1970s Lincoln Mark V. One of my aunts had a mid-'70s Mark V, in the deep burgundy red color. She watched my sister and I occasionally when we were growing up, and I loved hearing that Aunt Mary would be watching us, because there was a chance she'd need to run errands. Running errands meant that we got to ride in the Lincoln.
It was such a treat, I would often go whole minutes without teasing my sister...
I don't know exactly what it was about the car that just struck me. It might have been the wide white walls, or the continental kit on the trunk, or maybe just the super plush seats. I remember it riding like a cloud; given the poor road conditions in New England from snow and ice, the car must have had one heck of a suspension. While Cadillacs are my first love for luxury cars, a Mark V would have to be part of the motor pool just for Aunt Mary...
It's one of the few non-muscle Ford's I'd be interested in, actually...
That is all.
11 comments:
I bet it'd scoot like a bat outta hell, though, if you stuffed a 426 hemi in it...
}:-]
Someone's gotta start the comments off right...
Didn't some of those have Mercury 460 engines? Marine Merc 460's have a MEAN roar to them .... Just saying ...
You'd have to change your name to Frank Cannon.
Go for the 429SCJ. It's a short-stroke 460. Stock, it makes 500+ hp. Bigger Holley carb, and a better intake, along with Hooker Headers, would up that a wee bit.
Biggest valves and ports on a production car engine, IIRC. Oh, and you'll need Fairbanks (or similar) to mod the C6 trans for full power shifts. Detroit Locker in the differential so it can put that power to the pavement.
Will has got it exactly right, but I would upgrade the engine to full electronic ignition, catalytic exhausts, and programmable, engine-mapping controls.
Then find a source of 100 Octane Avgas so that you can have the computer run the engine at it's intended efficiency.
No need for a turbo or blower, not even NOX, with that setup.
Oh, and have the motor built to "nominal" blueprinting, which is right in the dead-middle of the "+/-" tolerances. But PERFECTLY in the dead-middle, right on the numbers. Have the crank, rods and pistons all dynamic balanced as a set, too.
Break it in for the first 200 miles with 30 weight natural oil, then purge the "shavings" with another 200 miles of 5w/20w, natural-synthetic blend. After the purge, change to a premium synthetic for the life of the motor.
Don't try to break in a new motor on pure synthetic. Some of them are so good, you won't get the necessary "burnishing" of parts wearing-in and mating one to another.
And that's your recipe for a long lasting, smooth and sweet running engine, right there.
Jim
Sunk New Dawn
Galveston, TX
It was gallons to the mile as they 'floated' down the road...LOL
My Uncle Frank had one of those in canary yellow and he let me drive it when I was a mere lad of 18.
You didn't just drive off in a Lincoln Mark V, you got underway.
That thing was huge! The hood seemed to stretch out there forever. And "float" doesn't even begin to describe the ride. Of course, it had the handling characteristics of the USS Nimitz. But who cares. It's a classic now.
Jim:
That engine would run fine on regular gas (the contemporary 89octane,IIRC), as long as you didn't need to open the secondaries. Stock, it had an 11.5 to 1 compression ratio, but a very radical cam profile. Drove mine across the country using the cheap gas, back in '77. I did switch to the good stuff for mountain driving, though. Got about 10-12 mpg cruising. 5 mpg around town. ('71 Mustang, with the auto trans and 4.11 Detroit Locker rear)
My pappy said, "Son, your gonna drive me to drinkin' if you don't stop driving that hot rod Lincoln."
Mine was gray. The sheet metal was pretty beat up, but the interior was nice. We used to listen to 8-tracks on the stock stereo while we went speeding around the back roads. My 460 was stock, but I had a friend who had a built one in a Mustang. A 460 revving at 9k makes quite the eerie wail.
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