(first posted 1/16/2012) One of these days, we’ll have to take up the 1961 – 1970 Lincoln Continental story again, in more detail (update: we did, here). Curiously, the coupe version doesn’t play a big role in that otherwise epic chapter, since it didn’t arrive until 1966, and then sold in relatively small quantities, both in relation to the four door sedan as well as its direct competitor, the Cadillac Coupe DeVille. Laurence Jones caught one of these increasingly rare (in the wild) coupes. I’m not waiting that long.
When the celebrated ’61 Lincoln arrived, it did so only in four door form, including the convertible. Lincoln’s whole existence was on shaky grounds, after successive losses with the Mark II and the failed ’58 – ’60 models. The four door only approach was a way to cut costs in a last-chance shot for the ’61 to redeem itself. Which it did, mostly. Not that it sold all that well, but enough combined with a slimmed down Lincoln operation to turn a modest profit. Which gave Lincoln the reprieve, as well as the money to tool up a coupe for 1966.
Of course, in a way it almost wasn’t worth it, since the new-for 1968 Continental Mark III probably soaked up more of the coupe market than might have been anticipated.
The ’66 – ’67 had a different roof line than the ’68, echoing both the four-door Lincoln as well as the ’63 Grand Prix. For 1968, the roof was redone, to reflect the new direction of the Mark III.
The coupe may have bolstered total Lincoln sales for the first couple of years, but the Mark III soon was outselling by 2.5 to 1. Hardly surprising, either. The Mark III was in tune with the time, ushering in a whole era. Or was it writing the melody? Meanwhile, the full size coupes would slowly wither away and die.
Too much rear overhang for my taste. Also, the bonnet is too long. It looks as if a straight-8 would fit in well. A wasteful, and not entirely good-looking car, though it has good road presence. Better-looking, to my eyes, than the MkIII, especially the front grille.
I’ve not understood Lincoln’s brand positioning at all. What does it compete with? Cadillac? MB? Packard? Is it a luxurious isolation capsule or a small tight corner carver (Bill Blass edition vs LSC)? This position muddle continues to this day, unfortunately.
You, sir, ask the question that has puzzled people for years. Lincoln started out in the 1920s as a competitor to Packard and Cadillac. The great Model K series of the 1930s was a tremendous car. Then came the Zephyr, which was a Buick/LaSalle competitor.
Ever since, Lincoln has had this almost bipolar personality: It makes a run at being a genuine luxury car, then failing and retreating into Buick or even Oldsmobile territory.
The 1949-51 line even had two Lincolns – the Cosmopolitan (the high end) and the regular, that was more of a Buick fighter. The 1952-55 Lincolns were much like today – better Fords or Mercuries. Then 1956-57 saw them reaching again, and the 1958-60 was the ultimate failed attempt to “out-Cadillac” Cadillac.
The 1961-69 Lincoln was probably the car’s golden era, as it was considered a genuine Cadillac competitor, and slowly built prestige and volume which carried over in to the 1970s. These 60s Lincolns provided the credibility for the Mark series in the 1970s, which were the most expensive U.S. cars at the time.
Lincoln started to coast in the 1970s, using very little in the way of unique components, but still trying to be high-end. Ever since, there have been halfhearted attempts to become a credible luxury brand, with occasional glimpses of success, but more often, failure.
I remain perplexed at how a company the size of the Ford Motor Company has been unable or unwilling to invest in a proper luxury flagship car for Lincoln.
I wonder whether it makes sense for Ford to invest in Lincoln at all. Its volume is perhaps 100K units and is only sold in US of all big markets. All the other luxury makes are way more global, even Cadillac is in a better situation as it sells in China.
Creating a new distinctive range for Lincoln would be a huge investment for Ford with impact only in the domestic market which is already very saturated with luxury brands. Introducing Lincoln as a new luxury brand in BRIC or Europe where it is totally unknown would be another huge investment and the money would probably be better spent by promoting Ford brand in China.
