 Mark IIs were produced. Ford Motor Company has always been coy about what their expectations were for the Mark II. Obviously, they were disappointed in the low sales figures but we've never heard what they expected. Compared with other specialty American cars which were priced well above the normal Cadillac/Lincoln luxury market prices, the Mark II did pretty well. It sold better than the 1957-59 Eldorado Brougham which was priced at about $13,000. Its annual sales were better than the 1987-93 Cadillac Allante which was priced at twice the cost of a new Town Car. (The Allante was deeply discounted though; we once purchased a 2000 mile untitled demonstrator as a company car in 1988 for $34,000 -- far less than its $55,000 sticker price. It was not a nice car. It was noisy and was plagued with rattles and squeaks.) The lesson here is obvious ... high priced cars = low sales. How could Ford have thought otherwise? Today the Mark II is revered as one of the best styled cars of the 1950s. Its good looks are timeless. It rides and drives with a grace and quietness not found in other cars of that era. The car I've sketched here is my 1956 Mark II which I sold in 1998. I've owned two Mark IIs in my lifetime -- a '56 and a '57. Both were a pleasure to drive and got lots of admiring glances when on the road. Remember When1956by Joe Sherlock In 1956, cultural icon-to-be Elvis Presley appears on the scene with several #1 selling records. Elvis buys a 1956 wisteria-and-white Lincoln Premiere hardtop coupe and a white 1956 Continental Mark II (photo at right). New products include Raid insecticide, Crest toothpaste and Comet cleanser. Ford Motor Company goes public, issuing stock. Midas Muffler and Burger King begin franchising. The 'Dear Abby' advice column appears. New words for 1956 include brainstorming, brinkmanship, industrial park and tranquilizer. Ike is reelected. Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis split up. Briget Bardot debuts in the film 'And God Created Woman.' 'In God We Trust' becomes the U.S. motto. Grace Kelly marries Prince Rainier of Monaco. Chrysler and Packard offer pushbutton transmission; Packard also offers power door locks. The first Volvos are imported to the U.S. Ford offers seat belts and padded dashboards as options and dished steering wheels as standard equipment, touting its cars as safer. The public isn't interested, then-sales manager Lee Iacocca develops the oft-heard axiom, "Safety doesn't sell." Best-selling songs of 1956 are 'Hound Dog' and 'Don't Be Cruel.' Other hits include 'Singing the Blues,' 'Blueberry Hill,' 'My Prayer,' 'Blue Suede Shoes' and 'Heartbreak Hotel.' Deaths include actor Bela Lugosi, automobile manufacturer Preston Tucker, bandleader Tommy Dorsey and comedian Fred Allen. The Yankees win the World Series over the Brooklyn Dodgers. Continental Mark II by Jack Nerad for Driving Today Supposedly, the sequel is never as good as the original; and that is certainly true of the Continental Mark II. The original Lincoln Continental, created as a one-off by Bob Gregorie and his design staff for the personal use of Edsel Ford, was, with little argument, the best American auto design of the 1940's. Mildly production-ized and sold as a series into the late Forties, it was a classic. Ford Motor Company tried to re-create the same magic some 15 years later with the Mark II, but to re-create magic is a tougher task than the first time. Still, though the Mark II lacked the essential rightness of the original's proportions, it was a car to be reckoned with. By sheer mass, sheer price, sheer presence, it was a vehicle that epitomized 1950's America. If you are known by the company you keep, then the Mark II deserves high marks. A wide swath of the rich and famous in the 1950's owned one, including Elvis Presley, Frank Sinatra, Louie Prima, Dwight Eisenhower, Barry Goldwater, Spike Jones, Nelson Rockefeller, Henry J. Kaiser, Howard Johnson and the Shah of Iran. A sticker price that nudged $10,000 ($9,966.00 f.o.b. Detroit) made the Continental Mark II twice the price of a garden variety Lincoln of the same year. In defense of the gargantuan price, the Mark II was hand-built to a very high quality standard such that Ford Motor Company claimed it lost a thousand dollars or so on every one it sold. That's a believable tale, because the Ford Motor Company of the early Fifties was in some disarray. The still-privately-held firm had weathered World War II with flying colors and leapt into the post-war economy with gusto, but as the Fifties dawned it seemed lost. As a maker of low-cost "transportation" cars and light trucks, it certainly had a big place for itself in the market, but climbing out of its stereotype into the middle-priced and luxury segments proved to be difficult. At the same time, General Motors was cleaning up in that portion of the market with Pontiac, Oldsmobile, Buick and Cadillac. The executives at Ford Motor Company went through exercise after exercise to come up with a way to gain a strong footing in the upper end of the car market, but the plans that resulted from these excursions into "future-think" were almost invariably scrapped or emasculated. One plan that did bear some fruit was to take Mercury (often derided as Ford