Re: 2018 Concours at St. John's

Posted by 58L8134 On 2018/9/2 7:11:17

On the Lincoln and Continental name usage question: After the failure of the Continental Mark II, Lincoln-Mercury Division learned to differentiate the Continental idea into (1) a specific styling theme, (2) a marketing device:

(1) The first was defined as a long hood/short deck/close-coupled personal luxury coupe or cabriolet with externally-mounted spare or a representation thereof. "Continental" had named this configuration, first as the 1940-'48 "Lincoln Continental", then as the 1956-'57 "Continental Mark II". Prior its 1958 application, this is what 'Continental' identified.

(2) The second 'Continental' simply designated the finest, top-of-the-line, most fully-power-equipped, quality-crafted, stylish luxury car, not a specific proportional configuration. Taking a page from English automaker playbook, the appending of "Mark" with a Roman Numeral after designated a successor series, plus a further touch of class. If ever there was a marketing concept to exploit to the maximum, Detroit never shied away from doing so.

Applying the "Continental Mark" designation to each of the 1958 through 1960 top-line models was nothing more than another tool to enforce the latter concept with reference to the former, however seemingly inappropriate. Plainly, the public could see the 1958 Continental Mark III was not in the vein of the prior Continentals. Prior Continentals had been far more than grilles, taillights and trim changes, a reverse-angle retractable rear window applied to a production Lincoln platform.

With the emerging personal luxury coupe segment during the mid-late 1960's, Lincoln-Mercury marketing chose to ignore the prior inappropriate application of "Mark" to cars whose proportions did not conform to the original configuration named by that designation. "Continental" by then had simply come to definite their finest luxury car whether sedan, coupe or convertible.

Seconding Paul's idea, Lincoln should have continued the '56-'57 body into '58, then continued with BoF construction sharing platform with the '59-'60 Mercury Park Lane. A unique long hood/short deck Continental Mark coupe on the Thunderbird platform would have reentered the market in the early 1960's.

Steve