The Ford Motor Company created an all-time classic with the 1961 Lincoln Continental, but eventually it was due for a replacement. The 1970 Continental opened a new chapter.

The 1961 Lincoln Continental has been called one of the most handsome cars ever produced by the U.S. auto industry, and it served the Ford Motor Company well through facelifts in 1964 and 1966, selling in respectable numbers. But even a classic will eventually need a replacement, and while the 1970 Continental captured some flavor of the original, it was actually a very different car.

While the ’61-’69 Continentals were of unitized construction, the Lincoln-Mercury Division switched to the body-on-frame format for the 1970 package to reduce costs and permit greater component sharing with the rest of the Ford and Mercury passenger cars. (The Continental Mark III coupe introduced the year before was also BoF.)  In that regard the Continental  was much like the other FoMoCo full-size products of 1970 with a perimeter frame and coil springs on all four corners, but with its own exclusive 126-in wheelbase. That was two inches longer than the biggest Mercury, a calculated move on Ford’s part.

A collaborative effort of the Lincoln-Mercury design studio staff led by Buzz Grisinger, the new exterior was a good bit larger than the relatively trim ’61 Continental—nine inches longer and several inches wider in the cabin. The look was by design more formal, heavy, and massive, a trend that continued from the ’64 and ’66 facelifts. The front-opening rear doors, a signature feature of the ’61 design, were discarded, and now the styling elements included hidden headlamps, fender skirts, and concealed wipers. The Cord-like coffin front end treatment was directed by Grisinger himself.

While the new Continental was signifcanly larger, it was actually several hundred pounds lighter at around 4,700 lbs as the heavy Lincoln unit-construction system was abandoned. Body styles were limited to two: a four-door post sedan and a two-door coupe. (The distinctive four-door convertible had been discontinued in 1967.) The sedan outsold the coupe by roughly a three-to-one margin, as after all, the popular Continental Mark III was available to two-door buyers. While the 1970 Continental did not have the lasting impact of its 1961 predecessor, it served the company equally well,  and with relatively modest changes (that’s actually a ’72 shown in the lead photo) it remained in production through 1979.