Post by Mike B on Dec 11, 2008 4:46:27 GMT -4
by Laura Lane/Herald Times columnist May 10, 2008 | lane@heraldt.com
Twenty-four years ago, Kary Scholl bought one of the 444 Continental Mark II Coupes manufactured in 1957.
This past Thursday, a luxury car hauler arrived at his Bloomington home and took the classic car away.
“It’s going to some king or prince in the Middle East,” Scholl said. “Really.”
The 1957 Continental Mark II Coupe that Kary Scholl recently sold after owning it for 24 years. Laura Lane | Herald-Times
More than half a century ago, the elegant car sold for $10,000 on the showroom floor, the same price as a new Rolls Royce and twice the cost of two new Cadillacs. The 18-foot-long car was Ford’s attempt to return to chrome-laden pre-World War II luxury vehicles. Much of it was assembled by workers, not machines. The paint was applied in multiple coats, hand-sanded between, then covered with two coats of lacquer.
While it had Ford Lincoln components and was sold through Lincoln dealerships, the 1956 and 1957 Continentals were not Lincolns.
About 2,500 1956 models rolled off the assembly line after the Continental was introduced at the 1955 Paris Motor Show. Then, in 1957, production was stopped after just 444 cars were made. Ford was losing about $1,000 on each Continental sold; it was clear the luxury car was too expensive for the American automobile buyer’s taste.
The Continental was reserved for the famous and the rich; owners included Elvis Presley, Frank Sinatra, Elizabeth Taylor, Dwight Eisenhower and the Shah of Iran.
In 1984, Scholl added his name to the list. He purchased the Continental, still all original with its initial coat of paint, from the family of a Pennsylvania woman who had died. He still has the car’s original key on the woman’s fancy jeweled fob.
The odometer shows just 55,398 miles; Scholl has driven just 372.3 of them. Yep, less than 400 miles in 24 years. The longest journey was 120 miles round trip the year he bought the car when he drove it from Toledo to Detroit for the 1984 Lincoln Eastern National Meet, where the Continental won third place.
“I bought it as an investment, not as a car,” he said. He has only put gasoline in the car twice. The gas cap is hidden behind the taillight on the driver’s side.
Scholl, 61, has spent his life buying, restoring and reselling classic cars. It started 46 years ago when, at 15, he purchased a 1947 Ford coupe for $55.99 at a police auction. “I have been dealing cars ever since,” he said.
He held on to that first car for 17 years before selling it. “I keep my cars for a long time,” he said, until he is ready to sell or the right buyer comes along.
Of all the cars he has owned, the Continental always was his favorite. “I’ve had it a year longer than I’ve had my daughter,” Scholl said, looking the car over before it was hauled away. “But you have to move on.”
That daughter, by the way, came home from the hospital after her birth in her dad’s then-treasured 1949 Cadillac.
For a 1957 model, his Continental had all the extras: air conditioning, power windows, four cigarette lighters with ashtrays, two-tone leather interior, stainless steel doorjambs and a beautiful rear end with a signature hump that conceals the spare tire. The original hubcaps are worth $1,000 apiece. He showed off his favorite option: the automatic chrome-framed window vents that open and close with the touch of a switch.
“These cars weigh 2/1—2 tons,” he said, referring to the Continental. “Look, there’s enough steel in this door to build a Subaru.”
Days after finalizing the Continental sale, Scholl made another purchase, his 100th car. He has the late Archie Baugh’s 1929 Ford Model A Roadster, in parts, strewn around his garage.
Baugh was a master mechanic who died in 2006 at the age of 93; he had hope to complete the roadster restoration before he died. He installed the dashboard gauges from his bed when he became too weak to walk out to his shop.
Scholl intends to have the old car reassembled and ready for next Saturday’s free-to-the-public Phil Taylor Memorial Car Show at the Monroe County Fairgrounds.
Baugh would have liked that.
Got a story to tell about a car or truck? Call 812-331-4362, send an e-mail to lane@heraldt.com or a letter to My Favorite Ride, P.O. Box 909, Bloomington, IN 47402.
