1956 Lincoln Continental Mark II Great 8 Winner
1956 Lincoln Continental Mark II
Owned by Chris Ryan of Ninety Six, South Carolina. It is entered in the Radical Custom category. This 1956 Lincoln Continental Mark II was named to the Great 8 contending for the Ridler Award here at the 2018 Detroit Autorama. The car itself started life out as a pampered celebrity car owned by Hollywood movie actress Rita Hayworth. Chris and his friends found it outside of Atlanta, Georgia only it was then in pretty rough shape. You might say it was barn fresh when they found it. Chris wanted to pay homage to his heroes, such as custom car legends like Gene Winfield, John D’Agostino, George Barris, Jack Walker or the Alexander Brothers. So the idea was to restore the 1956 Lincoln Continental Mark II the way a Rock N Roll custom would have been done by those builders in the 1960’s.
They started by chopping the roof 2 inches, took 3/4 of an inch out of the hat, took the hump off the trunk and shaved it; shaved the doors, shaved the hood, extended the quarters, the rockers and the fenders. The paint was purposefully “loud”, a PPG Crystallence Glass flake base with Candy red over the top. It was meant to complement the old school peppermint trim interior. Chuck Hannah from Mooresville, North Carolina did the interior. The ’64 T-Bird seats are covered in white leather, a 1960 Chrysler Letter Car instrument cluster and a 1961 Plymouth steering wheel.
For the drivetrain Chris used a modern Coyote engine from Ford Motorsports connected to a 6R80 transmission and 9″ Ford rear end. The Lincoln has Ride Tech Shock Waves all around and will pancake to the ground as you see it in the video below. The Ride Tech stainless steel 4-bar and Fatman front end. In the trunk is a a vintage Fender guitar amp box is used as a cover for the Ride Tech Air Ride, and a Fender Stratocaster is hooked up for appearances.
Here is a video interview with the builder.
You’ll see this car at all the national shows around the country this summer. Photos and video by Bob Boberg of eClassicAutos.com.
See all of this year’s 2018 Great 8 Award Winners featured on the Cars-On-Line.com blog page here.