The Massive 1958 Continental Mark III - Jay Leno’s Garage

you know the fun thing about drivers are is it is so unlike any modern car I just like the way it floats down the road this car with two people in it just about to read what another episode of Jay Leno's Garage the car were featuring today the Continental Mark 3 no say said Continental not Lincoln Continental because it was a separate brand at that time this was the biggest longest heaviest American car ever produced still is I think it's hard to look at this car and think who would have thought that was attractive but you have to remember the time it was built it was 1958 we had one World War two pretty much flush with cash you know there was some very tasteful Lincoln's in the 50s up to about 1957 and right afterwards you know at the 61 Lincoln 4-door and all of that those are very tasteful this was just all out well 1958 was a crazy year because it was the year GM was putting chrome on with a trial that the Corvette had big big toothy thing in the front of it and there I think the Buick was at the Buick limited I'm not sure but one of those Buicks just had more just massive amounts of chrome almost hysterically so this was Lincoln's answer to that this was Lincoln's answer to Cadillac notice how the front end looks sorta like what looks like all those George Barris hot rods in the 50s with the frenched headlights and all that kind of stuff and a subtle looks like the Batmobile you could see where the idea behind the Batmobile came from this kind of styling don't forget 58 I think was the first year of dual headlights a lot of states at that time still had laws saying you couldn't have dual headlights because they're too bright so Ford and Chrysler for certain states had to make a one headlight model and then finally you know common sense prevailed and and dual headlights who are allowed it's got a massive 430 cubic inch v8 engine ten and a half to one compression ratio even says in the owners manual gets up to ten point three miles per gallon that's pretty good if you're driving down the old barefoot and you're touching the throttle with your big toe it's hysterical to drive you pull up next to people I mean it's just so huge and parallel parking this is the funniest thing you have ever seen in your life but it has every option Ford had available in that year I got this car I am the third owner this is the original paint this car was parked in a garage in 1990 down in Anaheim California near Disneyland and when I looked at it there were blankets piled on it there was a bureau sitting it was just one of those cars I guess it was dad's car or grandpa's car and he had loved the thing and got a little old and you just just parked it one day and there it's sad until I pulled it out I guess just about a year ago it actually cleaned up pretty good I was stunned and it has some amazing options on it when I got it the man I got it from I never met him he had passed away but he was a radio collector you know he liked to collect antique radio stuff like that and when I looked in this car I saw some sort of tuner box on the transmission tunnel I thought well let me take that out that's something that guy put in there I realized this was the first year of FM radio in automobile at least for Ford and at that time they could not integrate it into the standard AM radio so they put this giant FM tuner on the transmission tunnel and then you work it through it's connected to you turn on the regular radio then you have to turn on that one and adjust it and and it's funny it says with this FM tuner you pick up all kinds of wild and crazy radio station because I guess at that time FM was sort of I don't know what beatniks listened to I don't know but just one of those odd things it has a central lubrication system you fill it with oil and lubricates all the points of the chassis has cruise control which I believe he added later I don't think that was available in 1958 this is laughably the sporty two-door coupe most of these were for doors so to find this model in a two-door units like this point if you're a single guy and you want to travel with I don't know seven other women in it this is the car to have massive steering wheel but you know it drives fantastic on the highway it just goes down the road it's got 14-inch wheels you know prior to this they had 15 inch wheels and because they wanted that longer leaner or lower kind of look in 1958 they put 14-inch wheels on it now with the 14-inch wheels they couldn't obviously use the brakes in the 15-inch wheels because they would not fit so they had to figure out how to make the brakes better even though they were smaller so they made the drum about three inches wider so that's unique to this model I guess this really shares nothing in common with Lincoln's that came before it or after it it's just kind of the wildest looking thing I've ever seen and it's so unattractive that it's actually appealing it just it's an assault on your senses really it's everything we don't do in automobiles anymore huge engine in fact 1958 this was the most powerful luxury car you could buy in America and the fastest because with that big 430 cubic inch v8 with the Holley four-barrel it made 375 horsepower coupled to the three-speed transmission it was 0 to 60 and 8 point something seconds which was quite fast because back in that take anything under 10 seconds was considered while that's really crazy this was the fastest accelerating luxury car you could buy of 1958 by 59 and 60 they really the cast mileage was so awful ten point three miles per gallon and that's driving it rather conservatively so as you put your foot in you're just sucking down fuel so they switched to a two-barrel carburetor dropped it to 350 horsepower then eventually down to 315 horsepower in an attempt to get better mileage the nice thing is this 430 cubic inch engine is just bulletproof you heard the term hot rod Lincoln this is where it comes from you take the engine from one of these and you put it in your 32 Ford or whatever you got and you got just about the fastest thing around yeah I mean this grows on you you know it's like a big ugly dog you know but it's friendly and it's it's it's