with more chrome) and move it upscale into what was approximately Buick territory, introduce a new division (Edsel) to compete in Pontiac-Oldsmobile territory and send Lincoln into headlong battle against Cadillac. An addendum to this plan suggested the creation of a "Special Products Division" to build short-production-run "halo" vehicles to add luster to the Ford Motor Company offerings. Of course, we all know what happened to Edsel. But what is less well understood was the final addendum to the plan. Ford executives did, indeed, create a "Special Products Division," and its charter was to re-capture the essence of the Lincoln Continental in a new, ultra-luxury vehicle. Given this task, the division quickly morphed into the short-lived Continental Division of Ford Motor Company with none other than Edsel's son, William Clay Ford, as its general manager. Because of this, purists insist the Continental Mark II should not be referred to as the Lincoln Continental Mark II. That, however, is splitting hairs, since the Continental division vehicle was sold by Lincoln dealers, used a Lincoln power train and in all other ways smelled like a Lincoln. The Continental division created a vehicle with presence. Not only was its price tag big; it was big. A two-door hardtop, the Mark II was built on an enormous Y-shaped frame with a wheelbase of 126 inches. At over 18 feet, it was as long as a Chris Craft runabout, and finished with the same meticulous detail. Further, it was no lightweight. Its body-on-frame construction plus a full complement of luxury equipment, like air conditioning, power-operated windows, power-operated front seat and rich leather upholstery conspired to create a weight that has been variously reported as 4,825 pounds or 5,100 pounds, some two-and-a-half tons. There was little elegance in its suspension. The independent front suspension was a fairly typical American A-arm arrangement, though one bow to high tech was the employment of "speed-compensating shock absorbers." The rear suspension was even more rudimentary: a huge live axle hung by semi-elliptic springs with hydraulic shock absorbers for damping. If all that seems ungainly and somewhat crude, there was nothing ungainly or crude about the Mark II's exterior shape. In profile it offered a simple elegance with an extremely long hood, tight greenhouse with a stately roofline and a deck accentuated by stand-up taillights and the famed "Continental" tire bulge. None of Cadillac's tailfin excesses here, though perhaps the faux spare tire was a bit bigger than it needed to be. Tastefully, chrome was kept to a minimum, and the Mark II's handsome grille was remarkably restrained and flanked by two simple round headlights. What power plant was used to propel this mammoth piece of machinery? A thoroughly modern (for its time) Lincoln V-8 engine was the obvious choice of the Continental division brass. The cast iron-block engine displaced 368.6 cubic inches and, equipped with a four-barrel carburetor, it produced 265 horsepower. (With a bit more tuning the following year, the horsepower was upped to 300 to compete with the Chrysler 300 letter series, which was mining the same vein of customers.) A Turbo-Drive three-speed automatic was the only transmission available. The car debuted in Lincoln-Mercury (Lincoln-Mercury-Continental?) dealerships on October 5, 1955, and it created an immediate sensation. Certainly the public relations types had something to do with the uproar, but there was mass curiosity to see what Ford built that cost ten thousand dollars. Buyers got a lot for their money. Each Continental engine was meticulously balanced and tested on a dynamometer before being installed in the virtually hand-built frame. The chrome trim was subjected to a 10-day-long salt spray test, and the intricate front-end body pieces were test fitted before final assembly and the application of premium lacquer paint. Upholstery was fashioned with Bridge of Weir leather imported from Scotland. Though the Continental Mark II was met with a great deal of interest, at 10,000 dollars in 1955 the car was too expensive to attract much of a following. Ford executives originally planned to build about 2,000 Mark II's a year for a period of five years, and the model exceeded their projections early on. Some 2,550 Mark II's were built during the 1956 model year, but by the end of the year sales slowed to a trickle. A very slightly revised 1957-model Mark II was put into production, but only 444 were built, and the model and the Continental division itself were abruptly cancelled. Ford Motor Company decided to take a new tack with its Lincoln vehicles, adopting unit body construction instead of the traditional separate body and frame, and the result was a disaster. Consumers avoided the newly styled1958 Lincolns and, to add insult to injury, Ford brass decided to call the top-of-the-line Lincoln the Continental Mark III with only an oddball roof treatment differentiating it from the run-of-the-mill Lincolns. It wasn't until the late 1960's that Ford saw the error of its ways and tried to recant by offering another Lincoln Continental Mark III, one more in tune with the first Lincoln Continental and its worthy successor, the Continental Mark II.