Laborious research has shown that Ford did indeed offer a Lincoln Mark VII appearance group for the ’85 Thunderbird. It was, like the diesel option in the Mark VII, cancelled after Ford realized the pronounced lack of enthusiasm for it. My research also revealed that two copies of the often- rumored-and-never-documented “Mark Bird” were produced. Enjoy this one, as the other one likely had its wings clipped long ago.
Not good.
If I remember correctly in the mid to late 80’s dealers would install these fiberglass “attachments” to Fox Thunderbirds/Cougars so they would resemble the Mark VII. Not very good looking if you ask me.
Neat find. Looks a bit like a tumor though.
Not a good look,like a little girl dressing up in mum’s high heels
I think tbe mak/bird that the trunk lid came from may have had its wings clipped long ago
Thats what I thought first but doesn’t the Marks trunk go all the way down to the bumper?
Looks more like T-Bird owner went to the local pick N pull and swapped in a Lincoln decklid, to me the the colors don’t completely jibe.
These are more like ‘why bother’ JC Whitney accessories and not nearly as bad as the two foot long extended bumper ‘continental kits’ stuck to the rear of some poor 1950’s cars – those are truly heinous.
+1. I really do not care for ’50s continental kits.
I hate to agree, but I can’t stand the extended continental kits. I have a NOS Eldo kit that I doubt I’ll ever install on my 78. Makes a too big car even bigger.
I had understood that this was an attempt to market a lower priced Mark VII for use in rental fleets. The idea was to put Lincoln interior, grille, trunklid and wheels on a V6 TBird. The rental company could charge luxury car rates and make a ton. At the end of the year, all cars would be returned to Ford. The Lincoln parts would be removed and refitted to new TBirds for the rental companies, and then Ford could sell the year old T birds with a new car smell. Everyone would win.
The plan unraveled when Hertz unwittingly rented an early prototype to an FTC attorney who raised the hood to check on a plume of steam following a head gasket failure on the 3.8 V6. Legal action was threatened and the project was shut down with all cars destroyed and everyone involved signing confidentiality agreements, which finally expired on February 15th. I understand that the Wall Street Journal will be running an in-depth feature on the program in the near future.
April 1 is still a month away. Let me get this straight. They were going to dress up T-Birds as fake Lincolns and rent them AS Lincolns, or were they going to advertise them as T-Birds? I think most people would catch on if the case was the former.
As you point out, April 1 is coming. A guy has to get some practice in. 🙂
Not to mention the cost of all that stripping out & swapping work would outweigh any savings. Nice one though!
The same but different in 1980s New Zealand. We didn’t have Lincolns In New Zealand, but the top car in Ford’s lineup was the Australian-built Ford LTD. So for much of the mid-late 1980s, Ford dealers often applied a sharp-edged fake chrome grille, reminiscent of the LTD’s, to low-spec cars in an attempt to make them look expensive. The LTD’s lesser sibling, the XF Falcon looked almost convincing with the fake grille almost complementing its sharper-edged lines. But some dealers also popped the grille on the blob-shaped Ford Telstar, which was not a good look. Nowadays most such afflicted Fords are thankfully long-gone, but there are still a few XF wagons operating as hearses that wear the grille and remind us of the decade thattaste forgot…!
Do want. But only with the 5.0. Its campy in a good way.
I don’t like it but it’s a thing of beauty compared to the Mopar toilet seat!
Heresy! It worked on the Valiant!
Back when the Fox Mark was introduced, some of us at work joked that the company (or dealers) should offer a de-Continental kit for those wishing to be rid of that silly lump on the deck lid. Little did we know that there would be some T-bird owners who were envious of the silly lump.
The spare tire hump decklid is a styling feature that seems destined to haunt Lincolns and some of their Ford brothers for many years to come. Just yesterday, I was stuck in traffic right behind a 2003- Town Car with a fake spare tire hump decklid grafted onto it. I find them appealing in a campy throwback way on older Marks, but they look out of place on anything newer than a Mark V.
“I find them appealing in a campy throwback way on older Marks, but they look out of place on anything newer than a
Mark V1948 model.” There, I fixed it.Okay, I can see why they kept on with the hump – subtlety doesn’t sell a lot of high-end cars – but I think that any of the cars from the 56-57 Mark II on up would have looked better without the hump.
The funny thing is the inbuilt decklid spoilers on some Mazdas like the Gen II MX5 look a little like a baby Continental hump…
Every time I drove a Mark VII or Mk VIII or was it IIX, lol, I liked the cars, except for the embarrassing junk on the trunk. That feature should have been put to sleep after the Mk VI. Grille theme was fine though, still much better than the lousy generic styling on the current Lincolns… Red, White and Bold, ummm, used to be, so, so long ago…