fun here's one that's really weird this back window it's a breeze away window yeah even though the car does have engine you open that window and let's smoke and everything out I believe it's a time people call it the fart window but I don't think they ever put that in a brochure but the idea was you know if you're smoking you just drop that with a window and all the smoke is out the back the cool thing was about it was people in Northeast actually liked it because when it's snowed you even have to scrape off the back window always remain clean because it was in there like like that anybody know what this is well this is an electronic eye I know what they call this one of those o matic things they would always use back in the 50s it automatically dims the headlights of this car so you don't blind the oncoming driver as soon as the oncoming headlights hit this automatically you know dims the lights for you and remember this is all pre computer this is all done with relays and things so you hear click click click you know when when it turns out the lights on and off those wheel covers are work of art try and find those I try to recreate those that'll cost you a fortune if you've got one of these the old Lincoln and Mercury store in Florida is the place to get parts I'll put their name up you gotta talk to her you know I love the guys that save this kind of stuff and that's what they do because when you have one of these and you need a part where you gonna get it so you go to the you go well it's it is a parts store but it's more like a club because it's a whole everybody has one of these nose herb and it's it's just where you get all your parts brake booster whatever you need they can do it and they rebuild a lot of new parts too so I thank these guys for doing it whenever hear people complain about how much well we'll find another one ok because you're not going to look how much curl I mean to do the chrome on this thing like this massive front end here this car was well maintained and well taken care of I think it was Elwood Engel I think he was one of the design this thing it just doesn't look like any other Ford before or after and and for it's been a fortune developing this car sort of a unibody construction deal I mean it's it's pretty amazing I think this interior was redone at some point I don't have any real information I know it's the original paint because on the paint code this strawberry it's the original color I think this might have been done at an upholstery shop sometime maybe in the 70s or 80s that doesn't appear it's well done but the fun thing is when you look at these when you get the brochure I just love how tiny the people are compared to the car it just looked like a weeble drive in this thing like some seven-year-old going down the road just a big giant and and just the idea that Oh looky you can get his-and-hers look at it yeah good luck finding a garage but these two battleships in at the same time just hilarious but this was considered just you pitted me of good taste and style back in the day I got to show you this truck oh and you can lock the trunk from the driver's seat and open it from here the nice thing about this trunk is you can carry every spare part you need for the car with you in the trunk while you're driving look at this massive trunk of course electric antenna you gotta have that I see young people going antenna what's that again this car is unrestored it was this a classic example of ran when Park well that was almost all of this it's parked in 1990 so it was 30 years ago this thing was parked I think it had been well-maintained it just sat for 30 years they just put it away and you know his families grow you kept piling stuff on see how you open the hood here you see that open even sounds like a master doctor open the hood just like some giant beast is sitting in a tar pit as you've seen totally unrestored this is a speed control to help you your cruise control speed o meter they cog something like that as you see we redid the air conditioning pump but as you can see it's pretty much as it was back in the day yeah just just an enormous enormous car [Music] and it caused those massive bumpers you don't get impaled on that oh my god you get behind the wheel this thing you feel like you're eight years old sitting in your dad's lap again going down my Highway he got every you got electric windows you got a little even got electric side windows look at that huh god forbid you'd have to do this no no there you go they can flick your ashes off the window and set the forest on fire and of course the complete absence of any safety equipment of any kind although this padded - I guess was a nod to that Ford to be fair for didn't sort of lead the way with the padded dashboards back in the day Oh ashtrays everybody in this car has an ashtray so everybody's smoking you've got what five ashtrays in this thing it's I've cigarette lighters just god forbid you have to wait a second to light your cigarette yeah so just driving this down the road filled with smoke belching gasps oh boy well let's take it for a ride now this still has the original at least probably original - thirty years ago exhaust system on it we've got a stainless steel system coming because these were dead silent they didn't make any noise but you ever hear a little bit of noise but not a whole lot longer leaner lower it's the kind of guy want to drive through England they go hi I'm looking for McDonald's I'm gonna Mac and how you doing you know the fun thing about driving is our is it is so unlike any modern car you know he sort of fried ourselves here at the show with having unusual driving experiences when I was a kid all cars drove like this and then they just all went away and now you're back to this kind of floaty boating you know everybody talks about you know the f1 and all these cars that have the raw experience this is the complete opposite its theory doesn't even feel like it's connected to the wheels its float down the road touch the power brake and stop I mean yeah this is this is what road and track and car and driver just railed about for 20 years what was wrong with American cars but if you just want a big comfortable seat