(first posted 8/31/2012) Thirty-five years ago the Personal Luxury car was in its prime. Forget four-door Continentals, Sedan de Villes and Imperials: This was the Me Decade, after all, which meant that sumptuous, long-hooded, short-decked coupes were in. SUVs? What are those? Oh, you must mean off-road station wagons. Sure, forest rangers and ranchers might like them, but people simply are not seen in them, if you know what I mean. Perhaps the era’s ultimate personal luxury car was the Continental Mark IV: all hood, basically a two-seater and 10 miles per gallon–if you were lucky. But man, was it lush!
The Continental Mark IV was one of the last cars approved by soon-to-be-ex Ford President Bunkie Knudson. The original Mark IV proposal, created under Ford Design VP Gene Bordinat, was much more similar to the outgoing Mark III; however, Bunkie had the last word and so an alternate proposal, with curved sides, was chosen instead.
The original 1972 version was the purest iteration of the Mark IV. It was spared the big, federally mandated front and rear bumpers tacked on in 1973 and 1974, respectively. While the Mark IV retained the long-hood, short-deck proportions of the Mark III, the cars shared little else but a simulated spare tire hump on the deck lid.
image: californiastreets.blogspot.com
My grandfather liked it well enough to order a new one from Bob Neal Lincoln-Mercury: Dark Green Metallic, with matching vinyl roof and leather interior. It replaced a triple dark green ’68 Mark III. The only story I have about the Mark IV is that one winter morning when he was getting ready to go to the office, the Mark wouldn’t start in the subzero temperature. Dad had to drive him to work in his beater ’54 VW!
At any rate, the Mark did very well, selling 48,591 units despite its stiff $8,640 sticker. It sold remarkably better than the ’71 Mark III, which found 27,091 buyers. Period ads proclaimed, “In all the 1970s, this will be the unique American car.” Although the Mark hadn’t exactly invented the personal luxury segment, the ad was correct as far as it went. The Mark IV and Eldorado were the top two luxury cars in America. That fact, and several memorable Motor Trend “King of the Hill” comparison tests, prompted many middle-class buyers who couldn’t afford the real thing to go for “mini-Mark” Cougars, Montego MX Broughams and Ford Elites. And that oval opera window (optional in ’72, but so popular it became standard in ’73) would be a prominent Lincoln cue through the end of the decade.
As the ’70s wore on, the Mark IV remained a popular choice among luxury coupes, with sales zooming to 69,437 in 1973. Even in 1974, with Gas Crisis I in full swing, sales totaled 57,316–more than in 1972, despite that it was basically the same car. What, then, could be done to keep consumer interest high? Special editions, of course!
First up was the Silver Luxury Group Mark IV for 1973. As you might expect, it featured metallic silver paint with a silver Cavalry Twill vinyl roof. The interior was cranberry velour, with leather optional.
The silver Mark continued for 1974, and was joined by (you guessed it) a Gold Luxury Group. Described in the ’74 L-M brochure shown above. these special Marks opened the door for even more “Boutique” Luxury Groups that further gilded an already well-equipped car. By 1975, there were Silver; Lipstick and White; Saddle and White; and Blue Diamond Luxury Groups.
Keep in mind that there was no “plain” Continental Mark IV. By 1975, these cars stickered for $11,082 ($47,192.02 adjusted). A Mark IV before options still came with a 460 V8 and Select-Shift transmission, power steering, power windows, power four-wheel disc brakes, whitewall radials and six-way Twin Comfort Lounge Seats. Yet apparently, wealthy buyers not yet infatuated with Mercedes and BMW thought that if much is good, then more is even better.
The Special Edition craze reached its head in 1976 with the Designer Series Marks, which went beyond the already quite nice Luxury Group versions. It was sheer, pure and simple snob appeal–and in the ’70s it worked perfectly.
Unlike the Luxury Group Marks, the Designer Editions wore the high-fashion labels of Givenchy, Pucci, Cartier, and Bill Blass. The above photo shows the interior/exterior color scheme unique to each Designer Edition.
Perhaps the classic, navy blue Bill Blass edition is the most remembered, but the other Designer Marks–the dove-gray Cartier; the Pucci, in red and silver, and our featured CC, the Givenchy, in aqua and white–were every bit as distinctive.
The Givenchy was, in my opinion, the best of the bunch. The aqua paint was quite distinctive in the ’70s (the decade of Brown Car Fever), and the white top contrasted nicely. As with all Designer Series Marks, its special features included chrome forged aluminum wheels, a landau (instead of full) vinyl roof treatment, and premium bodyside moldings.
As with all Mark IVs, a four-barrel, 460 cu in V8 lived under the hood. By the mid-1970s it was producing 220 net horsepower (1975 figure), a far cry from the 365 gross hp of the pre-smogged 460s of ’70-’71. Added weight, less power–no wonder muscle was out and luxury was in.
Inside, aqua velour covered the Twin Comfort Lounge Seats; aqua leather was optional. While technically a five passenger vehicle, its back seat riders might have felt a little cramped, not to mention claustrophobic. Only the oval opera window relieved the aqua cocoon that was the back seat. For all intents and purposes, this was a two- (maybe three, with the front bench seat) passenger vehicle.