Fiat is in a similar situation with Lancia and Alfa Romeo, both with great brand recognition in the domestic market but with volumes way too low to warrant big investment. That’s why half-hearted attempts to provide Alfa with new models and late introduction to US and the non strategy for Lancia consisting of one small distinctive supermini and lots of grille engineered Chryslers.
The bottom line is, a big investment in Lincoln or Alfa or Lancia is very unlikely to pay off.
Two issues with that, the first being there is a point beyond which people won’t buy a vehicle with a down-market badge on it. The second is the experience of Audi, from a very poor position in the late 80’s it has grown exponentially.
From my limited perspective, since they’ve abandoned the Yank Tank paradigm (for better or worse), both Caddy & Lincoln are just more Audi/BMW/Benz wannabes in the prestige market, which itself seems pretty pointless given the luxury available on mass-market models nowadays, plus the ludicrous gulf between Interstate speed limits & luxury-car top speeds (which are often governed).
Audi could change their status because unlike Detroit brands, they can play the “German Engineering” marketing card. This is apparently the only acceptable form of German chauvinism.
Audi has plenty more than “German Engineering” in its marketing plan! How about consistent wins in racing? How about very consistent design language? How about interiors better than anyone else’s? Audi has spent the last 25 years bouncing back from their “unintended acceleration” nightmare the old fashioned way: producing aspirational cars people want to buy, consistent marketing, and “win on Sunday, sell on Monday” racing success.
The plan has be laid out for Lincoln by Audi. Of course racing does not fit with Lincoln branding , but all other factors do. Say goodbye to McCounahey, and concentrate on consistent product and marketing for 20 years.
I didn’t claim Audi is merely a paper tiger, but that German industry promotes a self-serving ethnic stereotype, supposedly a Bad Thing that the German media loves to point out when Americans do it.
Sure they make good cars, but that’s no excuse for ethnic boasting.
I’ve not understood Lincoln’s brand positioning at all. What does it compete with? Cadillac? MB? Packard? Is it a luxurious isolation capsule or a small tight corner carver (Bill Blass edition vs LSC)? This position muddle continues to this day, unfortunately.
Can’t the same be applied to must “luxury” marques today, especially now that many include luxury sedans, performance-tuned sedans, sports cars, and CUV/SUVs under the same banner? A luxury brand no longer defines a type of vehicle, but a full lineup of vehicles in a certain (high) price class. Of course, using those metrics, Lincoln fails again.
> Of course, using those metrics, Lincoln fails again.
You said it! It is hard to find a metric that can at least be semi-consistently applied to Lincoln. Not even high price.
thank God for the show, ‘entourage’.
That is a beautiful car. I could see how it would be overshadowed by the Continental Mark III, but it was a beautiful car in it’s own right. Could it be configured as a Town Coupe´, or did that label only come about with the 1970-79 models?
The Town Car/Town Coupe started as a top-of-the-line trim option on the 1973 big Continental. I believe that by the end of the 1970s, most of the cars sold were of the Town Car/Town Coupe trim level. I believe that the Town Car became an actual model in 1981.
Right. In 1980 all the Panther body Lincolns were either Mark VIs or Continentals. In 1981, all Continentals were renamed Town Cars, making the Town Car designation a model name, rather than the trim level it was from 1973 to 1980. This was probably done in advance of the Fox body Continental, which came out in 1982.
Actually, there was what you might call a Town Car in 1969. It was the name of an “ultra luxury” interior option. It was not a model; there was nothing on the outside of the car to distinguish it from any other Continental.
I can’t find any mention of it in my brochures through ’68 or from ’70-’72, so it must have been a one-year-only kind of thing.
I had forgotten about the 1969. There was also a Town Car interior package on the ’72 Continentals. It may have been a mid-year introduction, but it is shown in the ’72 Lincoln literature I have.
A great find and a nice writeup on one of my favorite cars. It is interesting that only Cadillac had a lot of success with its two door models. Imperial’s Crown Coupe was always a slow seller, as were these Continental coupes.
