Junkyard Find: 1972 Lincoln Continental Mark IV
Ah, personal luxury! It’s hard to imagine anything more personally luxurious than a 4,906-pound two-door with 460 cubic inches under its 50-foot-long hood and an interior done up in classy brown-and-cream two-tone.
You don’t see many cars with the transmission gear ratios on a plaque in the engine compartment.
The Cartier Edition Mark IV came later, but this ’72 still got the Cartier clock. I tried to find a working Lincoln/Cartier clock in the junkyard for years, and finally gave up in despair. Cartier’s low-bidder clock supplier probably got $1.47 apiece for these.
This Mark IV had some rust issues involving the vinyl top. It appears that the car’s final owner removed the vinyl, saw the horror beneath, and sent the car straight to The Crusher.
In fact, The Crusher lives just a few hundred feet from this car’s final parking space. Here we see it in full, car-eating operation.
Let’s hope someone rescues these nice interior components before this car gets eaten.
The Mark IV came with an early type of ABS called “Sure-Track.” I’ve never experienced Sure-Track in operation, so I have no idea how well it worked.
At some point during its 40 years on the planet, this Lincoln got a name from a label-maker-equipped owner: Big Gulp!
Murilee Martin is the pen name of Phil Greden, a writer who has lived in Minnesota, California, Georgia and (now) Colorado. He has toiled at copywriting, technical writing, junkmail writing, fiction writing and now automotive writing. He has owned many terrible vehicles and some good ones. He spends a great deal of time in self-service junkyards. These days, he writes for publications including Autoweek, Autoblog, Hagerty, The Truth About Cars and Capital One.
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I want one so bad it hurts
Hey folks I've got a 1972 Mark IV dark green cherry condition always garaged 57,000 orig miles for sale email me for info.