1972 Lincoln Continental Mark IV

The Bigger The Better

Ahhh, rivalries. Ohio State and Michigan, Browns and Steelers, Yankees and Red Sox, bathroom tissue rolling from the top of the roll or from the bottom. These are storied battles that have gone on for forever and still to this day offer a compelling drama. 

 

Another rivalry of note was the battle between Cadillac and Lincoln (more specifically between GM and Ford) for the heart and wallets of American personal luxury car buyers. While this this rivalry has cooled off with decline in popularity of two door cars (Lincoln hasn't even built one since 1999) there was a time that this was an intense battle with each maker attempting to out "bling" the other making theirs bigger and offering potential buyers more and more glitz, shmaltz. At no time was the intense feud larger, figuratively and literally, than in the early 1970's just before that asteroid hit the automotive landscape known as the first gas crisis.

Cadillac had their ginormous Eldorado resplendent in it's 500 cubic inch (engine) front wheel drive glory. The Eldorado's front wheel drive mechanism being a fantastic and under appreciated engineering wonder. Have to wonder if buyers cared. "Hey, Tom... my Caddy's got front wheel drive!"

 

The most obvious benefit in having the entire power train upfront was that these big Eldos had a flat floor. No one had to sit on the blasted hump in this baby. Three across? No problem.

Lincoln on the other hand had their equally large albeit more conventionally powered rear wheel drive Continental Mark IV. Yup, it had humps.

Most notably that hump on the trunk. Bleech. However, given a choice between the two this GM loving Cadillac man would go for the Mark over the Eldo. I know! Sacrilege! Despite the hump on the trunk and the silly "opera" windows on the Lincoln I prefer the lines on the Conti over the Eldo.

Now, given a choice between a Continental, Eldorado and a Coupe de Ville, the Coupe de Ville wins hands down. Elvis, your car, sir.

The new for 1972 Continental Mark IV debuted the now famous (infamous?) "opera" windows on the B pillars. While they reduced visibility greatly, rear seat passengers were no doubt infinitely entertained by the cross hairs logo etched into those windows. Pew, pew-pew, pew! Take that!

I find a haunting nobility to certain cars decaying in junyards like this grand old dame. Others I find as interesting as rusty dishwashers or stoves.

It's debatable what killed off the dinosaurs. What killed off these lovely automotive dinos was two gas crisis that forced automakers to make more fuel effiecient cars (read: smaller). What's more buyers for Continentals and Eldorados moved over to inport brands like BMW, Mercedes Benz Audi, Lexus etc. 

 

There was a time, long ago, when these dinosaurs ruled the road. When you wanted to strut your stuff and show off how good you got it, you bought one of these (or an Eldorado).

By the way, the TP rolls from the top, not the bottom.