The Lincoln Continental Mark IV was the quintessential boulevard battleship of the 1970s.

The Lincoln Continental Mark IV of 1972-76 will forever be identified with legendary product man Lee Iacocca, but actually, it was Iacocca’s nemesis at Ford, Bunkie Knudsen, who gave the Mark IV the green light. During his brief tenure as Ford president, Knudsen made an unannounced visit to the company’s Advanced Styling studio, where he spotted the car and immediately told lead designer Wes Dahlberg, “Gentlemen, this is going to be the next Mark, the Mark IV. Don’t change anything except for manufacturing and engineering feasibility.”

Of course, the Mark IV was in every way a development of the 1969-71 Mark III, which had been a total Lee Iacocca production. (See our feature on the Mark III here.) This new Mark adopted Iacocca’s classic Rolls-style grille and spare tire bump, but married them to even larger and more imposing platform—one that was a foot longer (228.1 in) and 600 lbs heavier (5,300 lbs) than its predecessor. In essence, the Mark IV was a Mark III with all the luxury signifiers cranked up to 11, with an additional new gimmick: oval quarter windows, aka opera windows, which became a signature feature of the Mark Series for the next decade.

There was but one Mark IV body style, a gigantic two-door hardtop coupe, but for the personal-luxury segment of the early ’70s, it hit the target right in the bullseye. For comfort, prestige, and style, it was nearly in a class of its own. The quintessential extreme-luxury cruiser, the Mark IV was a sensation in the showrooms, selling better than 48,000 units, more than double the Mark III’s 1971 volume. And 1973 was even better with more than 69,000 sold, allowing the Lincoln division’s production volume to top the 100,000 mark for the first time in history. While Cadillac continued to lead the luxury category overall, the Mark IV outsold its direct competitor, the Cadillac Eldorado, by a comfortable margin.

As sales inevitably slowed toward the end of the Mark IV’s production cycle, to reawaken buyers Lincoln introduced its Designer Series, with special editions of the 1976 Mark trimmed out by Bill Blass, Cartier, Hubert de Givenchy, and Emilio Pucci. (See more on the Mark IV Designer Series here.) When the Mark IV was finally discontinued at the end of the 1976 season to make way for the  1977 Mark V, more than 278,000 units had been sold. If anyone ever asks you what the giant American luxury cars of the ’70s were all about, you could just refer them to the Lincoln Continental Mark IV.