Ford Motor Company's 1956-57
Continental Mark II and the
Ford Mustang that was announced April 1964 had coupé bodies (Mustangs also came as convertible coupés).
That didn't prevent Ford product planners from considering four-door versions. In fact, the next-generation Continentals, the Mark IIIs launched for the 1958 model year, included four-door models. There never were any four-door Mustangs, however.
Below are some images -- most of marginal quality -- of proposed four-door Continental Mark IIs and Mustangs.
Gallery
Continental
This is a 1956 Continental Mk. II, photo via Barrett-Jackson auctions.
Drawing showing a proposed four-door hardtop Mark II.
Clay buck for full-scale four-door alternatives. Note the scoring for door cuts.
Overhead view of a four-door Mark II clay.
Now for views of a later (fiberglass?) model.
Front.
Rear quarter.
Side view. Door handles are next to each other, so the rear door is hinged on the C-pillar. The classic 1961 Lincoln Continentals had this feature.
Mustang
1964 1/2 Mustang hardtop coupe, for-sale photo.
Styling model of a proposed four-door Mustang from 7 January 1963.
A production version could not have been launched before the 1966 model year.
These are fascinating -- I've never seen them. My take: the Continental could have worked. The design tranlates pretty well to four doors -- the extra length works on a luxury vehicle. The Mustang? No. Can't quite put it into words, but the four-door version loses sportiness and jauntiness. Looks more like a Falcon, its mechanical father.
ReplyDeleteNot a big loss (IMO) that they never built a 4-door Mark II. Interesting that Cadillac came up with a something quite similar to the 4-door Mark II, the Eldorado Brougham, a pillarless 4-door hardtop with suicide doors.
ReplyDelete'There never were any four-door Mustangs, however.' Not until recently, there weren't! If you don't regard the Mach-E as a Mustang, I would not give you an argument.
The Mustang's characteristic long hood and thick notchback C-pillar work against the sedan. The hood length would've left the car with sub-Falcon interior space and Fairlane overall length.
ReplyDeleteLocking the whole program into the Falcon's dash-to-axle dimension would help the sedan, not hurt the coupes and ragtops much if at all as long as their wheelbase was shortened, and save the industry from a bad influence (long hood/short deck mania swept Detroit in the mid/late '60s and killed space utilization until the first generation of cars designed after the 1973 oil crisis).
Since the post sedan wouldn't need a continuous DLO, there's no reason not to carry the wraparound of the rear door back further, extending the window area and slimming the C pillars, giving the design much more visual lightness and an almost Italian vibe.