AUBURN Speedsters.com

LCOC Mid-America
National Meet
.
Lincoln Continental Owners Club
 Pontiac, Michigan
 

The 2011 Lincoln Continentals Owners Club Mid-America National Meet was held in Pontiac, Michigan this past July and was hosted by the Michigan Region of the LCOC. I have owned late model Lincolns as Daily Drivers and have bought and sold many of them from the late 70's and 80's when they were just used cars. There has always been a deep seeded admiration for the Lincoln Marque in me, but I was always a Cadillac Man when it came to actually owning a Land Yacht as a Collector Car. That changed two years ago when I found a low mileage (47,000) all original Continental Mark III. I must say that I do love it, the Look, Feel and the way it Drives (Floats) down the road. Sometimes I feel like an extra on AMC's "Mad Men" and that I should be heading towards the Ad Agency. When searching for the right car I looked at several of them. While attending the  2008 Keeneland Concours I spoke with a guy that owned a Very Sharp Mark III parked in the paddock. I asked him how it drove and he described it as "Just Imagine Driving your Family Room Down the Road"... I soon found out that he was right.

While traveling to the LCOC Show we put another 973 miles on the car. I was hoping to get 12 -13 Miles per Gallon. Boy was I ever the optimist, we averaged a Whopping 9.6 MPG. I think that we could have flown to Michigan Cheaper than driving the Mark III, but...I would do it again without question. Driving an Old Car to these events is a Big Part of the Enjoyment Factor, plus we were able to help those struggling Oil Company's as well

The Featured Car for this years LCOC Show was the 1956 and 1957 Continental Mark II. Very few, only 2994 of these Fabulous Cars were ever built. Gordon Buehrig (Hmm, that name sounds familiar) was responsible for penning the design of the Mark II, which would explain it's  Classic Good Looks. These cars originally sold for $10,000 and supposedly money was lost on each one sold. Even fewer Mark II Convertibles (shown below) were produced, "Fewer" as in only TWO. The two cars were produced as a design and possible production study. Unfortunately production of the Mark II ceased  before any convertibles were ever offered to the public

The 1957 Continental Mark II (below) was drawing quite a bit of attention for a couple of reasons, one; it was being Offered For Sale, "$16,000 or Best Offer" and two; it was a Rare Factory Equipped Air Conditioned car. This Mark II needed a full restoration. It was part of a collection being sold off. There was a lot of interest in the car all day Saturday, it just may have found a new home