Re: Clippers at the Motor Muster.
Posted by Mahoning63 On 2015/6/24 20:57:28
The Mk II was yet another botched experiment on Ford's part. It's incredible how many false starts the company had in a these years. Besides it and the Edsel there was also a 2 year only '62 Mercury Meteor that was only a slightly longer than the Comet. Sales went nowhere.
The Mark II was, imho, a big missed opportunity on Ford's part. I like the idea behind the car and think part of its sales failure was due to too few dealers. At the Motor Muster there was a 2nd gen T-Bird, the first from Wixom. Did you see it Steve203? Was medium blue with dark blue convertible top. Beautiful!!! As I admired it couldn't help but envision a '589 Continental Mk III (maybe '59... let T-Bird work the bugs out of Wixom the first year) with extended hood, restrained body panels and top tier materials inside. Price would have dropped from $10K to $7K and sales jumped to at 5,000 units per year, maybe double. Only 2-door coupe and convertible would be offered, whereas with Packard maybe only a 4 door. Maybe both would be sold together.
Here's what a '61 Mark IV might have looked like. Try to imagine it as narrower T-Bird rather than wider Continental. I show it with an actual '61 Lincoln Continental for comparison. Also threw in a Packardized Conti on 131 wb in attempt to see what a follow-up Wixom-based Packard might have looked like. I prefer the BoF car in earlier post. But I definitely like the Wixom effort for 2 door personal coupes in Ford and Conti configurations. McPherson had the right idea and one of the right cars. He and the rest of them shouldn't have let the Mk II personal coupe disappear.
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The Mark II was, imho, a big missed opportunity on Ford's part. I like the idea behind the car and think part of its sales failure was due to too few dealers. At the Motor Muster there was a 2nd gen T-Bird, the first from Wixom. Did you see it Steve203? Was medium blue with dark blue convertible top. Beautiful!!! As I admired it couldn't help but envision a '589 Continental Mk III (maybe '59... let T-Bird work the bugs out of Wixom the first year) with extended hood, restrained body panels and top tier materials inside. Price would have dropped from $10K to $7K and sales jumped to at 5,000 units per year, maybe double. Only 2-door coupe and convertible would be offered, whereas with Packard maybe only a 4 door. Maybe both would be sold together.
Here's what a '61 Mark IV might have looked like. Try to imagine it as narrower T-Bird rather than wider Continental. I show it with an actual '61 Lincoln Continental for comparison. Also threw in a Packardized Conti on 131 wb in attempt to see what a follow-up Wixom-based Packard might have looked like. I prefer the BoF car in earlier post. But I definitely like the Wixom effort for 2 door personal coupes in Ford and Conti configurations. McPherson had the right idea and one of the right cars. He and the rest of them shouldn't have let the Mk II personal coupe disappear.
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