The Continental Mark II was a personal luxury car produced by a newly formed Continental Division of the Ford Motor Company

Ford Motor Company

Ford Motor Company is an American multinational automaker based in Dearborn, Michigan, a suburb of Detroit. The automaker was founded by Henry Ford and incorporated on June 16, 1903. In addition to the Ford and Lincoln brands, Ford also owns a small stake in Mazda in Japan and Aston Martin in the UK...

 for only two model years: 1956 and 1957.

The Mark II was available only as a two-door hardtop

Hardtop

A hardtop is a term for a rigid, rather than canvas, automobile roof. It has been used in several contexts: detachable hardtops, retractable hardtop roofs, and the so-called pillarless hardtop body style....

 coupe. The new model eschewed chrome-laden styling of the period. Its understated design evoked a European simplicity of line. The Continental Mark II featured a Lincoln-style spare tire hump, shared the new 368 CID Lincoln Y-block V8 engine

Lincoln Y-block V8 engine

The Lincoln V8 engine, Ford's earliest OHV V8 engine, was introduced by Lincoln in 1952. Like the later Ford Y-block engine, its deep skirts made the block resemble the letter Y from the front. This development was arguably in response to the sales success of the competing Oldsmobile "Rocket" and...

 and running gear, and was sold and serviced at Lincoln dealerships.