1976 Lincoln Continental Mark IV Purchased new by Elvis Presley

1976 Lincoln Continental Mark IV Purchased new by Elvis Presley

A true, honest piece of Elvis history, this Lincoln has the honor of being purchased by the man himself, Elvis Presley.

Elvis Presley personally purchased this Lincoln for a Denver doctor friend who helped Presley during what became his final winter vacation to Vail, Colorado. That car, a 1976 Lincoln Continental Mark IV, purchased by Elvis for Dr. Gerald Starkey is here exclusively for sale at MotoeXotica Classic Cars. Dr. Starkey's personal lifetime friend Denver Police Captain Jerry Kennedy also received a blue 1976 Lincoln Continental Mark IV also purchased new by Elvis Presley. That car recently sold at the The Tupelo Automobile Museum Bonhams Auction for $47,040. This Lincoln was kept by Dr. Starkey until his death in 2011. The car is still sold on the original 1976 Colorado title and still in Starkey's name and is included with all the original delivery paperwork!

The story is that on January 4, 1976, Elvis, made a spontaneous decision to head to Vail, Colorado for a vacation with Linda Thompson and a party of 17 other people. Before arrival, Presley contacted his personal friend at the Denver Police Department, Captain Jerry Kennedy to be part of his "advance party" while in Vail. Kennedy handled as a security guard at one of Elvis' Denver shows almost six years earlier and the two struck up a friendship since.

Per newspaper stories, Presley experienced a negative skin reaction from a wool ski mask he wore, by day while snowmobiling and by night so he could shop and move in public anonymously. Kennedy introduced Presley to Dr. Gerald Starkey, the police department's medical coordinator. Starkey recommended a face ointment to clear Presley's skin. As a thank-you gift, Presley bought Starkey this Mark IV on January 14, 1976. It had six miles on the odometer. The account is verified by a hand-written note from Starkey dated May 28, 1978, about nine months after Presley died. This Mark IV was one of five cars Presley bought for people that night; he spent more than $70,000 including the blue Lincoln purchased for Captain Kennedy.

Documentation includes original window sticker; original bill of sale (truncated); factory build sheet, original Colorado registration, original manual, original dealer jacket, all original delivery paperwork, original warranty card and original warranty papers; Polaroid photos of the car at Mausolf Classic Cars in Denver; a hand-written note from Dr. Starkey, dated May 26, 1978 verifying the purchase; two copies of the personal check Elvis wrote the pay for the car; a copy of the dealer sales order for the car; newspaper copies from The Denver Post featuring Starkey's obituary on September 10, 2009 and the Rocky Mountain News dated January 16, 1976 reporting the sale and another dated October 16, 1994 after Kennedy had retired.

"He said to me, 'If anyone says anything to you about me giving you this car, just remember you gave me that flashlight, the one that the police use, and that flashlight is as big a bite out of your pocketbook as this car is out of mine,'" Kennedy said of Presley in 1994.

Made at Ford's Wixom, Michigan (VIN code Y) assembly plant on November 7, 1975, this car was routed to the Denver, Colorado sales region (DSO code 51) and shipped by rail to the Kumpf Motor Car Company, at 869 Broadway in Denver. Standard equipment included a leather interior, dual exhausts, air-conditioning with automatic temperature control, power four-wheel disc brakes, power steering, power windows, power locks, six-way power front seats, tilt steering column, cruise control, electric rear window defroster, AM/FM stereo with Quadrasonic eight-track cassette deck, intermittent windshield wipers, remote-control driver's sideview mirror, forged aluminum wheels, and more.

Dressed in correct and original tan (code 6U), the car's paint and trim are in very good order, with only some very minor blemishes visible upon close inspection. The car has a contrasting Dark Saddle vinyl roof with Full Normandie grain (code FZ). The car's bodywork is straight and solid, its chrome bumpers are in very good condition and the engine bay is tidy but very original for a car from the mid-1970s.

This Mark IV rolls on Sears RoadHandler 50 steel-belted radials, size P235/75R15 at all four corners. Each tire is mounted on a forged aluminum wheels with factory wheel covers. All tires and wheels are in good, original shape.

Under that sprawling hood is Ford's 460 CID V-8 engine (code A), a company mainstay during the 1970s. It has a four-barrel carburetor and breathes via dual exhausts. Backing this motor is Ford's C6 three-speed automatic with Select-Shift (code U) and a 2.75:1 rear end (code 2). Driver convenience items are plentiful, as expected - air-conditioning with automatic temperature control, power steering, power four-wheel disc brakes, power windows, power locks, six-way power front seats, tilt steering column, cruise control, rear window defroster and a remote-control driver's sideview mirror.

Inside, the car's Saddle leather interior (code BZ) is overall very good order. The Twin Comfort Lounge front seats, with separate fold-down armrests, and look great. The rear bench seat has a single fold-down center armrest. The matching saddle carpet is in good, original order while the headliner is in very good order. The slim, two-spoke steering wheel with individual horn buttons looks fine while the inner door panels and instrument panel, with Cartier Clock, look great for a 43-year-old car. Completing the interior is a factory AM/FM stereo with Quadrasonic eight-track cassette deck (you can't get more 1970s than that!).

The Continental Mark IV is a personal luxury car sold from the 1972 to 1976 model years. The third generation of the Mark series, the Mark IV grew in size over its Mark III predecessor and its Cadillac Eldorado rival. Sharing a common chassis with the Ford Thunderbird, the Mark IV was given its own exterior design from the windows down, returning hidden headlights, a radiator-style grille and a Continental spare tire trunk lid.

With designers again using sharp-edged fenders, hidden headlamps, and a tall radiator-style grille, the Continental Mark IV retained the traditional "long-hood, short deck" coupe proportions of the Mark III along with its "Continental spare tire" decklid. The spare tire was actually stored on a ledge in the trunk on top of the gas tank, immediately behind the rear seat.

All Mark IVs were equipped with a vinyl roof. The Mark IV introduced the opera window to the Mark series, a feature that would be featured in the Mark through the discontinuation of the Mark VI after 1983. For 1972, it was an almost universally specified option, becoming standard for 1973.

Competition to this Mark IV in 1976 included AMC's Matador Brougham, BMW's 6-series Coupe, Buick's Riviera, Cadillac's Coupe de Ville and Eldorado, Chrysler's New Yorker, Dodge's Royal Monaco, Mercedes-Benz's 280 CE, Mercury's Marquis Brougham and Oldsmobile's Toronado Brougham.

This rolling piece of memorabilia would be at home in almost any reputable car museum with its documentation and bona fides but it could be an irresistible temptation for an Elvis fan or a Lincoln collector with a penchant for models with celebrity histories. Stop by MotoeXotica Classic Cars today to check it out for yourself!

VIN: 6Y89A835480

This car is currently located at our facility in St. Louis, Missouri. Current mileage on the odometer shows 47,103 miles. It is sold as is, where is, on a clean and clear, mileage exempt title. GET OUT AND DRIVE!!!

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