literally a couch on wheels to go down the road and be comfortable you know the styling is so unusual it really does look like some kind of George Barris custom especially in this color this strawberry you know cars are so bland now you know everything is silver matte grey matte black that ye you know the idea of having turquoise and strawberry and flamin pink and all these colors that existed in the 50 I'm not even sure this car would fit in a standard sized garage although it you know the the garage I pulled that out of down in Anaheim when you close the garage door you had maybe maybe a quarter of an inch and that was it and it was right up against the back wall of the group the garage and when he shuts the engine head I just push the door a little bit you know because it's just so massive it's really funny when you try to parallel park this thing you realize there are no there are no spaces this side this is I think I think well I think it's bigger than an Escalade it's probably heavier there might be a few pounds under maybe because don't forget you don't have any door guard beams or anything for just massive amounts of steel steel sound deadening equipment when you got these I've got a new set of spring scum but it looks like it's sitting a little bit low that's because these things are pretty worn out curved and the boys down there at the old lincoln-mercury store they manufacture brand new Springs or you have manufactured and they do a great job so that's that's the next point put the exhaust system on put the springs up I'm not gonna restore it cuz you know you can spend a fortune to make it look brand new but making it drive like it's brand new that's that's kind of a fun part well look look how much room there is in this car it's just hilarious and this actually the dashboard is nicely laid out it gotcha clogged extremely complicated system here you got all this air air conditioning heating it's all one control you just turn it to whether you want heat when any one air conditioning you want ventilation you want you know de-icing it it's pretty cool what I understand the man that owns this thing drove it all over the place East Coast West Coast you put a lot of miles on it I think that's probably a lot more than 93,000 I think it might be on its second go-around a friend of the car was sold new obviously at forty and fifty eight he bought it in 61 or early 62 and he drove it right up to 1990 so and he did a lot of work to it it's interesting he added as I mentioned before he had in the cruise control which was a Lincoln option but not in 1958 I think that didn't come and feel later maybe 60 or something I don't know about that one not quite sure like I said the only thing I'm suspicious about and I've got to ask herb Scheffer about this I don't believe this interior is original hey it looks a little too new it's all leather but it doesn't quite fit the car car should be a little bit more elegant I think but I love that it's a two-door model I think most of these were sold as for doors the sporty two-door sport coupe you know and that when the early 50s Lincoln 55 57 you know that Continental a two-door that looked like a big Thunderbird that same was over $10,000 for lost a thousand dollars and every one they built when they built this thing this was I think they wanted a price ceiling of about six thousand dollars which doesn't sound like much today but back then while my parents house was 19th out so they gives you some idea about how much a car cost the guy you could drive to Vegas actually it's the only car you could drive it nothing is more Vegas looking than this thing get yourself a purple so maybe a strawberry suit to match the car find fart about old homie home cars and they make you feel and this one just makes me smile it just makes me laugh because it's so ridiculously huge I'm not sure what the practical value a car this big was but at this time in history Cadillac was outselling Lincoln and an imperial probably five to one I mean if its Imperial and Lincoln sold five or six thousands of cars Cadillac probably stole a hundred pounds that's how much in the lead Cadillac was and deservedly so was a fine product I always say in a 1914 thank you 49 Cadillac when it came out was the greatest car in the world that air-conditioning and our windows had automatic transformation when rolls-royce and mercedes-benz all six cylinders of man you know I mean they had a rudimentary automatic but it wasn't as smooth as good as the G back in these days America led the world heating and air conditioning in fennel I mean the idea could turn to switch if I was freezing like this thing pretty amazing it's amazing how maybe people think it's some sort of custom car with those headlights well no that's the way they built them in fact you can see the influence that I've even rolls-royce when they came out with Dave they're slanted headlight cars our cars are pretty well developed by this period like I said va8 air conditioner gotta back I think I've probably told this story before but I had a couple of guys in Florida called me they were driving cross-country in a classic car we make it to California film better done you know we say they pulled into my cried 68 cadillac go guys it's not a classic but they were ended up either I guess I mean it is a 50 year old car but people do that every week drove Cadillacs across the country yet I thought there couple of frogs and like at night you know or bottle-feed they thought all I and of course something that all cars in the fifties had these giant Dagmar bumpers those huge fort routing bumpers in the front they call them Dagmar because of a young actress who kind of got catapulted to fame for obvious reasons out of the Dolly Parton type and they started calling these front bumpers Dagmar's you know that don't forget that was the 50s that was the era of the sort of cone-shaped bra and all that kind of stuff that came out for a while so I don't think he'd get away with it today but back in the 50s that's you know she was a staple on telling her name was Virginia Ruth Aigner name nobody remembers now love the name Dagmar still I'd be happy by a to remember it certainly is famous in the day is Marilyn