FEATURE
18
Elvis drove one. Frank Sinatra, too.
Not to mention President Eisenhower
and the Shah of Iran. The Continental
Mark II was extraordinary then and
still is today. Like "The Scarlet Lady,"
built by Ryan's Rod and Kustom
and selected as a Pirelli Tire Great
8 finalist for the Don Ridler Award
at the 2018 Detroit Autorama.
A little more than 3,000 Continental
Mark IIs were built. As rare as they
were on the road back in the day, they
are even harder to find on the custom
scene. Still, when Chris Ryan found
a rusty '56 for sale on Craigslist, the
elegant lines shined with possibility.
"I wanted to pay tribute to the custom
guys of the '50s, '60s and early
'70s—George Barris, Gene Winfield,
the Alexander Brothers," Chris
explains. He swapped the
stock engine for a Ford
Racing Coyote 5.0 and built
a custom chassis. His team
then modified every panel
to make it sleeker and
smoother, including the
removal the trunk lid's
iconic spare-tire hump.
CHRIS RYAN, OF RYAN'S ROD AND KUSTOM, UPGRADES