Unique to the Givenchy were special light woodgrain appliques with black overlays on the doors and instrument panel. The light birch woodgrain combined with the aqua interior for a somewhat Mediterranean vibe, in a 1970s Brougham kind of way. It was cushy and comfy, but at the same time wallowy and ill-handling. Despite its 120.4″ wheelbase and mammoth 228.1″ overall length, four people going out to dinner would probably not be very comfortable (well, at least not those in the back seat). For better or worse, this was Detroit luxury at its finest.
At the annual Downtown East Moline car show, I spotted this big aqua beauty right off. I was smitten. I’d never seen a ’76 Designer Series before–let alone a Givenchy, my favorite! It looked to be in excellent original condition. I especially like those chrome wheels. My grandfather replaced his ’72 Mark IV with a triple midnight blue ’77 Mark V fitted with those same wheels. They remind me of good times in the past, to Christmases and Thanksgivings at their house.
Nice memories…nice car!
5000 pounds of sheer driving enjoyment! This is my kind of car. Nice write-up, Tom.
I owned the Thunderbird twin to this, a ’75 model. Floaty? Yes. Smooth? Quite. Silent and tomb-like? You bet. I discovered two things about this Lincoln’s corporate sister: If a curve sign said 35 mph, you better be going 35 mph – there was no cheating it like in other cars. The other thing was the long hood. I could crest a hill and be well on the way down before I could see in front of me. I joked you could hide all sorts of things over the crest of a hill and it would be too late as it wouldn’t be seen.
It was like driving a 2.5 ton Lazy-Boy recliner. I miss it. I sold it to a guy in Orange City, Iowa. I did realize up to 14 mpg on a few tanks of fuel.
Buy another, garage and pamper it.
No cheating curve mph limits? Bringing home my 1975 Mark IV when I bought it 3 days ago, I entered a ramp going 45 mph and came out at 65 mph. Not even a wee chirp from the tires, and the car felt firm. Mind you, I’m a paramedic so I am used to driving big vehicles fast.
My favourite car of all times, period. Only the Pucci looks best to me 😀 !
I’ve gotten in trouble before by expressing my aesthetic dismay about these cars, so I won’t belabor that point, but perhaps because these are not at all my cup of tea, the idea that the Mark IV looks radically different from the Mark III has never made much sense to me. Different, yes, in the same way the ’71-’78 Eldorado looked different — mostly puffier and more visually bloated — than its ’67-’70 predecessor, but not that different. To me, the Mark IV looks bulkier, squatter, and somewhat less angular than the Mark III, but they still seem like different pages from the same book.
I also don’t think that the ’74 Mark IV’s 220 net horsepower was that radical a drop from the 365 gross horsepower of the Mark III except on paper. A very large portion of the ‘decrease’ was simply the difference between SAE gross and net ratings. (As a point of comparison, in 1971-72 Cadillac provided both gross and net ratings for the Eldorado’s 500 cid engine: 365 hp and 535 lb-ft SAE gross, 235 hp and 385 lb-ft SAE net.) I’ve never seen net ratings for the high-compression 460 (CR dropped from 10.5 in 1970 to 10.0 in 1971 and 8.5 in ’72), but the ’72 version was rated 212 hp and 342 lb-ft of torque, both SAE net. If we use Motor Trend‘s “King of the Hill” results, the ’72 Mark IV was 0.3 seconds slower to 60 mph and 2.5 mph slower in the standing quarter than the ’71 Mark III, which at these weights suggests a difference of 20-30 hp, not 140+. The 1970 was presumably a bit more powerful than the 1971 simply because of its higher compression ratio, but a half-point change is not going to make a vast difference. I could see a difference of as much as 35 net horsepower from 1970 to 1974, but the published performance figures suggest that the real world difference was unlikely to be anything most owners would notice or care about.
I imagine that the ’75s saw a significant drop in performance with the introduction of the 1st generation catalytic converters. 1st gen cats were high restriction.
On the photo of the engine (15 down from the top), is the large canister on the air cleaner a crankcase inlet filter?
Appears to be the “soup can” vacuum canister, to hold extra engine vacuum for accessories such as the headlight doors when the engine is off or at low-vacuum. They eventually literally looked like soup cans with the label removed.
Neither. That canister is there to dampen air cleaner “hoot” or chirping noise, and it was a Lincoln only feature. My fathers 73 Colony Park w/ 460 did not have it, and the chirping could be annoying at times.
What caused the “chirp”? The secondaries opening? Something in the vacuum system or something else entirely?
Yes, a Helmholz (sp?)resonator. In my experience, some lesser 460-equipped cars like Gran Torinos and such did get them, while other’s didn’t. My dad’s ’76 Elite didn’t have it, I’ve seen ’74 Cougars that did. My conclusion is that around ’75, it became a cost and weigh saving measure on the cheaper cars.
That may be, although the published figures are not a lot of help. All the numbers I have show 220 net horsepower for the ’74 Mark IV, but for ’75, different sources list 194, 206, 220 or 223 hp. The brochures I’ve found are no help, listing no power ratings at all for ’75 or ’76. If I were to guess, the figures were 194/220 for California/49-state cars, restated at some point as 206/223. (Which came first, I don’t claim to know.)
1976 : 202 HP
Indeed, in 1975 it is more difficult there has been emergence of cars with catalytic converters. But all Lincoln did not we … The Mark IV in 1975 had dual exhaust . Some had no catalytic converter, else (like mine) one on an exhaust line ! And California, one on each line …! Which probably explains see different powers for 1975 model year…
I think that last shot where it’s parked next to the Merc says it all. The Merc is trim, athletic, and taut…like a hot, smart, female doctor. To put it nicely, the Lincoln looks like an obese cafeteria lady in comparison.
