1956/57 Continental Mark II: Born Perfect.

There aren’t very many cars that can claim the title “Born Perfect”. Cars that look custom right from the factory, that besides lowering it (every old car looks better lowered!), and maybe shaving the door handles off, you don’t have to do anything else to make the thing look “right”. My personal list of 1930s- 1960s fresh from the factory, ‘just lower it and drive’ cars is pretty darn short:

1935-1936 Ford Roadsters, 1937-1939 3 window Lincoln Zephyr coupes, 1939-1940 Ford DeLuxe coupes, 1953-1957 Corvettes, 1955- 1957 Nomads and Safaris, and 1963-1965 Buick Rivieras. There are plenty of other killer cars from this era, I’m leaving off, but these are on my “Born Perfect” short list, with one shining example at the top: The 1956 and 57 Continental Mark II.

Elvis, Frank Sinatra, Louis Prima and George Barris all had one. Sure, the Continental Mark II sticker price was $10,000 – Twice as much as the most loaded up Cadillac of the same year- But this car was PURE STYLE. With it’s long hood, clean greenhouse, and short deck with the trunk sculpted to hold the “continental” spare in a semi-upright position, the new Mark captured the proportions and elegant spirit of its ET Gregorie-designed predecessor, and succeeded in becoming the instant “modern classic” that Ford’s top brass had hoped for. The build quality of the Continental Mark II was impeccable, rivaling the careful construction lavished on coach built luxury vehicles like a Rolls Royce. The build materials were also the best, and critically inspected at every stage of each car’s lengthy construction, after having passed severe quality and durability tests.

For power, the Mark II used the newly offered 368 cubic inch Lincoln V8 (MEL motor). All the engines selected for the Continental were effectively rebuilt and factory-blueprinted, assembled from the closest-to-specifications parts produced available. Turning out 285 HP in 1956, the engine was tuned to produce 300 HP in 1957. The engine was mated to a three-speed Lincoln automatic, and both engine and transmission were subject to extensive pre-release testing.

The Mark II had almost no chrome compared to any other American luxury car of the time, shockingly having no side trim and a tiny hood ornament. Check out the tunneled headlights and egg-crate grille. The designers really understood that ‘subtle restraint’ could be a strong message. Most of the car was hand-built to exacting standards, including the application of multiple coats of lacquer paint, hand sanding and polishing to perfection. The car came stock with power steering, power brakes, power windows, power seats, and power vent windows. The only real accessory option was air-conditioning (look for the frenched scoops on the rear fender tops).

With its extremely 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 high end luxury car field with the “Continental” brand. A total of 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 canceled. Ford is said to have lost over $1000 on each car. The very short run of a true milestone car that was, in my opinion, born perfect. I mean really, besides lowering it to the ground, and maybe shaving the decklid, what else would you do to make this car look better?

Just a note, I realized Ryan already posted about this car a few years ago.