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1969 Continental Mark III: Stunning Personal Luxury
Despite the fact that I’ve always loved the Continental Mark III, I wasn’t around yet when they first appeared in Lincoln-Mercury showrooms, so I never saw them new. However, friends of mine were around, and they all agree it was amazing the first time they saw one in the metal, gliding down the street.
Ray Flynn, a fellow Broughamophile, told me about his first sighting.
“The 1969 Continental Mark III was perfection to me when it came out. Stunning, especially in this color combination—it was love at first sight. Absolutely nothing like it. The way it was styled—inside and out—unbelievably elegant and mysterious. It would literally stop people in their tracks when they saw it for the first time ‘live’ and in person.
“I was at the house of friends of my parents. The daughter Patty knew I liked Lincolns. She said her mom had just gotten a new car and asked if I wanted to see it. We went to the garage, the door opened, and sitting there in person was a fantasy. Continental Mark IIIs had just come out! Her mom’s was dark blue, with a Black Cavalry Twill vinyl roof and dark blue leather interior. I could not move.”
His tale prompted another buddy, Jim Smith, to remember his first view of a Mark III.
“I’ll never forget the first Mark III I saw in the spring of 1968—gold metallic with a white vinyl top. It was love at first sight for this grade-school kid.
“I can recall exactly where I first saw the Mark III. It was northbound on Cicero Avenue, heading towards Chicago, near the Midway airport, on the southwest side of the city. That image of that car is burned in my mind, all these years later.”
The Mark III had its effect, of that there can be no doubt! While its predecessor, the Continental Mark II, was a gorgeous conveyance, it was a total flop and Ford Motor Company lost money on every one built, despite its lofty $10,000 retail price. For the Mark III, Lee Iacocca decreed that it would make money.
The first personal luxury car for Lincoln-Mercury would be based on the Thunderbird’s chassis, with, of course, totally different sheetmetal and interior trim. The 1969 brochure described it boldly but simply as “the most authoritatively styled, decisively individual motor car of this generation.”
And that, in fact, was the only text on the Mark III in the full-line brochure. The only other info was a list of standard and optional features, and color and upholstery choices. My dad recently found me the brochure online, and the discovery is what spurred this column!
While the standard Continental coupe and sedan were 224.2 inches long with a 126-inch wheelbase, the Mark III was slightly smaller, with 216.1-inch length and 117.2-inch wheelbase. It shared the same 460-cubic-inch V-8, with 365 hp, with its larger brethren. Oh, and 500 lb-ft of torque!
You were spoiled for choice color-wise, too, unlike today. The interior colors alone included black, gray, blue, red, aqua, white, saddle, dark ivy, or nugget gold. Standard interior trim was nylon fabric and vinyl, and leather-with-vinyl was an option.
Exterior colors were decadent. Just to name a few: Dark Orchid Metallic, Dark Ivy Green Metallic, Burnt Orange Metallic, Maroon, Medium Lime Metallic, Yellow, and Light Copper Metallic. Such choice!
I’m sure I’ve relayed it before, but my grandfather, Bob Klockau, had to have one of these. In fact, he bought the first one that came in at Bob Neal Lincoln-Mercury, on 11th Street in Rock Island, Illinois. His car was dark green metallic with matching top and matching green leather. He was driving a green on green ’66 Continental sedan at the time, which he rapidly traded in. He owned Marks for almost twenty years after that. His final car was a bustle-back 1987 Continental, which I recall vividly—I loved that car, too!
So I’ll always love the Continental. And the inaugural Mark III was an instant hit. Despite it being the most expensive model at $6758 (the Continental sedan and coupe were $6063 and $5830, respectively), it was extremely popular that year, albeit with an extended model year; the first Mark IIIs appeared in showrooms in April 1968, though all cars were officially 1969 models. Ford built 23,088, compared to 29,258 Continental sedans and 9032 Continental coupes, and the Mark III would continue through 1971 as a worthy competitor to the Cadillac Eldorado.
Today’s flawless example, gorgeous in maroon with red leather and black top, was at the 2023 Geneva Concours d’Elegance. Lincoln was a featured marque that year and the show, which I was attending for the first time, was terrific! The Mark II seen in one picture is owned by my friends and fellow LCOC Lake Shore Region club members, Joe and Barb Esdale.