The 365 GROSS to the end of the 1971 model year was about 270-275 NET.
With dual exhausts, the de-smogged 460s made about 224 net hp, not a huge drop from around 270.
The police interceptor versions of the 460, smogged and on unleaded, made about 265 net, only a whisker below the high-compression older engines.
It doesn’t matter really – the torque rating barely dropped – only a few percent. Torque is what moves a mammoth luxury car.
I have a really fine 1977 Town Car with the 460 and its performance is perfectly satisfying. One day I’ll install duals (as available on Mercurys of the period but dropped by 460 Lincolns after 1975). The extra poke will give a tad more giddy-up when overtaking at speed.
So…relax and don’t worry about the nominal horsepower loss in the 1970s. Drive the car and chill out!
Dermot
Here’s my ’77 Town Car….in Sydney Australia, but in LHD and staying that way.
Dermot
My car is pristine. A one-owner car I imported from Pennsylvania. It had a fully rebuilt carb and is in perfect tune. City mileage was 6.5 to 7mpg, driven gently (Sydney is a big city, and hilly). Highway was 12mpg. These are well below the fantasy-land EPA figures of 11/16.
That was on premium 95RON ethanol-free gasoline (about $6 a gallon here). After a while, and $150 fill-ups, I had the car fully converted to LPG. The gas tank was removed. The engine was retuned and the timing advanced to suit LPG and to retain the 10-15% power loss typical of such cars running the more common dual fuel system. It performs as before, but idles and runs smoother and costs HALF the fuel price per mile. I love LPG. It effectively makes a 7mpg car into a 14mpg car.
Dermot
Interior….
You have a beautiful old Lincoln there. I love these cars, always have. This one remains on my dwindling bucket list.
Never liked the Mark IV styling. Prefer the Mark III. I can never look at a MKIV w/o thinking of William Connrad in “Cannon”.
My first thought, Dynamic88! Colombo had his Peugeot, Rockford his Firebird, Mannix his Dart, all dwarfed by the larger then life tough guy Cannon and his Lincoln Mark!
I still prefer the smaller (!) Grand Prix and Monte Carlo. All in all, I miss this personal luxury cars………. Thanks to Tom for another fine write up and analysis!
Mannix had other cars besides the Dart, for the 1st season, there was a Oldsmobile Toronado roadster customized by Georges Barris http://www.curbsideclassic.com/features/as-seen-on-tv-our-favorite-p-i-cars/ and later seasons he drived a Plymouth Barracuda convertible and a Camaro in the last season.
And it’s hard now to imagine Starsky & Hutch without a Ford Torino. 😉
I always thought Mannix drove a Plymouth GTX. Maybe I was confusing it with that nice green Dart convertible?
My Dad purchased a new 78 Mark V Cartier edition in the beautiful champagne with maroon accents. I always preferred the styling of the Mark III and Mark V over the Mark IV. The IV’s lines are not as crisp as the other two; instead, the car seems kind of bloated, like Cannon. By far my favorite is the III. I watch The French Connection occasionally just for the car porn.
preach it brother!! (french connection as car porn) !
Cannon was awesome, he was like the hedonistic fat guy detective, he had his Mark IV, a swank apartment, a sailboat, and of course, that bad ass car phone in his Mark!
I find the front end of the ’72 model gorgeous & the ’72-’73 rear ends nice as well. In my eyes, “The bumper” ruined the aesthetics of these cars. I’d love to experience one anyway — the aqua & white combo would be my pick if I couldn’t find the forest green ’72 version shown above.
I love the color combo on this example, but I much prefer the Mark III for the same reasons Aaron expressed so well.
Zackman was planning to comment here, but Tom’s description of the cramped, windowless back seat caused him to pass out on his keyboard. 🙂
Zackman must be terribly conflicted on this one. The rear quarter windows did indeed retract (into the C pillar rather than down into the quarter panel). Only because of the opera window, the quarter windows would only retract about 2 or 3 inches. These always seemed like the most useless power windows in the entire world to me.
The quarter windows became fixed starting in ’74, along with the T-Bird, Gran Torino, Montego et al. I believe this was done to meet new 1976 rollover standards.
Considering this was the best Detroit could do in the ’70’s, all three companies should have gone bankrupt – for good. Ill handling, gas-hogging, drove like crap, no passenger space, typical American cheesy ‘luxury’. Of course it sold like crazy. It was dumbed down enough to appeal to the market.
For the same kind of money, you could have had a BMW Bavaria. And you’d have had a real car.
Syke, with all due respect, this is more than likely what the WWII and depression era generation thought of as the pinnacle of luxury. Isolation from the road while cruising at 70 mph and steering with one finger with A/C blasting cold air. As kids, a road trip for them was probably on a rutted two lane highway with a model A or some older loud rattle trap with open windows for “climate control”. Perhaps bloated 70s cars like these were a way for the target customers to thumb their collective noses and “get back” at the depression and wartime rationing – sort of a vengeance on lack of material goods in their younger years if you will. Gas mileage; who cares? Although I hear what you’re saying about performance, try to see this car through your parents’ eyes. And at the time, these cars were easy money for Detroit.
