By Jim Raymond, Fort Worth, Texas

Originally published in the November/December 2000 issue of Continental Comments (Issue # 237).

Wisely and with great execution, Lincoln had adhered since its inception in 1921 to the automotive maxim, Length times Width times Weight equals luxury. But by 1980 this formula would instead equal violation of federal standards. Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) requirements and emissions regulations were to become ever tighter during the new decade and Lincoln could no longer make a vehicle of the traditional luxury size.

But there was still 1979.  The last of the big ones. And so they created the Collector’s Series, … “to epitomize and commemorate this elegant, era of the traditional Lincoln” , stated the 1979 brochure. Available as an option package on both the Lincoln Continental and Continental Mark V, this car would include as standard equipment, a far greater number of features than any other 1979 Lincoln, and even some not even available on any other Lincoln. They would truly achieve their goal.

Establishing a “drawing room” feel for the interior, Lincoln covered the seats with unique “Khasmin II luxury cloth”, an automotive fabric of the highest quality for the time. Leather was also available. But Khasmin II was not limited to the seats, as Lincoln also used it to wrap the interior garnish moldings and sunvisors. And rather than vinyl for the headliner, Lincoln chose Harvard cloth, another fine fabric. Cushioning the occupant’s feet was 36 ounce Tiffany-cut pile carpeting. This was twice the weight of the floor carpet in the standard Lincoln Continental. Meeting the eyes directly, the padded portion of the dash in the Mark V was covered in real leather, and both the Lincoln Continental and Mark V had a steering wheel with a wood grain insert. To protect the owner’s luggage, the trunk was lined with 18 ounce carpet, the same weight as that used in the interior of the standard Lincoln Continental. Further complimenting the trunk ensemble was a leather-bound tool kit. Protecting the owner’s manual was a handsome leather covering, and protecting the owner himself was a navy blue collapsible umbrella. All of these features were unique to the Collector’s Series cars, as they were not even available on any other Lincoln.

Visible to the general public, the exterior was decorated with triple pinstripes (as opposed to double on other Lincolns), a gold-tone grille, coach lamps, and turbine-style cast aluminum wheels. Two colors were primarily offered for the Collector’s Series, navy blue, and white. However a handful were painted silver metallic (color code 1Y) and a handful, diamond blue metallic (code 38). All Collector’s Series have “Collect” stamped on the cowl tag and include the color code.

The 1979 advertisement to the left shows a Continental Mark V Collector’s Series and a Lincoln Continental Collector’s Series at the John. F Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C.

To be a true luxury car, it must be replete with a host of servants available to one’s beck and call. Thus, in addition to the features on a Continental, standard equipment on a Collector’s Series included the following:

• Automatic headlamps
• Automatic high beam dimmer
• AM-FM stereo 8-track
• Power antenna
• Rear window defroster with heated outside mirrors
• Lighted vanity mirrors, left and right
• Tilt steering wheel
• Cruise control
• Illuminated entry system
• Remote control garage door opener
• Overhead dual beam map/dome lamp
• Power door locks
• Power mini-vent windows
• Delay wipers
• Remote trunk release
• Right-hand remote-control mirror
• Coach roof
• Wide band white sidewall tires

Available as options were traction-lok differential, four-wheel disc brakes with Sure-Track (anti-lock on the rear), engine block heater, heavy duty battery, illuminated outside thermometer, fixed glass moonroof or power moonroof, CB radio, trailer towing package, and leather upholstery. With so much standard there was little left to add.

And so in all respects, Lincoln created a car that epitomized “what a luxury car should be” and which commemorated the era of the traditional-sized luxury vehicle. It truly was conveyance in the grand manner.

Mary Klinger’s 1979 Mark V Collector’s Series

Silver 1979 Lincoln Continental Collector’s Series

ABOVE: 1941 Lincoln Continental Coupe, original factory press release photo.

Originally published in the November/December 2000 issue of Continental Comments (Issue # 237).

