Owner: Savoy Museum
The Mark II was the first model from Ford’s new Continental Division – a separate, stand-alone company independent from Lincoln, tasked with creating America’s finest automobile. The new model, from a team led by John Reinhart, utilized a unique unibody design chassis with outboard frame rails, which allowed the body to sit much lower and provided “step-down” footwells. The Continental Mark II was launched with a $10,000 price tag (the most expensive American car at the time), but the division never turned a profit, and declining luxury car sales led to its closure after 1957.