+1 there. These people didn’t want to feel the road, they’d felt it enough in their impoverished youths. Other delights of the day included frequent breakdowns and/or blowouts, choking dust making it’s way through cracked floors and weatherstrip-less doors, etc. No wonder they loved these.
Bingo – the people who bought these cars new were most likely in their early 50s, and a good percentage were older. Which meant the youngest customers would have been born in the 1920s. The cars their families drove when they were children (if the family could even afford to own a car during the threadbare 1930s), and their own first cars, did not have air conditioning, power steering and power brakes, let alone power windows and power seats.
They did not want to “feel the road.” The felt the road riding in their parents’ Ford Model A or Chevrolet. Outside of the urban areas, many roads were still unpaved through the early 1950s, so they felt every bump and pothole in the road. They probably also felt and tasted the dust, too, as the windows had to be down in the spring and summer to avoid suffocating from the heat.
Driving around in an air-conditioned, smooth-riding Lincoln with fabulous AM-FM stereo and every possible power assist seemed like the height of luxury to them.
Did these cars waste gas? Sure. Were they inefficient in their use of space? Absolutely. But the people who were driving these cars were used to REAL deprivation during the 1930s, and strict rationing during World War II.
Being able to afford a Continental Mark IV during their “Golden Years,” however, proved that they had reached the point where they could afford to put style over practicality.
Their children, on the other hand, having been raised in relative abundance, comfort and luxury during the lush postwar years, wanted something different. Hence, the rise of Mercedes and BMW in the 1980s.
I remember that there seemed to be a stark generational shift in luxury car tastes in the mid-1980s. Cadillac and Lincoln, almost overnight, became associated with well-to-do senior citizens, while Mercedes and BMW (especially) were the cars of successful younger (meaning, in their 40s) people. Of course, Cadillac’s abysmal products during the 1980s helped speed along this change.
Very well put. You really understand what drove the automobile market back then! The generational shifts were enormous. Now, can you help Cadillac, Lincoln and Buick in today’s environment?
You knew my family?
Definitely right about the profound change in buyers tastes in the 1980’s. I remember reading back then a comment by some marketing consultant who said that “within 20 years the average of the typical Cadillac buyer will be……deceased”. I think they survived the decade by selling to pimps and mob members.
I concur (although my parents are Boomers and my grandparents didn’t go for anything this extravagant, so it’s more a matter of seeing the cars through the eyes of my grandparents’ generation).
Le plus ça change. I’m reminded of a conversation between a friend of mine and her ex-boyfriend, who’d just bought a big SUV; his comment on its fuel economy was something to the effect of “I guess gas mileage matters if you can’t afford it.”
Not everyone that bought big land yachts was old, my father bought his first Electra Limited in 1972, he was like 30, and another Electra 225 coupe in 1976, and a new Eldorado in 1979. For some people, these were the cars to have, people, who, pardon my french, could give a sh*t about mpg or handling.
I can understand not giving a toss about MPG especially when fuel was so cheap. Even today it is not that big an expense in the overall scheme of things.
However, I can never understand why people would not be interested in at least basically sound handling – the ability to actually go where the thing is pointed. It’s the first safety feature a car should have. I appreciate these big old tanks and even like the style of some of them, however I do think the manufacturers were cynical in the extreme by selling such poor handling cars. There is nothing to admire about a car that handles like a barge and reached its terminal cornering capabilities whilst still in a car park.
Speaking of easy and comfortable rides, how easy was it for the engineers of these things! They didn’t have to give any consideration at all to the challenges of efficiency, economy, handling, safety, build quality, longevity or even genuine ride comfort. No need for any of that, just worry about the latest trends in velour and fake wood grain…..hang on, they didn’t even have to concern themselves with those items! Just outsource to Bill Blass, Cartier et al.
I suppose they hand their hands full with converters and those horrific crash bumpers (hmmm, let’s add some over riders to them!).
For the same reason I’m not too impressed with high-end sports cars anymore, for here too, their designers don’t have as many trade-offs to worry about. Now designing a practical, efficient family car, to cost, is where the real challenge lies. Giorgetto Giugiaro said as much about the Fiat Panda.
Sure. A BMW Bavaria. Noisy valves, reliability problems, harsh riding, extremely noisy at highway speeds, manual trans, cramped, windows (without frames) that they never could get right and no AC. Just what the american car buyer in the 70s wanted…..
Edit, Now I see that this comments was 4 years old 🙂
My father got one of the first 72s in early November of 1971. It was a much better car than his 70 Mark III had been. The IV was that medium metallic brown with a dark brown vinyl roof and brown interior. Sort of the maximum 70s experience.
You are right about the back seat. My sister and I rode back there. It felt quite confining – dark color, small windows, high seats. Oh well, at least there was a reading light (that we were never allowed to use because it interfered with Dad’s night vision when driving in the dark).
The federal bumpers ruined these cars for me. Also, as a kid in the first half of his teens, I indicted and convicted this car of the same crime that Cadillac had been guilty of (and later, BMW and Mercedes) – their primary purpose was to impress others. I much preferred the big Lincolns which, of course, were much less popular until they started to pick up on the Mark styling cues.
I have related here before that I only drove Dad’s on the road once – he traded it soon after I got my learners permit. By that time it was north of 80K on the odo, and my father was no maintenence fanatic. The thing was truly frightening to me – it wallowed like nothing I had ever experienced. The sticky radial tires coupled with worn-out shocks and ultra-floaty springs were a really wierd sensation. Probably like driving a French car, but without the good handling as a payoff.
