1968-1/2 Lincoln Continental Mark III

Lincoln Continental Mark III

By Jim and Cheryl Farrell

From 1958–66, the Thunderbird was marketed as a sporty, personal luxury car from Ford Motor Co. It sold well, and made Ford a lot of money, even as the niche market it discovered was joined by other manufacturers. In 1967, Thunderbird lost its way when it became just another not very sporty luxury car. Starting in 1967, you could even buy a 4-door Thunderbird! That same year, the Mercury Cougar entered the personal luxury car field. Next came the 1968-1/2 Lincoln Continental Mark III. The Cougar and the Mark III were both sporty, personal luxury cars, and although they covered the lower and higher ends of personal luxury car market, they were both from Lincoln-Mercury Division, not Ford Division as was the Thunderbird. Starting in 1967 or soon thereafter, Thunderbird took a back seat to both the Cougar and the Mark III.

The Mercury Cougar and the Lincoln Continental Mark III were both championed by Lee Iaccoca. In January 1965, he was placed in charge of development of all new Ford vehicles. Iacocca’s success with the Mustang led to his being named Ford’s executive vice president in charge of all cars and trucks. Iacocca felt the success of the Mustang increased Ford Division’s bottom line, and now he intended to devote his attention to increasing the bottom line at Lincoln-Mercury Division. There was a small problem however—L-M Division didn’t want his help.

Iacocca instinctively knew Ford owners weren’t moving up to Mercurys or Lincolns, but rather were moving on to Pontiacs, Oldsmobiles, Buicks, Chryslers, or Cadillacs. The Cougar and the Marquis were Iacocca’s effort to build Mercurys that appealed more to those Ford owners ready to become upwardly mobile car owners. After that, his attention focused on Lincoln.

On the surface, L-M and Ford Divisions were friendly competitors, but beneath the surface, L-M Division blamed its huge losses during 1958–60 on Ford Division’s Thunderbird. Starting in 1958, Lincoln was obligated to build its unibody, money-loosing “monster” at the same plant that built the low-slung and profitable unibody Thunderbird. As a result, many at L-M Division proposed building their own Lincoln personal luxury car. Before Iacocca came along, all of L-M’s personal luxury car proposals were turned down by Ford’s upper management because it meant producing a direct competitor to the Ford Thunderbird. In other words, before Iacocca, Ford Division had always been successful in stopping any in-house Thunderbird competitors.

Since 1948, Ford’s Design Center had generally been divided into Ford and Lincoln-Mercury studios plus some other supporting design studios. In 1965, after his appointment as executive vice president, Iacocca talked his friend Gene Bordinat, who was in charge at Ford’s Design Center, into letting him set up his own special design studio. Iacocca called his studio the Special Development Studio. The ostensible purpose of Iacocca’s new studio was to offer another choice to proposals developed for Fords, Lincolns and Mercurys. Iacocca was not a designer, but his Special Development Studio was supported by Bordinat and staffed with hand-picked designers. In reality the Special Development Studio designed any proposals Iacocca wanted, whether for an existing Ford car line or for some new proposal.

Designers who worked on Iacocca’s Lincoln personal luxury car were Dave Ash (studio head), Art Querfeld (exec), Jim Grey (manager), and designers Dick Schierloh, Darwin Hawthorne, Bob Kavelowski, Jerry Morrison and Rick Reed. Studio engineers were Jim Swanson and Ed Schwenk, and the primary clay modelers were Paul Gonzales, Art Karpelles, Sam Borg, Greg Arceri and Guiliano Zuccato. There were other designers assigned to a separate part of the Special Development Studio who were usually assigned to work on Iacocca’s Ford design proposals.

After the Cougar and Marquis designs were headed towards production, Iacocca told Bordinat and his Special Development Studio designers he wanted them to start designing a new personal luxury Lincoln using the platform, windshield, A-pillar, side glass, roof and door sheet metal from the Thunderbird. There was a problem, however. Even though development costs were much cheaper, L-M Division opposed Iacocca’s new Lincoln personal luxury car proposal because they saw it as a Thunderbird clone that would look like a Thunderbird clone. L-M wanted an entirely new but more expensive Lincoln personal luxury car. To avoid the infighting, Iacocca told designers working on his new Lincoln to tell anyone who asked—especially anyone from L-M Division—they were working on a future Thunderbird proposal. That ruse gave Iacocca and his designers a several months head start without divisional interference.

There were multiple problems in designing a Lincoln personal luxury car that looked distinct from its Thunderbird underpinnings. Raising the rear deck by 2-inches gave the car a hunched look Iacocca loved. Iacocca himself suggested using a stand-up Rolls Royce grille (designed by Hawthorne) and a Mark II spare tire on the rear deck (designed by Schierloh). Most designers initially thought Iacocca’s grille and rear deck suggestions were terrible, but changed their minds after the design was completed. Product planner Hal Spurlich suggested using the longer 4-door Thunderbird platform. Those changes made the Lincoln personal luxury car look different from the Thunderbird, enough so that Iacocca became so excited about the looks of his new Lincoln that he authorized new door skins for it.

L-M Division continued its opposition to Iacocca’s new Lincoln proposal, especially Iacocca’s design suggestions. They insisted on a marketing clinic to compare the original front and rear proposals with Iacocca’s old fashioned Rolls-Royce grille and Mark II rear deck. Not surprisingly, Iacocca’s proposals lost, but Iacocca again simply ignored L-M Division and the results of its marketing clinic. L-M engineers also proposed chopping 2-inches from the front of the car to give it better balance. Iacocca supported designers’ objections and the car stayed as designed, and was approved for production as is. By that time, Iacocca thought he had a winner on his hands, so he raised the sales price of the Mark III by an additional $1,000.

Just before production, Iacocca renamed Lincoln’s new personal luxury car the Continental Mark III instead of the Lancelot, the name given the car by L-M Division. L-M Division didn’t like it but Iacocca ignored the fact the name Mark III had already been used on a Lincoln in 1958. Awaiting introduction, the automotive press panned the Mark III, but Iacocca ignored them too. During its 3 1/2 year production run, over 79,000 Mark IIIs were sold, more than doubling projections and making a ton of money for Ford motor Co. By that time L-M Division and most critics decided they really liked Iacocca’s Mark III.

Designers liked and admired Iacocca. He had a huge ego, swore like a trooper, and stunk up the studio with his cigar smoke. But he also recognized designs that would sell, and he saw that designers who did good work were given credit and recognized for it.

Photos: Ford Design