1941 Lincoln Continental Honored by Museum of Modern Art 50 Years Ago in 2001

By Ken Goode, Bennington, Vermont

2001 marks the 50th anniversary of the memorable display of a 1941 Lincoln Continental at New York City’s Museum of Modern Art (MoMA). The landmark 1951 exhibition, eight automobiles, featured cars as “hollow, rolling sculpture”.

The eight autos were selected by MoMA’s distinguished director of architecture and design, Philip Johnson.* Mr. Johnson’s choices were suggested by experts who included Raymond Loewy, Howard “Dutch” Darrin, and Cameron Peck. American autos selected, in addition to the Lincoln Continental and foreign makes, were the 1937 Cord and the World War II Jeep, the latter cited as “a beautiful tool for transportation”. Although not displayed, recognition was given to, among others, the 1938 Lincoln-Zephyr, 1939 Cadillac 60 Special, 1947 Studebaker, and 1949 Ford.

The popularity of the eight automobiles led MoMA to mount another auto exhibition in 1953, entitled “Ten Automobiles”. The only American car displayed was the newly-debuted 1953 Studebaker hardtop coupe. MoMA had no subsequent auto exhibit until last year, which focused upon environmentally-friendly, conservational vehicles. The museum has, however, since 1972, maintained a permanent collection of automobiles, beginning with a postwar Cisitalia 202 GT. Added have been a 1990 Ferrari Formula 1 racer and a 1963 Jaguar E-Type roadster.

The displayed Lincoln Continental in 1951 was a light-colored coupe, perhaps Paradise Green or Rockingham Tan. Curiously, the show’s catalog pictured a different car: a dark-colored one, credited to Bimel Kehm. These catalogs are rare … one is owned by Dave Cole. The text, along with photos and the full design analysis of the Continental, was published in OCee Ritch’s 1963 book “The Lincoln Continental.”

On the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the MoMA display, it’s noteworthy to reflect upon the early, stellar recognition bestowed by one of the world’s premier museums upon the classic Lincoln Continental. Today, appreciation and indebtedness to those wonderful, long-ago events is proudly shared by all of us!

61Lincoln Art Wins “Award of Excellence at Pebble Beach

Above:  Ken Eberts with his award winning 1961 Lincoln Continental painting.

LCOC member Ken Eberts received an Award of Excellence at the Pebble Beach Concours d’ Elegance for his painting of a 1961 Lincoln Continental, entered in the Automotive Fine Arts Society Exhibition which is an integral part of the concours.

Ken’s painting titled “The Art of Elegance” plays up the fact that the 1961 Lincoln Continental was one of the most elegant production automobiles ever produced. The Lincoln is surrounded by other forms of artistic elegance, including a model wearing a ‘60s Pierre Cardin ensemble, and the elegant architecture of the Museum of Art.

The message that Ken has tried to get across is that the Lincoln is not only elegant, but is art, in the the same way that the building that houses the fine art is also art.

ABOVE: Randy Mytar’s former 1958 Buick Caballero Station Wagon, which Randy describes as having, “chrome with paint trim”.

By Tim Howley

Originally published in the March/April 2005 issue of Continental Comments (Issue # 263).

In 1958, John Keats wrote a hilariously funny book about the unfunny state of affairs in Detroit at the time the Edsel was introduced. The book is titled The Insolent Chariots. It was widely published in hardback and paperback form. You will still find copies in bookstores and at swap meets. It is well worth reading if you want to know the inside story of the U.S. auto industry when it reached its low point, and the import invasion began in earnest. Keats’ book cites three basic flaws behind the styling of American automobiles in the 1958 era. These are the rustic caution and provincial limitations of the Midwestern mind, creeping Charlie Wilsonism, and the need for maintaining a relatively high used car price. The first flaw is Detroit’s insularity, its one-track mindset, and the total obliviousness to the realities of the motoring world. Detroit sincerely believed that ever bigger, more powerful, ever more garish dreamboats were what Midwestern America wanted, and people in California who drove sports cars and imports were just a bunch of kooks. Creeping Charlie Wilsonism, named after a director of General Motors, concerns pure research vs. applied research, and that most research money in Detroit is spent on styling, and has nothing whatsoever to do with real improvements and more product efficiency. The need to keep used car prices high is quite obvious. If Detroit built longer lasting, smaller more fuel-efficient cars, used car prices would fall through the floor, and the whole industry would collapse. Thus you have the Detroit syndrome, which is designed to keep the whole thing rolling into eternity. But things were about to change.