I can think of one other reason why the Connie coupe was a slow seller – Back then, EVERYBODY thought that the suicide doors on the Lincoln sedans were one of its coolest features. They were a defining charistic of these cars, and one of the things that really distinguished the car from the rest. Even my father, a dedicated 2-door guy, once told me after he got his 70 Mark III that if the big Lincoln had still come with the suicide doors that year (the ’69 was the last one), he would have chosen one of those instead.
Judging by eBay the 70s Town Coupes have much higher survival rates.
There is a lemon yellow Town Coupe for sale on one of the main drags in Moline, a ’78 or ’79 with the forged alloy wheels. Looks pretty good, but I don’t think that’s a factory color!
You know, perhaps it’s just me, but with very few exceptions, GM and even in a few cases Chrysler has outclassed Ford in the styling department and the example above is no exception.
That Lincoln coupe is a rather nice-looking car, but for my money, I would have gone straight to Cadillac or even Imperial. In my humble opinion, it only holds a dimming candle to a comparable Caddy. Of course I’m going on looks alone. The mechanicals and reliability? I could only guess how it would stack up to Cadillac at that time.
As in previous posts, the only Fords that attracted me other than the Mustangs were the mid-60’s Galaxies and the late ’60’s Torinos. At that time I lived and breathed Impalas, Chevelles, Camaros, Corvettes and Novas with Firebirds and GTOs and Gran Sports and Cutlasses. After 1968, Impalas dropped off that list along with every other full-sized car.
One’s taste in styling is subjective. I always thought the ’61-’69 Lincolns (except for the MkIII) had a much cleaner, more elegant and understated look than the comparable Caddys and Imperials of the era. Of course, Lido changed Lincoln’s design ethos with the MkIII, which presaged what was soon to come in the crass “baroque” era of the ’70s.
I really thought that these cars were very classy, and had a certain understated elegance about them, especially if done in a darker colour than the curbside car. By 1969, the Imperial moved to the large fueslage format, which looked too much like lesser Chrysler’s, and Caddy still looked good, but with a cheaper interior than the Lincoln. There was a coupe near me for sale in the most awful period bile green colour, that would look fantastic in black, dark blue, etc. The workmanship of the Lincoln interior was really good, and I recall that performance bested Caddy in a 1970 Motor Trend comparison…Was this the first year for the 460, or did the ’69 still have the 462?
The 460 was phased in gradually over 1968, so you can find either 460 or 462 cars in that year. By ’69, it was strictly 460. The MEL engine(462 in this car)
was a boat anchor, akin to a jumbo 352, although it was a different design from the FE.. The 460 385-Lima series was a quantum leap forward.
The Mark III, into’d in mid-68, started with the 460.
Lincoln? Don’t forget Frank Cannon-
My memories of this era was my fat cat boss borrowing $5 to feed his 460. Now when the 80s came around I was interested in the lincoln. An 85 and 86 despite almost identical appearance were totally different models. The 86 sealed my memory of the lincoln as a good car. The old ones with the rock crusher engines – not so much.
My dad bought a 85 Lincoln Continental Givenchy brand new. My grandmother bought a 1986 Ford Crown Victoria. When he saw the engine in her Ford he slammed the hood and dropped the F-bomb about the fuel injection or something. She never forgave him for it.
He was probably Po’d that she got the Sequential Multiport while he was stuck with the TBI.
Ive never liked the Lido lincolns the earlier model has nice lines like it was styled by someone who knew what they were doing but Lido just glued ugly bits of shit all over what could have been a nice looking car Not for me fake radiator shell and fake continental kit and the awful baroque opera windowed turd between them the earlier version despite its tank like size is preferable.
I own a 71 Lincoln Continental Mark 3 Coupe and it is a large car. I love it!
And anyone with $3,700 can buy this car! It’s still for sale. “Runs Great!”
there was a coupe??!!
