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Topic starter
25/10/2026 8:37 am
The newly formed Continental Division of Ford Motor Company ambitiously hand built the Continental Mark ll between 1956 and 1957. It launched an elegant European style personal luxury car eschewing all the chrome and tail fins of their contemporaries. It's long hood-short deck design would be resurrected by all the majors a decade later. It unfortunately became a vanity project. Even with an MSRP of around $10,000, it lost about a thousand dollars per unit. There always plans to build a convertible. The chassis was designed to take bolt on stiffeners to accommodate the soft top. Two prototypes were already built in 1955 by Hess & Eisenhardt and later, one more by Derham Coachworks: the famous Honolulu Blue convertible built to debut at the 1956 Texas State Fair and later given to the widow Martha Firestone Ford.
This model by Franklin Mint is, I assume, one of the two H & E builds. It's done in a beautiful metallic green although I've never seen a 1:1 in that color. I don't have the other CV in Honolulu Blue. Can anyone who have this model tell me if the 368 V8 was replaced with the 460 V8 that was put in the car circa 1968? Just curious and I kinda doubt it.
25/10/2026 8:57 am
The story of the LECC Convertible as written 22 years ago:
https://diecast.org/model-details/?pdb=7617
I can't speak to the engine change of the Honolulu Blue car but they are different motors. See it here:
https://diecast.org/model-details/?pdb=903
This post was modified 1 week ago by Tony Perrone
Topic starter
25/10/2026 10:23 am
@perrone1 Yep, it's definitely "different". Methinks FM replicated the 460 V8. Thanks, my friend!
25/10/2026 10:33 am
I like the automobile and the models a lot. I have a white and a black hardtop coupe of this beauty in 1/18 scale.
25/10/2026 12:09 pm
Topic starter
25/10/2026 12:56 pm
@perrone1 So it came from H&E in that color and I guess was painted many times over the years. It's weird I can't find pics of it.
25/10/2026 1:11 pm
Those are both stunning automobiles.💯🤑
25/10/2026 2:13 pm
26/10/2026 1:56 pm
@rich-sufficool The Honolulu Blue is the one by FM? I love the color and I am rather fond of the Continental of that period.
26/10/2026 2:05 pm
@rich-sufficool The Honolulu Blue is the one by FM? I love the color and I am rather fond of the Continental of that period.
Honolulu Blue is by FM. All 5 of these are FM:
Honolulu Blue:
26/10/2026 2:11 pm
@perrone1 Thank you. When I was in college, I shared a house with a guy who was restoring a teal colored 1955 (or was it 1956?). I hadn't seen one, before then.
26/10/2026 5:38 pm
Never saw the green convertible but have the other five.
27/10/2026 4:39 am
27/10/2026 5:58 am
I have the black Mark II, which I believe was TFM's initial version. Great posts, gents.
John Bono
North Jersey