October, 1957, marked the Soviet’s launching of Sputnik I, and the end of the postwar era of optimism in the U.S. September 4 was the introduction of the Edsel, which could not have come at a less opportune time. By October, it was clear that the Edsel was in trouble. The problem was not the Edsel, itself, which was a pretty good car by 1958 standards. however, it was not innovative mechanically, and its styling was the brunt of comedians’ jokes. As Jack Benny quipped, “Is that a new Edsel, or did somebody let the horse collar out of the bar without the horse?” The problem with the Edsel was that it was not a truly breakthrough car in terms of safety engineering, compact size and good gas economy, which was what the public was beginning to look for by the fall of 1957.

True, 95% of car sales in the U.S. were American, but the other 5% of the cars sold were imports ready to attack, and people were waiting in line for nine months for Volkswagens. The mood of the American public was quickly changing from unbridled optimism to the harsh reality that the U.S. was no longer the technological and ideological leader of the brave new world created by the defeat of Germany and Japan. In fact, Japan was already laying plans for the Toyopet invasion, which began in 1959. Proof that new times were coming was the fact that the Edsel bombed. Ford had made a $250,000,000 gamble on a car originally conceived in 1947, and lost. Never has market research gone more amuck! But the Edsel was only a part of the big circus picture.

1957-58 was the height of sharp practices in selling cars. It was not only dealer practices but factory practices as well. High-balling, low-balling, sweat rooms, hyped up sales events, dealers being forced to take on more cars than they could profitably sell, factory and dealer financing sharp practices, the silliness and high cost of annual styling changes, cars that totally ignored safety, and above all no sticker price. It took the government in the late sixties to mandate that factories put plainly market retail prices on the windows of all automobiles, listing the base price, price of options, shipping costs, etc. Still even this did not reflect the true price of a car because there were factory rebates to dealers, and all manner of dealer incentives not passed on to the public.

Another factor, especially in the late fifties, was the poor workmanship, the inconsistency of quality, and the notorious Monday and Friday built cars. 1957-58 has often been cited as the height of poor quality. The 1957 Ford, as beautiful as it was in the Fairlane series, was a slap-dab piece of workmanship. Moreover, the design of the car encouraged early rustout, and in those days nobody was putting primers on the inside of the sheet metal. In 1959, Ford began a quality control program that did not really show results until about 1964. Yes, the industry was in a mess in 1958, and the styling of the cars only gave a hint of all the problems.

Keats’ book tells how and why the imports got a stronghold. He writes, “In 1952, when only 27,000 foreign cars were sold in this country, Detroit paid no attention to them. As one dealer said at the time, ‘there’ll always be a few nuts’. By 1955, foreign car sales had doubled to 54,000 units. Detroit shrugged: “What percentage of 6,000,000 is 54,000?”

By Tim Chappell, Lincoln-Mercury Public Affairs

Originally published in the Third Quarter 1994 issue of Continental Comments (Issue # 199).

Ford Motor Company Thinks Global and Acts Local

Detroit, July 29—The business world today finds itself in a global marketplace in which information can travel the globe in a matter of seconds, and the actions of a person in Australia can immediately influence the decisions of a person in Texas.

So how do businesses adapt to these global changes? According to Ed Hagenlocker, newly appointed president of Ford Automotive Operations, “businesses must adapt by thinking global, but acting local.”

For the past year and a half, Ford has had a series of study teams evaluating the operation of the company’s worldwide automotive business as a single profit center using common engineering, design and manufacturing processes. This movement to a global operation, which internally is called “Ford 2000”, will be implemented starting January 1, 1995.”