Monroe the older ID though well something that they did which which manufacturers still do today as I mentioned before it doesn't say link him on the card just says Continental and the idea was to have a brand above the brand imperil did that it apparently used to be a brand of its own built by Chrysler and then as it came more and more downmarket in the Chrysler Imperial I have a 58 inferior convertible and that's just in apparel it's not a Chrysler it's an imperial and the idea behind Lincoln was okay he had your Ford which your LCD your Galaxie kind of car then above that you had your Lincoln and then above that you had your Continental which was just the epitome your luxury and style and class was the idea here to make it the keep it above all the other friend you know like everywhere else the world the Acura NSX is Palma Honda anatec but for here we name it Acura you know Alexis it's really good to phantom Toyota but the lane Lexus you know they don't like to confuse brands and these one know the reason why well remember Volkswagen come out with that what was that b12 sedan they had for Ralph and there's marketing the Volkswagen people went what $100,000 revokes why guess crazy well that's that's what happens you know believe me branding works and that's why they do it the idea was by being the Continental Mark three although see that's above the link oh so people would know just like Maybach was above mercedes-benz when miss ADA's benz bought the name and they put let's ad spend Maybach and it just got a little confusing but this car is rare because a it's not rusted out and once rust hit to one of these oh my god this thing the way this was constructed was new for Ford it was unusual so to find this one has a two-door and has a car with every conceivable option on it that's pretty rare and the fact that they all work I've got to fix the clock the clock on the dash but that giant FM tuner thing makes me laugh found and that's worth mounted right there in the dance but I'm the of course nowadays all cars have electric windows but when I was a kid oh good you could open the window over there from here that's unbelievable we live in it's like the way it floats down the road this car with two people in it is just about three thing has the carbon footprint of God it's just like oh my god which friends giant I just like how it's a classic example I don't think anybody would even think of buying a car that looked anything like this today but back in 1958 the height of style with if you think about look at all the Motorama shows look at all the custom cars don't on the auto shows back in the 50s the lowered roofline smaller wheels to get the car closer to the ground I mean they literally used to advertise it as the complete absence of road field it's just like you're on some sort of foam bed going down the road I think the phrase I used on my other Lincoln was it handles like a bowling ball on a waterbed if you imagine a bowling ball on a waterbed basically that's what it is and you're the bowling ball and you just sit here you know when I see younger people I mean like people 40 and what is stunned by it by its size and look how well it go could you put it and actually stops are right to it you know something most I don't think anybody under the age of 40 has ever felt in a car is break things where you just literally you've another break so much they get hot sometimes the fluid boiled and you just have a complete lack of break you know I've got a 55 packet over there's got these little tiny seven or eight and I was flying down Mulholland Drive one day and and I came to Towson I put my foot down with a right to floor I just sailed through the stop sign what what does the brake that faded that much ahead full office Valley Road wait 10 minutes till the brake school and they've got some horse for a brake pedal I mean think about it he's trying to stop 6,000 pounds going 60 miles so you might get one or two real lock them up stop driving this car is like trying to heat your swimming pool you give that bill at the end of the month oh my god I mean draw back with his car if you have to save yourself do I want to feed my family for a week or get a tank of gas and that's pretty much what it comes down to to fill this thing is like a hundred bucks at least you're in California so and you can drive a pound for maybe a couple of hours it makes me smile it's just unusual it's just a completely different way of building on a field and you know if you find your cars by the pound these are the best deal you know these are just literally and this is about two bucks a pound that's what I paid for this time that's not bad and it's a lot of fun the engines of bulletproof it's just fun to save all the throwing stuff anyway I know this one was a little bit different than what we normally do you get a little tired of all the super cars and stuff things are a lot more fun on it on a budget as long as you're not putting gas anyway we'll see you guys next week I hope you enjoyed this show you know I could have taken most of the viewing audience with me that's the Thai stuff you guys next week [Applause] [Music]

Channel: Jay Leno's Garage

Views: 844,024

Rating: 4.9411507 out of 5

Keywords: Lincoln, Continental, American car, luxury, living room on wheels, 2 door coupe, sport, Mark III, first FM car radio, electronic eye, rare car, chrome, classic car, original, unrestored, one owner, Jay Leno, Jay Leno's Garage, car reviews, compares cars, classic cars, vintage cars, sports cars, super cars, cars, car gear, McLaren P1, Porsche 918 Spyder, Camaro Z28, jay leno garage, jay lenos garage, car collection, cnbc, episode, motorcycle, ford, corvette, tour, dodge, lexus

Id: Jh1ZU_lUPWM

Length: 31min 3sec (1863 seconds)

Published: Sun Mar 29 2020

Reddit Comments

[u/CaseyJPorter]

I love land yachts! Post-war cars are really awesome.

[u/Rvatistanac]

Love this dude and his channel

[u/Not-so-Polski]

I watched this last night, Jays Mastodon is hilarious.

[u/PlatinumGoon]

The naming scheme in these days was all messed up. The legit “Mark III” wasn’t built until 69-71 and causes a lot of confusion because of the late 50s marks they later shoved under the rug