![]() The fourth car, a convertible, was used in the retractable hardtop program and there are rumors that this car still exists. A third car had a Mark II windshield and substructure and was used to prove body components. Two of the cars were used to work out the Mark II’s handling and ride. There were four such bodies built on Mark II frames by Hess & Eisenhardt. The first Continental retractable prototype was built up from a cobbled 1953 Lincoln body. The second time the demonstration worked perfectly. Everyone laughed but Ben Smith, who blushingly put the deck lid back on its pivots. When the deck lid rose, it came off its pivots, shot straight up in the air, and landed in the hands of one of the engineers. Now came the big ceremony of presenting the working model to management. Several months of effort resulted in a three-eights-scale working model with a clamshell roof that separated into two parts so that it could fit into the trunk. The task turned out to be a lot more difficult than originally expected. Smith, who had come over from General Motors. Actual design work was carried out by Ben J. William Clay, along with his chief engineer, Harley Copp, felt that a retactable hardtop was just a novel enough idea to put the upcoming Continental Mark II on the map, so the company set aside $2.19 million for the Special Projects Division to perfect this unique idea. This division was founded in 1952 to develop the Continental Mark II. Spear found a supporter in William Clay Ford, who headed Ford’s Special Projects Division. Deriving his inspiration from the Chrysler Thunderbolt, Ford’s Gil Spear made a number of retractable hardtop sketches in the late ‘40s and early ‘50s. did not invent the retractable hardtop, it was the first automaker to mass produce it.
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