One of the principal goals of ‘Ford 2000’ is to eliminate duplication of design and engineering efforts and product investments in our operations,” said Hagenlocker. “We also want to become quicker in our response time to customers, our concept-to-market cycle times and in all our decision making processes.”

Initially, “Ford 2000” will merge the company’s American and European operations with the eventual goal of incorporating the company’s Asian, Latin American and Australian operations as well.

The movement to global operations will create five Vehicle Centers that will have cradle to grave responsibility for the design, manufacture and sales of vehicle lines assigned to the centers. Four Vehicle Centers will be located in Dearborn, Michigan and one will be located in Europe.

The Vehicle Centers located in Dearborn will be responsible for 1) large front wheel drive (FWD) vehicles, 2) rear wheel drive cars, 3) light trucks and 4) commercial trucks. The European Vehicle Center will be responsible for small to medium size FWD vehicles. Through the use of satellites, teleconferencing, computer aided design and computer aided manufacturing and other state of the art technology, any Vehicle Center will be able to share information, design and processes with any other Vehicle Center.

Simply put, “Ford 2000” will ensure that Ford’s worldwide resources and inputs are fully capitalized in the product development process and will build on the lessons learned from the global development of the Mercury Mystique, Ford Contour and the European Ford Mondeo.

Although the structure of Lincoln-Mercury generally will not change as a result of “Ford 2000,” from a customer’s perspective there will be differences. “Ford 2000” will result in faster response times to changes in customers’ preferences and demands as well as the production of more high quality, world-class vehicles—which will be good for the customer, the dealer organization and Lincoln-Mercury.

EDITOR’S NOTE:  For those of you who may not know, Wixom, Michigan has been the Lincoln assembly plant since 1958.

ABOVE:  Brad Griffin and his 1978 Continental Mark V

By John D. Griffin, Auburn, Maine

Originally published in the Third Quarter 1994 issue of Continental Comments (Issue # 199).

When my son first obtained his driver’s license, his next thoughts were of a car, initially, what every teen-aged American boy wanted—a Firebird or a Camaro. When dad pointed out that insurance companies view the combination of teenage male drivers and Firebirds as highly combustible and rate them accordingly, he was crushed. Was he doomed to cruise in a four-cylinder, four-door sedan? Oh, the shame! Even the promised occasional use of dad’s Lincoln Town Car was not the solution. But the world of Lincoln did provide a solution, in the form of a sleek, black 1978 Continental Mark V. It was a beauty—turbine wheels, silver landau roof, and best of all, electric moon roof. The car had high mileage, but was well cared for, having been traded following a minor rear-end collision. This was not a Firebird or Camaro—it was far more—it was  truly a “gentleman’s hot rod”, with its 460 cid. four-barrel carb V-8 and dual exhaust system. With a near mint interior and a silky, smooth drive train, all it needed was the minor collision repair and a proud new owner. It got both and more! With an upgraded sound system and the necessary body work, it was off to school on a daily basis.

Pride of ownership was soon evident and it was never again to face the harsh Maine winters but was allowed to rest peacefully in indoor storage under a car cover until spring returned. Cars of lesser stature became winter transportation. Pride of ownership and the fact that the car was unique among his peer group led to the formation of the Mark V Club—five friends who remain friends to this day— complete with their own distinctive logo, carried out on T-shirts and jackets.

The sleek beauty is still just that, even with nearly 140,000 miles on the odometer. Pride of ownership leads to proper upkeep and breeds responsibility. What could have been just another car has become a permanent and treasured possession, giving to its owner superb Lincoln performance in return for a modest investment in loving care. Now the teen-ager is an adult, out in the work-a-day world, driving other Mark V automobiles, but as surely as the season comes, the original Mark V emerges in the spring, to be once again a thing of beauty and a real driving experience. Hopefully, this enjoyable cycle will continue indefinitely as its owner has now come of age, yet always remained true to his first automobile love.