Nice writeup on a car that makes for really mixed feelings in me.
What a car and I love the 72, the big bumpers in 73 ruined the look in my opinion. My brother worked for a man who had a 1972 close to identical to the one in pictures 2 and 3. He would let us borrow it from time to time, a pretty big deal for guys 16 or 17 years old whose parents cars where some sort of Plymouth.
Sure they sucked gas like crazy but so did even a Pinto back then and at 25 to 30 cents a gallon that was not a big deal to have that type of style and what a way to announce you had arrived in more ways than one.
“..a Landau roof in gleaming silver vinyl. Inside velvety burgandy velour with a loose-pillow look”.
You stay classy Emilio Pucci.
(by the way, Marilyn Monroe was supposedly buried in a Pucci dress)
Being born in 1977 these were the cars that would pop into my head when I heard “HOT ROD LINCOLN”. I know the song was about a Model A Ford with a Lincoln motor but in my teenage mind I would see a 460 powered Mark with plenty of engine work done, breathing fire out dual pipes (I did have a bit of a Rat Fink mind.)
“… also don’t think that the ’74 Mark IV’s 220 net horsepower was that radical a drop from the 365 gross horsepower of the Mark III except on paper. A very large portion of the ‘decrease’ was simply the difference between SAE gross and net ratings.”
YES! Would auto bloggers please stop comparing SAE Gross with SAE Net HP ratings and then compain about the lesser net #’s. It’s like comparing Metric to English units. I don’t know how many times I’ve explained this to so called ‘gearheads’ or ‘experts’.
Really, if a car truly “lost” 100-200 hp, it would be significantly slower, yet the 1971 lower compression Muscle cars were just as quick. And look at todays performance cars with 300-400 net hp. Imagine the Gross #’s!
A pet peeve of mine as well, and AFA getting this thru to people, been there, done that.
A peeve of mine as well.
A friend of mine has a 1971 Chevelle with a ‘270 hp’ 350, I have a 77 Chevelle with the 145net hp 305.
Guess what, both cars are about a second or two different in 0-60 despite the 77 being 500 pounds heavier with a handicapped axle ratio. Yes both cars are slow compared to now but in the timeframe they are competitive and both can keep up with traffic quite well, both will also top 100 which is fast enough for us.
Not all of us lived through the ’70s, and not every source lists SAE, net, gross, etc. Your mileage may vary.
Ah, the Mark IV. As much as I adore you, you will always play second fiddle to the Mark V.
It’s mostly a matter of personal taste but in a world of stark appliance-mobiles the flash of these disco-era boats it’s incredibly amusing to me, in a kitschy kind of way maybe, but I still found ’em cool. The rise of german luxury in the US it’s a matter that all of you may know better than me, partly ’cause I’m italian partly ’cause I wasn’t around when it happened but I think it doesn’t have to do with the cars themself but with changing tastes and fashions. In other words the heads that thought that in 1984 a BMW was the car to have were the same that in 1954 thought the Cadillac was the car to have, it was the same snobbery matter I think. The BMW’s to me were some of the most over-rated cars in history. My dad bought a brand new 3-series in 1986, its only virtues besides good look were very good brakes and a bank vault-like construction quality (It’s dash cracked under the sun too anyway), that’s it. Everything else, from sluggish performance, to unimpressive comfort to the tricky handling (besides being the least powerful version) to the horrible, horrible reliability and to the lack of any convenience inside, was pitful. I still miss that car for sentimental reasons but that thing was luxurious as the city bus I took when I was going in high school. This Lincoln at least was straightforward in its interpretation of a luxury car, it only lacks understatement.
My boyfriend in the late seventies had a Givenchy Mark and loved it. Definitely not a car for the introverted! Comparing it to a 2002 is just plain silly.
As much as I love seeing the designer editions of these cars (thanks for the great writeup!) I really prefer the cleaner look of the much rarer ’72 with it small bumpers. I have never seen one without the supposedly optional opera window. Now that would be a rare find!
I am in complete agreement with you. But then, I have always wondered if I was conditioned by seeing my father’s 72 so often for so long.
I believe that I may have seen one or two Mark IVs without opera windows, but that was back in the 1970s. Dad’s had the opera window, and almost all of them did. I have always wondered if there was a way for dealers to retrofit an opera window into a Mark? I would bet that there were few things harder to sell than a Mark IV without an opera window.
I found a picture of one on the web. I actually kind of like it.
Yes, opera deletes are extremely rare, that Radio Shack CB antenna on the trunk certainly wasn’t. A cheap knockoff of an Antenna Specialists M-125.
My father went the next step with a Motorola mobile telephone. The unit was a box the size of a desktop computer tower that sat on the left side of the none-too-large-to-start-with trunk. They drilled a hole in the left rear quarter near the back window for an antenna. There was a big thick bunch of wires that ran along the doorsill and the phone mounted to the floor on the transmission hump. The thing sucked power like a small radio station and had a regular phone receiver with a coiled cord and rang just like the phone in your house. I called him in the car once, scared the shit out of him and he spilled coffee all over himself. Livin’ large in 1972. I can only imagine how much the crazy thing cost him, I think he paid by the minute. When he traded the Mark for a 76 Monarch Ghia, the telephone went away but a factory CB radio sort of made up for it.