Wow Tom. Well done! I would love to see a burnt orange one which would just scream: Hey! Look at me! The interiors were unbelievable too. When I was a lot boy at Bob Neal Lincoln-Mercury I drove either a Mark III or IV but it was silver w purple velour upholstery!?
Check out this Burnt Orange Mark video
https://youtu.be/n9cU9hpP8As?si=w-O-DlOc3VErnrki
I grew up with a Continental Mark 3 exactly like this one. I was too young to drive as an 7th grader. I loved it. Now I own my Mark 3 and 4. Wonderful cars.
Stunning, maroon was a favorite color from the Crayola box. Like a sparkly ruby.
The Mark II is a incredible car. I’m shocked to hear it bombed and that Ford lost money on each one sold. Must’ve been the cost. Why was it so expensive?
The 1956 Continental was hand made is why they were losing money on them. They didn’t charge what they cost to build.
I bought a ’74 Mark IV when it was two years old with only 19.000 miles on it. I knew it had a 460 c.in engine, but don’t remember it having 360 h.p. But it was a gas hog around town. I don’t know why that bothered me, I only put 10,000 miles on it. During the gas crunch of ’79 I sold it to a Lincoln dealer for $1000 with only 29.000 miles on it. He didn’t even want it. He said, “I have a lot full of them I can’t sell. It was maroon too, and I loved driving it. It was a beautiful car. I have now an ’86 Lincoln Town car now since 2000 with the 302 V8, gets good gas mileage. I don’t drive it enough. Drives nice.
I bought a 1968 Mercury Cougar XR-7 Boss 302 Dan Gurney Special in 1974 for $600. It had a dent in the driver’s side front fender and needed brakes and tires. A friend of mine showed where the dealer painted over Dan Gurney’s signature on the glove box. I drove until the second transmission went out it had about 175,000 on it. I sold with a bad transmission for $500. It was parked in my parents backyard and I wanted to keep the Cougar but they finally convinced me to sell it and I did.
The Mark III was one of Dean Martin’s spy cars in the Matt Helm movies. Just saw it on Pluto–chase scene with Sharon Tate in the passenger seat!!! Also of course bar in the glove box. Wonder if this movie was made when the Mark came out? Mustang was intro’d with Goldfinger…the Mark for a Bond spoof?
Mine was a ’69 white, black roof, and a similar red interior with 24″ cherry bombs installed in the stock dual exhaust. As a midwestern hand-me-down it had enough bondo in it to sink a similarly sized battleship but was fun as all get-out to this 16 year old in 1983. I had read that it was the most profitable per unit car that FoMoCo had ever sold up until the SUV era and slurped gas in prodigious rates. Great torque and absolutely terrifying understeer at speed, but that is for another story.
These were beautiful – still my favourite of all the Marks III thru VIII. And that interior – wow! I think, had I been in this market in 1969, choosing between this and an Eldorado would have come down to if I lived where there was a lot of snow or not. Both were beautiful and incredible automobiles, if vastly different-looking.
Assume your choice relates to the presence of front wheel drive. The heavy engine over the front wheels must’ve helped getting through snow provided the tires were reasonable.
The exterior color is great. The interior screams 60’s-70’s living room on wheels.
The Mk III was absolute perfection. The later Lincoln Marks IV to VI were dogged with overly baroque styling, government regulated stifling emission controls and ponderous bumpers, as became typical for car companies in the ‘70’s.
Our dad bought a brand new one , the dark Ivy green inside and out. I was only 16 but I’d been around all kind of cars as long as I could remember. Dad had everything from model t’s to Packards and even an old Rolls Royce. I remember driving that Lincoln downtown with my older sister to mail a letter. On the way home, a man turned left in front of us smashed the front of that Lincoln, poor car was never quite the same.😟 p.s. no one was hurt
As a kid, my neighbor bought one the same maroon color as the featured car. He kept that car 10 years – a real change for a man who traded his Cadillacs every fall.
One of the best looking cars ever it has a certain kind of style and grace. Ashame we will never ever see cars style like the Mark III
Ford Motor Company designers really pulled off a cleaver disguising of the late 1960s T-Bird design. They worked their magic quite well!
Talking about a car over 50 years old, it’s quite odd to start an article about how the author wasn’t born at the time. Many of us are in the same position. This will become even more prevalent over time. Cars of the 80s/90s won’t generate this level of interest 40 or 50 years from now.