Pick of the Day: Lincoln Mark V by Bill Blass

Car with designer details has been family owned since new

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1979 Lincoln Mark V Bill Blass
This 1979 Lincoln Mark V Bill Blass designer-edition has been owned by the same family since new

This past summer, the Audrain Automotive Museum in Rhode Island joined with the Newport Historical Society for a dual exhibition featuring classic cars owned by women and women’s fashions and how they were changed by the automobile. 

As part of the promotion for those exhibitions, automotive and fashion historians spoke about women and cars, and the former fashion curator at a major American art museum suggested an ideal premise for a museum display or a concours d’elegance class would be the 1977-1979 Designer Series cars from Lincoln.

Ford’s luxury brand worked with Bill Blass, Cartier, Givenchy and Emillo Pucci to create special editions of the Continental Mark V. One such car, a 1979 Lincoln Mark V being advertised on ClassicCars.com by its private seller, is the Pick of the Day.

“Summer 1979 I was with my dad at the Lincoln Mercury dealership in South Lake Tahoe,” the seller reports, “he had ordered a new Bill Blass Continental and we were there to pick it up.  We watched them unload this beautiful Mark V off the truck 42 years ago.

“The car is rust free, it has never been in an accident and the white leather interior seating is really like new without any scratches or wear marks. The interior is complete and in good condition. The paint looks nice and has some blemishes. The bright work shines great and is acceptable.”

For the 1979 model year, the Blass Mark Vs were done in Moondust, a midnight blue metallic shade, and white, with either a white leather interior with midnight blue accents or in midnight blue leather with white accents.

Roofs were white vinyl, either fully covered or carriage style. The Pick of the Day has the full white vinyl roof.

For the 1979 model year, Lincoln produced a few more than 19,000 of what it termed its “Collector’s Series” cars, only 763 were Pucci versions while nearly 9,500 were carried the Cartier trim. There were 6,720 Blass cars, and like the other Designer cars, they were fully loaded with features such as air conditioning, AM/FM/Quadrasonic 8-track audio, cruise control, and power brakes/steering/locks/windows. 

Power was provided by Lincoln’s 400cid V8 rated at 159 horsepower and 315 pound-feet of torque and connected to an automatic transmission with a column-mounted selector lever.

“Our family has enjoyed being the lucky caretakers of this rare and stunning Bill Blass continental for all these years and now it’s time for someone else to enjoy this beautiful piece of automotive history,” the seller reports. “This Lincoln is good looking and it’s in very nice condition it has been well-maintained and works as it should.”

The odometer shows only a few more than 68,100 miles on a car being offered for $16,900. The Lincoln is in Minden, Nevada, just east of Lake Tahoe. To view this listing on ClassicCars.com, see Pick of the Day.

6 COMMENTS

  1. I owned one in 79 white/blue velour /whip antenna for car phone/open roof. Loaded paid approx 25 k worth every penny.Loved so much bought another jet black for me and gave white one to wife.she was overly appreciative.Great cars from gone by era no longer available What a loss!!!!

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