The Continental Mark III is a personal luxury car marketed by Lincoln from the 1969–1971 model years. The namesake successor of the 1956–1957 Continental Mark II, the Mark III likewise served as the flagship vehicle of Ford Motor Company. Offered as a two-door hardtop coupe, the Mark III was noted for its hidden headlights, Continental spare recalling the Mark II and its Rolls-Royce styled grille.
The Mark III was developed as a direct competitor to the Cadillac Eldorado, creating a three-decade market rivalry between it and the Continental Mark series.
To avoid the exceptionally high development and production costs of its largely hand-built, extremely low-volume predecessor, the Mark III shared its chassis with the four door Ford Thunderbird. Model-specific design elements, including its hidden headlamps and large chrome grille distinguished the two — while sharing the same roof structure and rear windows, retractable into the C pillar, of the two door Thunderbird. Later models featured genuine walnut interior accents and a Cartier-branded clock. In a first for an American car, the 1970 Mark III was fitted with Michelin "X" Radial Tires as standard equipment.
Ford manufactured the Mark III at its Wixom Assembly Plant facility in Michigan alongside the Thunderbird and the Lincoln Continental. For 1972, in alignment with a Thunderbird redesign, the Mark III was superseded by the Continental Mark IV.
History
thumb|1970 Continental Mark III
thumb|1970 Continental Mark III
The Continental Mark III was the brainchild of Lee Iacocca, Ford's vice-president, car and truck group in 1965, who directed Design Vice President, Gene Bordinat, to "put a Rolls-Royce grille on a Thunderbird" that September. Development was assigned by Iacocca to the new "Strawberry Studio"- a special development preproduction team led by Bordinat. The Mark III was based on the fourth generation Lincoln Continental (1961–1969) and the four-door fifth generation Thunderbird Iacocca explained that this transformed the Lincoln-Mercury Division from losing money on every luxury car (via low unit sales on high fixed costs) to a profit center, making the new Mark series as big a success as any he ever had in his career—a remarkable statement from an executive who led the programs for the original Ford Mustang and the Chrysler minivan family. Iacocca explained of the Mark series, "The Mark is [in 1984] Ford's biggest moneymaker, just as Cadillac is for General Motors. It's the Alfred Sloan theory: you have to have something for everybody [...] you always need a poor man's car [...] but then you need upscale cars, too, because you never know when the blue-collar guy is going to be laid off. It seems that in the United States the one thing you can count on is that even during a depression, the rich get richer. So you always have to have some goodies for them."
Even though it was fundamentally a stretched, upscaled Thunderbird, the 1969 Continental Mark III traded on being a spiritual successor to the limited-production, hand-built, ultra-luxurious Continental Mark II produced by the short-lived Continental Division of the Ford Motor Company between 1956 and 1957. As such, it was branded and marketed only as a "Continental" within the Lincoln-Mercury Division structure - regardless that Lincoln was already selling a model called the "Lincoln Continental" - and the Lincoln name did not appear on the vehicle, VIN plate, factory paperwork, window sticker, nor official Ford Motor Company brochures and advertising. Moreover, the Continental Mark III designation had already been used on the 1958 Continental Mark III.
Nevertheless, the new Lincoln-Mercury Division-produced Continental Mark III was sold alongside the separate but distinct Lincoln-Mercury Division-affiliated and produced Lincoln Continental line of sedans. This created branding confusion during the entire production run of the Continental Mark series until the 1986 model year, when Continental was dropped as the make and the Mark VII was rebranded as a Lincoln with VINs adjusted accordingly.
The 1969 Mark III was built at the enlarged facility at the Wixom, Michigan assembly plant, home to the rest of the Mk III series and subsequent generations of the model. The listed retail price was US$6,741 ($ in dollars ) and 30,858 were manufactured.
!Production Year
!Yearly Total
|-
|1968
|7,770
|-
|1969
|23,088
|-
|1970
|21,432
|-
|1971
|27,091
|-
!Total
!<u>79,381</u>
|}
Equipment
Standard equipment included power steering, brakes, windows, vacuum-activated concealed headlamps, and split bench electrically adjustable front seats, with 2-way power standard and 6-way power with or without the optional passenger seat recliner as an option. Full instrumentation was standard, with simulated wood appliques in either English Oak or East-Indian Rosewood on the instrument panel and door trim panels on 1969 models. For 1970–71, genuine walnut was used for the interior wood accents. After a few months, a Cartier-branded clock became standard equipment. The upholstery was either the standard vinyl with cloth inserts or the optional leather [and over the years, both low back and high back front seats were available.]
A vinyl roof in cavalry twill pattern was optional on 1969 models, but examples without the vinyl roof were rare. One reason for the rarity of the plain-roofed version is the fact that the roof was made in two pieces and required extra preparation at the factory to conceal the seam; consequently, its availability was not widely advertised. Other options included the aforementioned leather interior, air conditioning, further power adjustments for the front seats, a variety of radios and 8-track tape players, tinted glass, and power locks. A limited-slip differential could be ordered, as could anti-lock brakes, called "Sure Trak". From 1969 on an ASC sunroof, debuted on the 1968 Mercury Cougar, was optional. Cruise control and an headlamp control that automatically dimmed the headlights for oncoming cars were both optional.
1969
thumb|left|1969 Continental Mark III
Despite some critical reviews by the automotive press, the public took to the car, with some 7,000 built during the remainder of the 1968 model year, and another 23,858 for the 1969 model year, a respectable showing; Lincoln had always trailed Cadillac in production numbers, but the Mark III equalled the Eldorado, which tallied 23,333 for 1969. This was the start of a long, successful run for the Continental Mark Series. The listed retail price was US$6,741 ($ in dollars ).
Because of its early introduction and extended production year, the 1969 model had several running interior changes. All cars produced after December 31, 1968, were equipped with driver and front passenger head-rests as required by Federal mandate.
1970
thumb|1970 Continental Mark III interior
There were only small changes for 1970 and 21,432 were sold. The vinyl roof was made standard, windshield wipers were now concealed, and the wheel covers were redesigned. Michelin radial tires were standard equipment (a first for an American car),
The Continental Mark III was also prominently featured in the 1971 crime action thriller film, The French Connection.
See also
- Personal luxury car