Twenty-four years ago, Kary Scholl bought one of the 444 Continental Mark II Coupes manufactured in 1957.
This past Thursday, a luxury car hauler arrived at his Bloomington home and took the classic car away.
“It’s going to some king or prince in the Middle East,” Scholl said. “Really.”
The 1957 Continental Mark II Coupe that Kary Scholl recently sold after owning it for 24 years. Laura Lane | Herald-Times
More than half a century ago, the elegant car sold for $10,000 on the showroom floor, the same price as a new Rolls Royce and twice the cost of two new Cadillacs. The 18-foot-long car was Ford’s attempt to return to chrome-laden pre-World War II luxury vehicles. Much of it was assembled by workers, not machines. The paint was applied in multiple coats, hand-sanded between, then covered with two coats of lacquer.
While it had Ford Lincoln components and was sold through Lincoln dealerships, the 1956 and 1957 Continentals were not Lincolns.
About 2,500 1956 models rolled off the assembly line after the Continental was introduced at the 1955 Paris Motor Show. Then, in 1957, production was stopped after just 444 cars were made. Ford was losing about $1,000 on each Continental sold; it was clear the luxury car was too expensive for the American automobile buyer’s taste.
The Continental was reserved for the famous and the rich; owners included Elvis Presley, Frank Sinatra, Elizabeth Taylor, Dwight Eisenhower and the Shah of Iran.
In 1984, Scholl added his name to the list. He purchased the Continental, still all original with its initial coat of paint, from the family of a Pennsylvania woman who had died. He still has the car’s original key on the woman’s fancy jeweled fob.
The odometer shows just 55,398 miles; Scholl has driven just 372.3 of them. Yep, less than 400 miles in 24 years. The longest journey was 120 miles round trip the year he bought the car when he drove it from Toledo to Detroit for the 1984 Lincoln Eastern National Meet, where the Continental won third place.
“I bought it as an investment, not as a car,” he said. He has only put gasoline in the car twice. The gas cap is hidden behind the taillight on the driver’s side.
Scholl, 61, has spent his life buying, restoring and reselling classic cars. It started 46 years ago when, at 15, he purchased a 1947 Ford coupe for $55.99 at a police auction. “I have been dealing cars ever since,” he said.
He held on to that first car for 17 years before selling it. “I keep my cars for a long time,” he said, until he is ready to sell or the right buyer comes along.
Of all the cars he has owned, the Continental always was his favorite. “I’ve had it a year longer than I’ve had my daughter,” Scholl said, looking the car over before it was hauled away. “But you have to move on.”
That daughter, by the way, came home from the hospital after her birth in her dad’s then-treasured 1949 Cadillac.
For a 1957 model, his Continental had all the extras: air conditioning, power windows, four cigarette lighters with ashtrays, two-tone leather interior, stainless steel doorjambs and a beautiful rear end with a signature hump that conceals the spare tire. The original hubcaps are worth $1,000 apiece. He showed off his favorite option: the automatic chrome-framed window vents that open and close with the touch of a switch.
“These cars weigh 2/1—2 tons,” he said, referring to the Continental. “Look, there’s enough steel in this door to build a Subaru.”
Days after finalizing the Continental sale, Scholl made another purchase, his 100th car. He has the late Archie Baugh’s 1929 Ford Model A Roadster, in parts, strewn around his garage.
Baugh was a master mechanic who died in 2006 at the age of 93; he had hope to complete the roadster restoration before he died. He installed the dashboard gauges from his bed when he became too weak to walk out to his shop.
Scholl intends to have the old car reassembled and ready for next Saturday’s free-to-the-public Phil Taylor Memorial Car Show at the Monroe County Fairgrounds.
Baugh would have liked that.
Got a story to tell about a car or truck? Call 812-331-4362, send an e-mail to lane@heraldt.com or a letter to My Favorite Ride, P.O. Box 909, Bloomington, IN 47402.