There is a guy at my local cruise-in that has a baby blue-ish 56-57 (cant rmember which) convertible with white interior. Rumor is that he paid $150K+ for the car bought done...... must be nice!!! Man is that a fine looking car..... James
I found a white one with a black and white interior on a Lincoln / Mercury used lot. It was in about the condition of a 3 or 4 year old car for $950.
Ryan...I know where one is locked away in Cedar Park..for sale..I don't think there is such a thing as a cheap one anymore
I can remember seeing a white one, roped off with Brink's Guards at the '56 (?) NYC Auto Show. Really impressed my 10 year old eyes and the $10K price...WOW! My dad, a Bell Labs engineer maybe made that in a year. Now all these years later, as an Industrial Designer for the past 35 years I still consider this one of the handful of beautiful U.S. 1950s vintage car designs. This was one of the cars that helped my interest in that there deezign stuff that eventually lead me to my degree at Art Center College of Design as a Trans major. Simply an elegant, beautiful car. DFO
One of the few cars produced that will forever be timeless. Some gal in Cincy owns white one that Ford gave to Sachel Paige; it has a plaque on the dash. Her hubby drives a 300C; it's not bad either. Damned yuppies!
theres one of these for sale locally here right now. i kept staring at the ad imagining how cool a mild custom one would be. i reckon id sell my cadillac for one of these things... hollywood baby!
I Own A 1957 Lincoln Landau Premiere, It's A 4 Door, But Hey, I Ain't Rich. It Was A Wedding Gift To My Wife And I From An Uncle, We Are Now Restoring/ Hot Rodding It Up A Bit. It Has Original Everything. Just Can't Get Parts To Easily. 368's Rule.
It never ceases to amaze me how so many people know so very much more than the designers employed by the various automakers of years past. I still don't understand why those guys earned so much $ per year. After all, ANYBODY with a garage is capable of better designs...
In answer to a couple of posts. Gordon Beuhrig was not a designer of the Mark II. He was the body engineer and came in after the design was finalized. His claim to fame on this car was the tiny "A" pillar. Personally, I like the hump. If it's taken in context, it's a much better design that the typical "continental" kits slapped on cars of the era. I own one of the three convertibles commissioned by Ford Motor Company. Mine was the first one built. One is missing and the last, and most famous, is the Ford show car that ended up being the daily driver for the WCF family. This is my web site: http://cardomain.com/ride/340096
This is one of my favorite cars, too. There's one here in town at the Imperial collection. I printed myself out some free tickets (available on their website), and did my best to take some decent photos. The lighting in there is horrible, and it's too crammed to get a good angle. The driver's side door is not latched, the gaps are perfect. Here they are:
I drive past a Mk II every day on the way to work. It sits under a carport at a mid-century flat roof house. My dream would be to restore it in black paint with deep red leather interior. I would park it in front of the tiki bar that I also own in my dreams.
My 2 ¢ to ad: -George Barris bought one new and besides a copper paint job, he barely customized it. That tells you how strong that stock design is. -The ONLY option on Mark II's is the aforementioned A/C which is easy to spot by the big molded scoop on the top of the rear quarter. I've had these cars high on my list for a while, but they are complex, elaborate vehicles which equals expensive to fix up!
Two things. The a/c scoops were eliminated early on. They found that desert air entering the scoops could not be cooled sufficiently so they went to a recirculating system. The second thing it that I don't find the car to be complicated at all. They probably use twice as many screws as necessary but everything is pretty straight forward.
In my opinion, some cars (like the '40 Lincoln Continental and the '56/'57 Continental MK II) are just about perfect in their factory form and anything done to modify them actually detracts from the original design.
Who WAS the main designer for the MKII??? (Barry2952, I love the story about Beuhrig designing the A pillar, and congrats on the convertible- it's a fantastic car!)
anyone here got a line on valve covers for these cars ????? i have the 368 from one and its killing me i need them to start the damn thing and drrive my hot rod
Many of the Lincoln valve covers fro the era will fit. The cast aluminum Continental valve covers will set you back some serious money.
Read a story about the development of these cars about ten years back. Think it was in an Automobile Quarterly. Testing and troubleshooting the A/C really messed up one of the engineers - he was in and out from the hot outside to the air conditioned car a jillion times; got pneumonia.
will they ??? i am allmost cirtain that other covers will not work and i know the cast ones will cost but i am ready to bend over for em ...id love to know more ?
1952 to 1957 Lincoln engines increased in cubic inches from the 317 CI to 341 in 1955 to 368 in '56. Valve covers from Lincoln Y Blocks from 52 to 57 should all be interchangeable. .
i think the reason most dont think of mk11 often was the $10,000 asking price you could buy a house or a two seat duesenberg
i think the reason most dont think of mk11 often was the $10,000 asking price you could buy a house or a two seat duesenberg
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