Lincoln Continental Mark V

Continental Mark V

The Continental Mark V was a luxury car to the American automaker Ford Motor Company, which was produced from 1977 to 1979. He was the third generation of a 1968 with the Continental Mark III reasoned series of luxury models, referred to 1983 as the Continental Mark Series and since then as a Lincoln Mark Series and was positioned above the Lincoln brand. The Mark V sold regardless of its size in the late 1970s, very good. It was the most successful model of the entire mark- Series.

Nomenclature

Manufacturer of the Continental Mark V was the Lincoln - Mercury division of the Ford Motor Company. As with the predecessors Mark III and Mark IV, and the Mark V was officially marketed as Continental Mark V. This Ford followed up on this model with the tradition of Continental Division, which from 1956 to 1960 was an independent subsidiary, and premium luxury vehicles produced, including one offered in various body styles Continental Mark V ( 1960). The reference to the Continental Division was for marketing reasons in order to document the exclusivity of the Mark V. In the literature, accordingly, only the models of vintages are usually 1956 to 1960 and 1969 to 1983 listed as Continentals, while the new, 1983 launched Mark -Series is assigned to the Lincoln ..

Leads to confusion exists in so far as the term Lincoln Continental ( without the " Mark ") has been used purely as a model name for its models since 1961. These vehicles were positioned below the Continental Mark series, received the Lincoln brand name and were called Lincoln Continental. They had technically ( except in the case of the later Mark VI ) nothing to do with the Continental Mark models.

Model history

The Continental Mark V was not a completely new development. He took over the chassis and the entire drive technology from its predecessor, the Mark IV were new, only the body and the interior.

With the Mark V, the previously runny parallel development of the Mark Series by Ford Thunderbird separated. The Thunderbird was designed entirely new for model year 1977 and fell as he now was based on the technique of the middle class model Ford LTD II, significantly smaller. Notwithstanding the austerity measures that were obtained for all American car manufacturers from the first oil crisis, put Lincoln this reduction for its top model not to document the affiliation of the model for upper class and externally.

In fact, the Mark V was the only newly introduced American car of the late 1970s, the (still ) was larger than its predecessor: The length of the coupe grew over the Mark IV, with the same wheelbase by three inches, width of 1.5 centimeters. The interior space grew; same time, the boot capacity has been increased by 21 percent. Critics noted that such a high growth rate was achieved only because the output value of the Mark IV was so low. However, the engineers to reduce the weight of the Mark V to almost 400 kg.

Stylistically, the Mark V was basically unchanged in design from clear angular than its predecessor. The body showed almost no curves. The Mark V was the typical identifying features of the Mark -Series: a reminiscent of Rolls -Royce grille, folding headlights, an imitation spare tire cover on the trunk lid and the " Opera Window", an oval window in the C-pillar. New were three vents ( " Louvre " ) in the front fenders, which primarily were actually performed no function and a gimmick of the designers.

She was equipped with a standard 6.6 -liter eight-cylinder engine, 179 hp (1977 ), 166 hp (1978 ) or 159 hp (1979 ) carried out. The equipped with a simple twin carburettor engine met the strict emission standards of California. In all states except California in 1977 and 1978 alternatively continue the 7.5 -liter eight- cylinder engine was available, which had been the standard engine for the Mark III. He made 208 hp.

After work to the consumption of the Mark V was 19 liters of regular petrol per 100 kilometers. The specialist magazine Auto Motor und Sport published a review in 1979 entitled "The Last Dinosaur " about the Mark V with 7.5 -liter V8 engine and calculated a test consumption of 33.3 liters per 100 km. In the test, but the air conditioning was running in spite of open windows on full power, and the car was moving in second gear at high speed.

The Mark V was revised either technically or stylistically in his three-year construction period. The individual model years differ primarily by the combination of the interior of one another.

Designer Series and special series

The Mark V took over in 1976, introduced the predecessor concept of special designer series. In addition, the Diamond Jubilee Edition (1978) and the Collector's Series (1979 ) were offered as a special series.

Designer Series

The Designer Series were special equipment variants of the Mark V, which were associated with the names of certain fashion designers or jewelers. The idea of ​​a special designer variant goes back to the American Motors Corporation, which is a 1971 Hornet " Gucci " introduced. Lincoln offered from 1977 to 1979 Mark V versions of Bill Blass, Cartier, Hubert de Givenchy and Emilio Pucci. The versions each had an independent paint and a special interior and differed from year to year.

Diamond Jubilee Edition (1978 )

The 75th anniversary of the Ford Motor Company in 1978 was the occasion to put together a Diamond Jubilee Edition for both the Ford Thunderbird and for the Continental Mark V. For the Mark V, there were two alternative color schemes:

  • Jubilee Gold: paint, vinyl roof, wheels and struts of the grille in gold metallic cream colored interior.
  • Blue Diamond: paint, vinyl roof and interior in different tones of blue.

The vehicles were fully equipped and received through the regular accessories, some more room includes a vinyl covering for the ( imitation ) spare tire cover on the trunk lid, one clad in leather dashboard or car keys with wood inserts in the grip area.

The sale price for the vehicles of the Diamond Jubilee Edition was in 1978 at $ 20,529. The anniversary model was thus $ 8,000 ( or the equivalent of two middle-class models of type Ford Fairmont ) more expensive than a regular Mark V. Lincoln sold a total of 5,159 vehicles in 1978 to the Diamond Jubilee Edition.

Collector's Series (1979 )

1979, the last model year of the Mark V, Lincoln put on a Collector's Series, which the farewell should be committed by the full-size models. The Collector's Series handle many features details of last year's Diamond Jubilee Edition on again, including the vinyl on the trunk lid and the timber deposit for the keys. The model was available in four colors ( light blue, dark blue, white and silver ) available. A special feature was that it had no Opera Windows. The purchase price of the Collector's Series was $ 20,926 ( with leather trim ) or $ 21,326 ( with velor interior). 1979 sold 6,262 copies of the Collector's Series.

Dissemination

The Mark V was the most successful model of the Mark Series. 1977 Ford sold 80 321 copies in 1978 there were 72,602 and 1979 - at the height of the second oil crisis - again 75 939 vehicles.

Trivia

In the TV series Dallas a 1978 model of the Mark V was very common to see, that was driven by Jim Davis in the role of Jock Ewing.

Car classification Curb weight Lincoln Continental Mark IV Lincoln Continental Mark VI Lincoln Continental Mark III Hidden headlamps AMC Hornet Cartier (jeweler) Jim Davis (actor) Lincoln Motor Company Lincoln Custom Lincoln K-series Lincoln L-Series Lincoln-Zephyr Lincoln Aviator Lincoln Blackwood Lincoln Capri Lincoln Cosmopolitan Lincoln LS Lincoln Premiere Lincoln Town Car Lincoln Versailles Lincoln MKZ Lincoln MKS Lincoln MKT Lincoln MKX Lincoln Mark LT Lincoln Navigator Lincoln Futura
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