Rare Rides Icons: The Lincoln Mark Series Cars, Feeling Continental (Part XXXV)

It didn’t take very long for the chilly reception of the downsized and Panther-based Mark VI to reach Ford HQ in Dearborn. Despite the seductive and elegant four-door Mark VI’s presence, sales were nowhere near those of the outgoing Mark V. Things continued on their downhill trend for the model’s four-year duration. It was time for an all-new take on the PLC from Lincoln.

As we discussed last time, the Mark’s sales slide was partially down to the large car buyer’s rejection of downsized models. But it was also because the PLC buyer’s profile had changed: The original elder PLC customer of the Sixties who remembered 1930s luxury coupes fondly was dead. Younger aspirational leisure suit buyers of the Seventies had procreated and moved on to larger vehicles. 

Meanwhile, two-door luxury coupe competition had increased from Europe where the likes of Mercedes-Benz, BMW, and Jaguar had their own well-developed offerings. There was also increasing competition from Japanese manufacturers, who began selling upmarket coupes of their own in the Eighties. In particular, the two-doors from Continental Europe were more luxurious than ever and had gathered heaps of prestige since the early Seventies. 

Said pressures were on Lincoln’s mind in the earliest part of the Eighties, when the company planned the upcoming Continental Mark VII. It was ultimately decided the upcoming Mark VII would reunite with two of its former (lesser) colleagues, in the Ford Thunderbird and Mercury Cougar. Time for some contextualization of the Thunderbird and Cougar, and their relationship to the prestigious Continental Mark.

The trio’s separation occurred in 1977 when Thunderbird and Cougar were downsized to share a platform with the LTD II. It was a major prestige blow for both nameplates, especially the Thunderbird. Underneath, all three of these more basic PLCs for 1977 were warmed-over versions of the failed Ford Elite (1974-1976). 

Such sacrifices were necessary from a product perspective since in the late Seventies GM was eating Ford’s breakfast with their second-tier PLC offerings like the Chevrolet Monte Carlo and Oldsmobile Cutlass Supreme. As mentioned in a previous entry, the separation also allowed greater prestige for the much more expensive Mark V. As an added bonus, Mark V continued to use the old Thunderbird platform through 1979 (which spared every expense). 

Just a few years later though, Thunderbird and Cougar led the way for the Mark via a platform move made in 1980. Both cars dumped the old LTD II chassis that year, as Ford corporate performed a major reshuffle of its platforms. The coupes were migrated onto the even smaller (but new) Fox platform with the Mustang. Both cars used a longer wheelbase than Mustang’s 100.5”: a more luxurious 108.4 inches. 

Here we must mention a short-lived 1980-1982 product lineup: Cougar. With the transition to the Fox platform, the Cougar was newly available in a conservative two-door sedan, a four-door sedan, and a station wagon in addition to its expected two-door coupe guise. The “sporty” two-door coupe was differentiated via the XR-7 name, and all examples wore such badging. Other Cougar models used a shorter 105.5-inch wheelbase and were badge-engineered versions of the Ford Futura / Mercury Zephyr. I’m shaking my head too.

Both boxy and further downsized Thunderbird and Cougar coupes lasted only from 1980 to 1982, when they were consolidated and modernized into new Fox-based generations. Known as the Aerobird by most, in 1983 the all-new Thunderbird and Cougar shared a 104.2-inch wheelbase. Though the wheelbase and sheet metal were both smaller than before, both cars looked the part with sportier, more modern bodywork. 

The models did their best to shake off the old brougham vinyl image, and head toward Euro-chasing sports excitement instead. Of the two, the Cougar wore a knife-edge window line with which your author has never come to terms. Cougar was meant to look more upright and luxurious, while Thunderbird took on a sportier persona. The new Mark VII attempted to combine both of these qualities in a new way to attract the well-heeled away from expensive European cars of two-door persuasion. 

Worth noting, the Thunderbird and Cougar did not appear in the full-line advertising of Ford or Mercury in 1983. That leads to two different possibilities: The new cars were not available for photography when the brochures were completed, or they were so different from the rest of the stodgy line that they needed their own advertising. 

As the 1980 Thunderbird went on sale, Ford’s president Donald Petersen (1926-) approached Jack Telnack (1937-) the company’s VP of design in charge of Ford’s Eighties aerodynamic styling age. The very same man who was working on the 1986 Taurus. He asked Telnack if he’d want the 1980 Thunderbird in his driveway. Telnack gave a big “No.” response, and that was the start of the completely redesigned Thunderbird and Cougar.

Both Cougar and Thunderbird debuted a year prior to the Mark VII, as Ford used the “let’s make sure they don’t all burn down” approach before launching a luxury product on a shared platform. When the Continental Mark VII arrived in 1983 it rolled into Lincoln dealers to sit beside the other Fox-based Lincoln, the Continental sedan. Such was the start of a three-prong product offering that would last some 15 years: Continental midsize sedan, Town Car full-size, and Mark personal luxury coupe. 

Though the Mark VII shared its platform with the other Fox-based coupes, Lincoln was determined not to make the same mistake it had with the Mark VI. That is, a limit to the shared body panels and components between the cars. The “Town Car Mark VI” simply could not happen again. And so when Mark VII debuted it had its own longer wheelbase, was notably larger than the Thunderbird and Cougar, and looked different too.

It also offered additional options that were not available in its lesser siblings, as well as an extensive list of standard equipment. There was even (gasp!) a European engine in some models! In our next installment we’ll talk about mechanical facts and figures, and see how Lincoln worked to distinguish the Mark from a Thunderbird or Cougar.

[Images: Ford]

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