What a waste (getting rid of both the in-car phone and the ’72 Continental)!
And for a Monarch. Bet he regretted that move….
His words at the time: “it’s almost un-American to drive a big car.” So he special ordered the Monarch with absolutely everything he could get on it except a sunroof. Leather, power everything, alloy wheels, and a 351. It may have been the nicest Granada/Monarch ever. He must have had second thoughts, though, as it was traded on a white 1978 Continental Town Coupe, which was my favorite car of all that he ever had.
Ha! My grandparents Mark IV (The one I wrote about back in December) had a CB antenna on the trunk too!
Ha, Roger that’s hilarious but so true. When bought my 14k mile 76 Monte Carlo from a 92 yr. old gentleman it bears a scar in the paint from the CB antenna. It was the first thing to go, then the CB, then the big shiny tin mud flaps.
Weird, but I like it, too! Was vinyl roof standard on these? Something else I don’t remember seeing one without…..
I even found a green one for you 🙂
The green is fun, but somehow I picture the ’72 Mark in a more muted shade ideally. Actually, white (I think white may have been featured in the brochure).
Yes, white and dark blue Marks are featured in the ’72 brochure. In fact, the blue car is shown with the non-opera window roof! I have one in my brochure collection.
Someone may correct me here, but I believe that the vinyl roof was standard. I do not ever recall seeing one without either.
I believe on the Mark V’s you could order one without a vinyl roof as I have seen one without it. In the Disney movie North Avenue Irregulars, Cloris Leachman drives a red Mark V with no vinyl top. That car gets totally beat up!!!! Look at the right front tire – it’s practically off the rim! Loved that movie as a kid!!!
Oh yeah, My favorite movie as a kid! I need to watch it again!
The Mark V had a delete option on the vinyl roof. Growing up in the Sunbelt, I always had an aversion to exterior plastic.
Me:I’ll take a Pucci Edition Continental with a 460 V8 on the side, a “Broughamy-Burger” kids meal, and extra gadgets and gasoline on the side.
Dealer: That will be $11,060+, please pull up to the next window.
Would a Mustang II Ghia be like the kids meal version of the Mark IV?
Carmine, back in 1977 my sister wanted that exact Mustang II so bad – it was in the showroom of our local Ford dealer – but instead she ended up with a basic stripped down model that my mother said was more affordable! That black Ghia with the chamois sport package was a good looking car! I think one of the Charlie’s Angels drove that exact car.
Probably the most successful application of the Brougham aesthetic to a small car.
Oh yes, where would the late seventies through mid eighties have been without “Designer Lincolns”?? As a kid, these were (and still are) highly desired by me.
Mark Series faves:
1976 Bill Blass Edition Mark IV
1977 Emilio Pucci Edition Mark V
1978 Emilio Pucci Edition Mark V
1979 Bill Blass Edition Mark V
Now we need an article on the 1982-1987 Continental Designer Series: Givenchy and Valentino
We need to try and entice Sajeev Mehta from TTAC to come over here. He and his family have a warehouse full of classic Lincolns, and I know that he has an 80’s Continental in there…
My goodness, what a beautiful car!!!
In case you are wondering how I pulled off the clue so well, That color, along with the two toned pin stripe were exclusive to the Givenchy Mark.
It sure is nice to have a place to let out all the otherwise useless knowledge rattling around inside my head 🙂
I prefer the 72 IV over the following Mark IVs. The Cavalry Twill top was standard, as it was on the 71 Mark III. Supposedly the 68.5/69/70? could be had without roof covering, but I’ve never seen one.
I’ve read that the IV was lighter AND heavier than the 71 Mark III, @5003 lbs. But from my youth (fuzzy) I remember the IV being a little lighter.
The interior was a bit of a let down. No real wood most notably. They supposedly put in LESS road feel. As much of a “barge” the 71 Mark III was I thought it handled OK. Never drove a Mark IV on the road though.
Nice write up Tom, but I would rather walk than drive that.
Not quite the same as a good old Volvo wagon, is it? I have pretty bizarre taste: old Volvos, old Lincolns, and Porsche 356s!
No thanks. I woulda’ looked for the still common and cheap bought used one of these:
Are there any pictures of the rejected Mark IV concept on the net?
Also Ford Australia had a Cartier edition of the LTD in 1980 or 81.
There were pictures of Bordinat’s design proposal in an issue of Collectible Automobile several years ago. The original Mark IV design was basically dusted off and used for the 1977 Continental Mark V.
Wasn’t Dick Nesbitt the person behind the Lincoln Mark IV/V design proposals?
Here are some links to his artwork:
http://home.olemiss.edu/~badwf/MarkVconcept.html
http://deansgarage.com/2011/personal-luxury-cars-of-the-1970s/
I attended a small private high school in San Francisco. The school had financial difficulties and declining enrollment, and in an attempt to reverse its direction, the trustees brought in a new principal when I was a senior, in 1972. He drove a new Mark IV. Neither he nor his car were a good fit in early-70’s SF. I still remember many of the teachers’ cars, all of which would be CC’s today. A red Valiant convertible, a full-size Chevy wagon with 4-speed, a Saab 96 and a few Beetles.
i bought a1976 Emilio Pucci design Mark IV about a year ago. It has only 64,000 actual miles on it. i bought the car off of ebay for what i think is a great deal. the son of the original owner,who passed away in December of 2011.the son sold the car because he wanted a downpayment for a 4 wheel drive truck. i bought the car for 2,000 dollars. the car is in excellent condition. i have been trying to find out how many of this particular car was produced but i have not had any luck. if anyone has any information please send it to me at this e-mail address [email protected] for what i think about the new Lincolns, they look like tin cans compared to the Markivs of the 70’s.
