Hemming's Classic Car article on my Mark II

The October issue of Hemming's Classic Car features our '56 Mark II convertible.

I read the article last week - very nice!

A brand new maroon 1956 Continental Mark II (C56H3206) appeared in Bippus Indiana(pop 660), along the route from Huntington to my Grandma's house in Servia. I was 8 yrs old. Every time we went through Bippus (home of Legendary Sportscaster and ASA Hall of Famer Chris Schenkel) I looked forward to seeing it. The trips became less frequent with deaths in the family and the passage of time.

On 04-January-1976 I drove over to Bippus and learned that the car belonged to J.T. Steffen, MD of Wabash, Indiana. When I showed up unannounced at his door he demanded to know how I learned of his car. He reluctantly showed it to me, back in the corner under a sheet. He would not sell it because he was concerned that folks would associate the car with him if they saw the car on the road.

Later I found out that a shop in Marion butchered it and cut the top off and ran it through a Kruse auction, finding a new home with a Chicago area buyer. Fond memories of a great Mark II that got ruined.

Somewhere in my collection of car magazines that I saved when I was a kid, there is a short article, w/picture, of a "factory" or "prototype" (I can't recall) Mark II convertible. I think it was in a <span style="font-style: italic">Motor Trend </span>or <span style="font-style: italic">Motor Life</span> magazine. I saw your car at the Ault Park concours. Beautiful car. We were entered with a '54 Hudson.

Great Article and Great looking car. I too always wondered why a convertible model wasnt sold. It was a natural as a covertible.

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: supersix</div><div class="ubbcode-body">Somewhere in my collection of car magazines that I saved when I was a kid, there is a short article, w/picture, of a "factory" or "prototype" (I can't recall) Mark II convertible. I think it was in a <span style="font-style: italic">Motor Trend </span>or <span style="font-style: italic">Motor Life</span> magazine. I saw your car at the Ault Park concours. Beautiful car. We were entered with a '54 Hudson. </div></div>

I seek an article just like that. Dennis Adler wrote in one of his articles on my car that he had seen a similar picture in a magazine that dated to late '55 or early '56. If it was after October of '56 it was probably a picture of the more famous Derham-made Mark II convertible. I'd love to find the article you speak of.

Ault Park is a great show. We'll be at the Glenmoor Gathering in about two weeks.

If my memory is correct of the b&w picture, the car was white or at least light colored.

That was not my car. My car was black until '66, painted green with a tan top and interior and painted it's current color in '94.

That was the Derham car. It came off the assembly line as a Lucite White coupe with a red and white interior. It was sent to Derham with three complete top assemblies from a '57 Ford. They only built one convertible. One of the other top assemblies was used on another show car. The records are at the Gilmore Museum.

Derham offered factory authorized Mark II convertibles at $18,000. You could have a Rolls-Royce at half the price. There were no takers.

Somewhere in my collection of car magazines that I saved when I was a kid, there is a short article, w/picture, of a "factory" or "prototype" (I can't recall) Mark II convertible. I think it was in a <span style="font-style: italic">Motor Trend </span>or <span style="font-style: italic">Motor Life</span> magazine. I saw your car at the Ault Park concours. Beautiful car. We were entered with a '54 Hudson.

If my memory is correct of the b&w picture, the car was white or at least light colored.

This is the clip I was referring to:

The narrow whitewalls on this one make it look more like it was photographed in the 60's or later

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The narrow whitewalls on this one make it look more like it was photographed in the 60's or later

Not necessarily!  Though wide whitewalls predominated in the 1950's,

the expensive Cadillac Eldorado Brougham came with narrow whitewalls,

according to the catalogue illustrations.  It wouldn't be surprising, therefore,

to see some custom shop put narrow whitewalls on a Lincoln Mark II.

Narrow whitewalls were likely thought of as a leading-edge design back then,

and finally made it to more common cars in the early 1960's.

(And narrow whitewalls were occasionally seen even in the 1920's!)

The narrow whitewalls on this one make it look more like it was photographed in the 60's or later. 

 

 

 

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I've never seen this picture before. It's definitely my car. It's the only one with a metal boot over the retracted top. I have seen pictures of it from the '70s with narrow whites. The metal boot was added in '69 when the car was repainted dark green from its original black. It was painted its current color in 2004. I'm thinking that this might have been taken when Hogan, the shopping mall developer, owned it.