Continental models

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‘Bread-and-butter’ motor manufacturers that come up with a luxury sub-brand are a clever idea. They can use all of the expertise and know-how that is available and make use of existing base models as well as the dealer network. The Asian marques seem to have a real taste for them, with Lexus being born out of Toyota, Acura from Honda, Infiniti from Nissan and Genesis from Hyundai.

They are, of course, nothing new. In the mid-1950s, for example, the Ford Motor Company in America had a luxury vehicle division named Continental. It didn’t last very long though. The only car that was actually born from this idea was the Continental Mark II, which had to become Ford’s non plus ultra flagship, competing with the Rolls-Royce Silver Cloud in the first place. It was a massive two-door coupé model using Lincoln mechanicals and also Lincoln’s Continental model designation, but now as a separate brand. 

Priced at just under $10,000 upon its launch in Paris, the Mark II was the most expensive American car at the time, and Ford still supposedly lost money on them! It looks as if a team of designers is looking at a suitable range of paint colours for the car here. We have learnt the following: “While metallic-style exterior paints had become popular on 1950s American luxury cars, durability concerns forced Continental to adapt lacquer-based paint colors (the first Ford Motor Company vehicle to do so).” We’re not sure but it seems to us as if some of the scale models on this picture do wear metallic paints, so the photograph was probably taken before the decision not to use them.

About 3,000 Mark IIs were built before production was halted and the decision was made not to carry on with the Continental make. Continental Mark III to Mark V models did see production though, but once again under the Lincoln banner and not quite as ultra-luxurious and expensive as the Mark II.

(Words Jeroen Booij, picture still from ‘The Ford People’)

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