Of all the designer Contis, I favor the Pucci edition.
I’m a huge fan of these cars & think the Designer Series are simply impressive. My favorite was without question the Bill Blass, but this one, the Givenchy, is a very close second. It’s delightfully gaudy & sumptuous all at once in that oh-so-’70’s manner that these cars were reknowned for. A ’76 Bill Blass in excellent condition came across my radar in 1993 for sale at a Ford dealer in Loveland, Colo. I test drove & was smitten, but sadly too broke & too involved with a ’76 Malibu project & my ’86 LTD Crown Victoria daily driver to partake. I did manage to get my mitts on a 1973 model with the Silver Luxury Group. Very nice car, but the BB was always the one that got away. Thanks so much for sharing.
I am French and I live in France… I see a lot of criticism about the style of the Continental Mark III, IV and V. The North Americans prefer European cars but in the years to 50/60/70 they had little luxury European cars (except Bentley, Rolls Royce, etc. .) and inaccessible to 99.999999% of the population!
Even if they were expensive and unsuitable for our cities, American cars were dreaming generations of children like me (I was 10 years in 1975).
For us this was the mythical America the great outdoors, Route 66 (admittedly fantasized), road movies, the oppulance of the 30 best years after the second war …
Child I lived the end of the age of Gold triumphant America through the eyes of a child who was watching the TV series “Dallas” where we saw Lincoln, Cadillac Eldorado …
As an adult I bought a lot of US oldies cars … The last US is just a Mark IV 1975 imported into Europe in 2011. It is a “luxury group” aqua blue (same color as the Givenchy in 1976) . optional Forged aluminum wheels, optional landau roof and leather interior. The paint color is exactly “Aqua blue diamond fire metalic” (Ford code 45).
So please, United State residents, stop comparing a BMW and Lincoln 70s !!!! BMW or WW Golf those years were “tape cul” (translation “ass hits”) without air conditioning and very often without power steering and a very spartan … Of course, things have changed since (thankfully!) but you have to compare things with the same period of the story.
The American classic cars are for us (in Europe) beautiful classic exotic cars … That’s what makes all their charms in our eyes … 😉
The grass is always greener on the other side of the fence.
+ 1. In Norway power steering was regarded as “luxury” still in the late 80s…
enjoyed all the comments, however at 52 yrs old for me hard to beat 1981 town coupe. or 1983 pucci.
I am 52 yrs old as well and remember watching Cannon in the early ’70s with his huge Mark IV with the mile-long doors and private telephone – and thought it was totally cool. Later, I thought Lincoln’s ’79 lineup – flagship Town Car, flashy Mark Series and compact Versailles – was perfection. This was an age when driving a Lincoln really meant something. Now it means. . . pretty much nothing.
It’s funny to hear people grumbling about Lincolns current alphabet soup model names and the confusion that they create. There was a level of confusion back in the late 60’s and 70’s too, because to a lot of people, in their minds they owned a Lincoln Continental, period. They didn’t get the whole concept of the Lincoln Continental and the Lincoln Continental Mark series being two different cars. It was usually older folks and non car types who would goof up their used car for sale ads by offering a Lincoln Continental 2 door for sale, but when you got there instead of a Town Coupe, there would be a Mark sitting there to greet you.
My dad bought a new 75 Silver Mark Iv with leather cranberry interior. While it was pretty to him I never really liked it. It would sporadically cut off and not crank back up and the dealership couldn’t figure out the problem. After 3 years of ownership & an increase of incidents being stranded he traded it for a new Bill Blass Mark V in 78. This car I liked a lot. One thing it didn’t have that I missed was backseat armrest, the Mark IV did. Soon after he purchased the Mark IV, he received a letter saying that there a recall on an electrical part which was the reason the Mark IV would stall. He kept that car for 8 years, during my teen years I drove it a lot & I simply loved that 460 motor. My 1st car was an 82 Nissan Stanza & I liked it because it had sunroof, 5sp, and great on gas but I always enjoyed taking the Lincoln on long trips over the Stanza. You could drive long distances & arrive with little or no fatigue and in the south that Lincoln a/c was far more effective. I hated when he traded that car for a new 86 Honda Accord LXI.
As a youthful car buff, I was puzzled how I was expected to know who Bill Blass was (or later, Eddie Bauer). I suppose their market research among potential buyers (people much unlike myself) justified the name-dropping.
My dad bought a new 75 Silver Mark Iv with leather cranberry interior. While it was pretty to him I never really liked it. It would sporadically cut off and not crank back up and the dealership couldn’t figure out the problem. After 3 years of ownership & an increase of incidents being stranded he traded it for a new Bill Blass Mark V in 78. This car I liked a lot. One thing it didn’t have that I missed was backseat armrest, oh and the steering wheel didn’t have wood trim, the Mark IV did. Soon after he purchased the Mark IV, he received a letter saying that there a recall on an electrical part which was the reason the Mark IV would stall. He kept that car for 8 years, during my teen years I drove it a lot & I simply loved that 460 motor. My 1st car was an 82 Nissan Stanza & I liked it because it had sunroof, 5sp, and great on gas but I always enjoyed taking the Lincoln on long trips over the Stanza. You could drive long distances & arrive with little or no fatigue and in the south that Lincoln a/c was far more effective. I hated when he traded that car for a new 86 Honda Accord LXI.