In case you were asking me, I used the word coupe as opposed to ‘two door’ because I thought it sounded better. This is not my car, but it looks similar to this:
This was as big as any 2 Dr Hdtp ever got during the ’60’s. Someone earlier said that the 4 Dr models were the draw because of the suicide doors—I agree. The 2 Dr Continental did not sell because it was not different enough from the Cads and the Imperials. But it is still a striking car which was very well made.
Though, even if it didn’t sell well, Lincoln still offered both a Mark coupe and a Continental coupe through at least 1980 or 81. Kinda like Cadillac still had a Coupe de Ville and an Eldorado.
Unlike earlier Lincoln coupes, the 1980-81 regular Lincoln coupe was just hideous looking. My father traded a gorgeous 78 Town Coupe on an 80 Town Coupe. That 1980 coupe was one of the worst-proportioned cars I ever saw. Sales must have been terrible, because I don’t think that the coupe survived to the 82 model year.
It didn’t survive and it was strange, sort of like the Mark VI of that same vintage, but with a big square opera window and the square back end of the early 80’s Town Car with the panel of reflectors instead of the Marks “hump”.
Considering that the Coupe De Ville was Cadillac’s best-selling single model into the 1970s, Lincoln’s failure to offer a hardtop coupe until the 1966 model year is somewhat surprising.
While the suicide-door Continentals were developed under a very tight budget, I also wonder if the close relationship between the Continental and Thunderbird was another reason for the lack of a Lincoln hardtop coupe. The 1961 Continental and Thunderbird shared a cowl, and their kinship is also evident in the grille and headlights. Perhaps a Continental coupe would have been viewed as treading too close to Thunderbird territory.
Note that the 1961 Continental originally began as a proposal for the 1961 Thunderbird. Robert McNamara saw it, and liked it, but felt that it would make a better Lincoln than Thunderbird. So he ordered the stylists to lengthen it and add two doors.
I would agree that this car does not look good, although I like the four-door sedan version. By the mid-1960s, the REALLY big cars had gotten so big that they simply did not look good as two-door hardtops. The post-1964 Coupe De Villes, Ninety-Eights and Electras really aren’t attractive as hardtop coupes, but make handsome four-doors. Same with the Imperials after 1963, and Chrysler New Yorkers after 1964.
Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh Gahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhd I’m lusting.
As a kid I thought the Lincoln represented REAL Money, people who HAD it and didn’t need to shout it.
Owned by Non Followers ( ie. as opposed to Cadillac owners posing in THEE car to be seen in)
I remember knowing it meant something when in 1970 or so The Lincolns traded in their Lincoln for a Mercedes Benz sedan in grey. If The Lincolns didn’t want to drive a Lincoln, WHY?
Cadillacs were more Nuevo Riche in my NJ hood… and it seemed like EVERYONE had one… down to the Sanitation workers who must have lusted until they could be stylin’ in their pre-owned Caddy.
That was pretty much my impression too: “If you’ve got it, don’t flaunt it.” Obviously this was (and still is) a minority attitude in America, reflected in Iaccoca’s Mark series, which went in the opposite direction & were big sellers. They were showboats.
My grandfather, however, was a Cadillac man despite being Old School in every other respect. He owned GM & other Blue Chip stocks which did him very well back then.
See the Disney movie “Saving Mr. Banks” for that nice Conti limo.
I like these a lot. The Mark III has been kind of tainted in my eyes after reading Iococca’s book where he described the Mark III’s design process as “put a Rollls Royce grill on a T-bird and see how that looks. Come on Ford guys, is that your A game?
As much as I love the 1961-69 Lincoln Continental’s I prefer the roofline of the 1966-67’s over the 1968-69’s, for some reason the roofline of the 1968-69’s reminds me of the roofline used in the 1969-70 Ford LTD/Mercury Marquis coupes.
Agree the roofline is a step backwards, though the ’68 pictured is still a good looking car. The hearing aid beige example with the lady in the yellow hat picture has got to be the worst color ever for this car. Dad’s ’67Conti in silver with a black vinyl roof (looked good, not normally a vinyl roof fan) really gave his 2 door a nice upscale but low key look. The 462 had no problem hitting 120 mph and would tow the loaded up car and Shasta trailer up the steepest mountain grades easily and without complaint, as long as he didn’t try to pass a gas station.
