Continental vs. Porsche, 1955 battle over the name "Continental"

[kach22i]

Originally posted by SoCal911SC
In a letter published in Road & Track in Dec. 1955,

Do you have this one?

[id10t]

I may... I'll need to sort thru the mags at home.

[barry2952]

I spent about 5 hours at the Benson Ford Research Library researching the Porsche connection and came up with a Mercedes trademark infringement tiff. Someone posted that Mercedes may have talked Porsche into using the Continental name to get back at Ford.

I also found a document that explains why my Mark II was selected for making into a convertible. Apparently the roof was damaged in shipment so they used it for one of the convertible prototypes.

[tabs]

I would rather have the car than a picture of the car ...

[Rufblackbird]

nothing to contribute, but is that a Hawaii front plate on the 356 continental?

[barry2952]

Yes it is. The car just came from Hawaii.

[barry2952]

Originally posted by tabs
Cadilliac ate it's lunch.....11K in 1955 was the price of a house...and that is why the car ultimately failed.

In fact, Cadillac did not eat the Mark IIs lunch. It's only competition from Caddy was the Brougham which sold significantly fewer units. Was the Brougham a failure, too?

Here's Mike Davis' (automotive writer) response:

"And you make an interesting point about the Brougham production, which
Standard Catalogue says was 400 for '57 and 304 for '58. So the Conny sold more in its two-year run."

In my conversation with Mike I asked if the Brougham was brought out in response to the Mark II. His response:

"From all I've heard, the Brougham was more a Harley Earl ego trip than a market response (Bill Porter or Alan Haas would know for sure); it also allowed GM to try out some new designs at low volume; Broughams were a clue to the next model year's regular Cadillac for eagle-eyed reporters in the days when the auto companies didn't spill all their beans long before "Job 1."

So I contacted my friend Bill Porter, retired chief GM designer, and got his response:

"Hello Barry:

It's certainly possible that the Mark II triggerd the Brougham but my sense is that the latter's primary raison d'etre was Earl's emminent retirement. He wanted to go out in a blaze of glory. The Brougham was the ultimate refinement of the '50s Cadillac design mood. And, in my opinion, it was Earls last masterpiece. As an aside, Earl had taken on a couple of noted Italian designers in the fifties (one of them, Fidele Bianco, grew up with Sergio Pininfarina in Turin) and the Pinin Farina connection must have seemed very sophisticated to all at the time. Italian design in general was leading the pack.

Regards, Bill"

I will agree that Cadillac "ate" Lincoln's lunch just by number of units sold, only. Since the Mark II was not a Lincoln I believe you need to slightly adjust your statement.

[barry2952]

The symbol people associate with Lincoln is actually the Continental Star. A Continental Division designer by the name of Robert Thomas designed it just hours before the Mark II was introduced to the Ford Board of Directors. It has since been adopted by the Lincoln Division as the Lincoln emblem.

While compiling information for an upcoming article on the subject I visited the Benson Ford Research Library at The Henry Ford, in Dearborn MI. I was actually doing research on the interaction of Ford and Porsche over the Continental name. Rumor has it that Ford persuaded Porsche to cease using the Continental name on its 1955 356 Coupe and Cabrio because Ford claimed that the name Continental was most associated with its product first introduced in 1939. Porsche did stop using the name for the 1956 model onward.

My search of the Continental records bore nothing along those lines but I happened upon another very interesting trademark infringement interaction between Daimler-Mercedes and Ford over the use of a four-pointed star being used on the Continental. Mercedes claimed to have registered a four-pointed star as "defensive" protection of its three-pointed star and it wanted Ford to cease its use along with the Continental name. Ford pretty much told them to take a hike.

The documents are an interesting dance between two auto giants. They're interesting reading. The most interesting part is mention of a previous trademark infringements between the companies. I'm interested if anyone may have knowledge of that story.

The first letter is Mercedes' New York attorney's letter to Ford. The second letter is an inter-company memo reporting the mercedes demand and the third letter is Ford's counsel's response to Mercedes.

[kach22i]

[kach22i]

This is an odd one.

http://www.mascot-mania.co.uk/orphanage.html?/zgmb2.html&19orphan57

[barry2952]

Continental Collection

[speeder]

Isn't the MK2 the only post-war car considered a classic, (by the official sanctioning body, can't remember their name)?

[barry2952]

There are no classics past 1948 in the eyes of the Classic Car Club of America.

The Mark II meets all their criteria except age.

Update on my "Toybox" trailer project:

http://www.cardomain.com/ride/340096/5

[barry2952]

Was messing around and made a YouTube video of a photo shoot in '06.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cQVCTnSlooM

[nota]

the Mark II's cost a lot new but droped like stone in value
my dad owned about a 1/2 dozen of them in the late 50's early 60's
bought for 2k or less 1500 avg some as low as 1 k
and resold in R&T mag for 3 to 4k
he did the same with 356's including a bathtub and 4 cammer
and we often had one of each in the drive way

[barry2952]

Then, you understand my lust.