I still think the front clip from one of these would make a cool waterbed frame, both being period correct. And you could even incorporate the opera windows into the headboard. And you could use the curb lights on the lower front of the fender ( the ones that come on with the turn signals, as night lites. 🙂
Gimme a PEE!
Gimme an AYE!
Gimme an EMM!
Gimme a PEE!
Whazzat SPELL?! (CONTINENTAL MARK IV COUPE!)
As part of my earliest car memories, I remember a number of aqua Mark VIs (they may have been Vs, I didn’t really have the mental capacity to grasp the difference circa 1985-86) and that color caught my eye even then. We lived in Southeast Florida at the time, frankly there was a lot of carryover in decor, and cars, from the 70s since it was heavily populated with older people who weren’t in the mood to, and didn’t need to make a lot of changes to their decorating schemes or rides. Plenty of two-tone cake-icing colored ranch houses, aqua cars, and aqua appliances. It looks cool and retro now when I visit Florida and drive through one of those old style subdivisions (Gulf Gate near Sarasota comes to mind, though a lot of the houses have been tamed down on the paint jobs).
I overwhelmingly prefer the 1977-79 Mark V to the IV, but I love these Dearborn Dirigibles in this color combination. An aqua Mark V is on my short list of desired future iron.
I fell in love with Continental Mark IV once William Conrad appeared on (German) television starring in Frank Cannon. – We were not fortunate enough to have this series on Danish television.
I have driven full-size US cars all my life here, predominantly Cadillacs, but in 2002 I finally got to the point of buying a 1975 Continental Mark IV i Cape Coral i Florida and shipped it home.
I absolutely love the design and the smooth ride. Drove home from Verviers in Belgium non stop – 11 hours – a couple of years ago. You do not get tired in this car.
There is a general name confusion with this car. It is a Continental Mark IV, but by most called a Lincoln Continental Mark IV, though it does not share any bodyframe parts or design with the Lincoln Continental. But in this country – Denmark – the authorities – the State – has decided that is is a Ford. It causes confusion, like last time a parking officer would give me a parking ticket for not having sat the clock on the disc in the windshield right.
“He was on the phone with his office, when I came back:”It is only because I cannot figure out what kind of car it is, that you haven’t got a ticket!” he blurted out all red in his face. 🙂
Givenchy died today at 91.
I just bought one of these. I will be getting it sometime next week. My mom had a Rose Diamond Fire in 1976. I loved that car. I came across the Givenchy and couldn’t resist.
The Lincoln porthole reminded me… Vintage.es has a feature today on velour Brougham interiors, including several views of that porthole.
https://www.vintag.es/2022/06/1970s-velour.html
I have frequently lamented the passing of the Personal Luxury Coupe on this forum. The passing of full sized luxury coupes as well. The downsized Eldo and Mark VIIs were just about the correct size. I now think that the mid sized PLCs were a better choice in everything except prestige. Thunderbird, Riviera, Cordoba, Toronado, Grand Prix, Cougar, and even the Monte Carlo. However I will give the top billing to the sumptuous Mark III, IV, and V.
What’s left Today? I think that of the current Pony cars, the Mustang and Challenger are the only alternatives. How about a new Challenger Special Edition or Mustang Grande?
The best I could do is my recently acquired ’06 Mustang convertible. Vibrant blue with a tan top. Tan leather seats with a mix of black on the doors and console and silver and chrome on the dash. I had hoped to find a suitable lower mileage example of a colorful Mustang like this. I’d almost given up because it’s been quite a while since they were new. As much as I love those big coupes of the past, and I’ve owned several, I just can’t see myself driving one anymore. This will have to suffice, though it’s not like I’m suffering!
Here’s the pic.
Even when I was a kid, I never got these cars. I wanted my luxomobile to be big and roomy although the MkIV was big, it wasn’t very roomy. My uncle had a 1973 Sedan DeVille, which was the coolest thing I had ever ridden in. In my young mind, that’s what a luxury car was.
Fast forward to 2022. I love driving “my” 1978 Cadillac but detest driving the souped up MkV. It’s all a matter of choice.
The television show “Cannon” had William Conrad starring in that Quinn Martin production, and his Lincoln was a major star in that show. William Conrad was a very plump TV detective, but he could still land the bad guys by chasing them down in his beautiful Lincoln Mark IV, stopping sideways to block the bad guys in, then rolling out of the giant Mark IV doors with a revolver in his hand.
That show was popular, and it was like a Lincoln Mark IV ad every week.
Cannon!
If “mating velour upholstery” didn’t seal the deal, nothing would.
Way late to the party here but I was tooling around in high school in 81 in the Cartier Edition Triple Dove Gray… leather, fake wood, power moonroof, four speaker 8-track player… Al Green Sly and the Family Stone and of all things the Sex Pistols on 8track… wearing a Chess King skinny tie and getting a stunning 10 Mi to the gallon when gas prices were as expensive as they ever have been in the United States… Still love to have one of those crazy big Lincoln Continental Town Coupés…