If I’d been in the market for a 2-dr luxury coupe in 1968, and was looking at Lincoln, I would definitely have gone for the Mark III, way more stylish. This thing is just butt-ugly and ill-proportioned. Yuck.
Curiously, the Town Coupes of the ’70s were just as big but somehow looked much better.
Well, my Dad had a 69 Lincoln coupe which was about the same as this. It was big and spacious inside and it was pretty fast. This was a great highway car. The unit construction made for a tight fit under the hood, a problem shared by Thunderbird. I liked the car but it lacked the dynamic quality of the Coupe de Ville. From the early 50s to the end of the 70s the CDV was the car to beat. I had a 66 Lincoln sedan which had the cool suicide doors but I really thought my 70 CDV was it! That car had the greatest sharp lines, terrific seats, great handling and a powerful 472 v8. It’s no wonder why the Continental and Imperial coupes couldn’t compete. I later got my dream car , a 77 CDV (only two years old). Even better than the 70. The Cadillac name was magic. How were they stupid enough to lose that?
Nice looking car. I’ve never seen a 2 door 1968 Lincoln Continental before. I’ve seen the Lincoln Mark III, but I’ve never seen a 2 door Continental. I didn’t think the two door Continental came until 1970 🙂
a very handsome and stylish big boat, elegant!
Always look forward to Lincoln write-up – nice article. I have a 67 Coupe so you could say I’m a little biased, but I much prefer both the roof and more “pure” look of the 66-67 coupes. The basic design was much cleaner and the lengthened roof-line gave it a more flowing look. The close-cropped more formal roof adopted in 68 made it look less balanced.
When the unibody was replaced with the body on frame car in 70, the coupe roof-line went back to a more flowing style – unfortunately, the car still sold in low numbers – and with the next re-style in 75, went again to the formal look with the Town Coupe. No doubt the success of the Mark III, and even greater success of the Mark IV influenced those decisions.
Count me as one who prefers the ’66-’67 coupe to the ’68 because of its more chiseled look. Back in the day, you hardly ever saw the ’68-’69 coupes with the bare metal roof – vinyl seemed to be the order of the day.
I like its lack of vinyl. All things considered I do prefer the 66-67 roofline, but those two years have my least favorite nose styling of the entire run. Seems as if they took the ’65 grille/lamps (which resembles Mercury too closely) and gave it a heavy “brow” with the taller hood profile. The subtle changes and wraparound indicators of the ’68 mitigate the problem.
And while the proportions may not be for everyone, I am fond of these coupes. I like the Mark III also – despite its role in the Broughamification of the 70’s, I think it has nice lines–but these Continental coupes are both rarer and cleaner.
The ’68-’69 Continental coupe ‘formalized’ roofline wasn’t complimentary, resulted in a heavy, frumpy look for what had had a spritely, sporty ’66-’67. In general, the tinkering with the ’68 and ’69 Continental styling details weren’t an improvement, looked indifferent and uninspired, done just to give a different look without looking as if much thought went into the effort.
I agree, the ’66-’67 is much nicer, especially without a vinyl top.
Further: For 1966, Lincoln campaigned a show car named “The Coronation Coupe” which was based the new coupe with fully blind quarters as was in production on the new-for-’66 Thunderbird Town Landau. For ’68, such a configuration might have been a better choice rather than the ‘formalized’ coupe as built. If the impression of privacy and exclusivity was their aim, nothing was as affective as the fully blind quartered coupe that evoked the Classic Era convertible victorias.
This Lincoln coupe is great. It is so uncommon that it surprises people when they see it. I also like the more formal roofline for some reason and I really like that beige-white color in the pic with the yellow hat woman. Great, warm color. I’m tired of the washing machine-white look that so prevalent today. The Mark III is also a great car, of course, but these couples are more subtle and mature.