thaywood
Dedicated LVC Member
I love my Lincoln! I just wanted to say that. I’ve been a Lincoln man for many years. My first Lincoln was a 1962 suicide-door Continental. It was forest green with a white leather interior. It had a 340hp 430 V-8, auto, power steering/brakes/windows and seat, a/c, am/fm radio, cruise, tilt, and the very rare automatic headlight dimmer with the sensor on the center of the dash. It wasn’t in great shape and I spent a couple of years getting it drivable, but ended up selling it. I still kick myself for that. Next I got a ’79 Lincoln Town Coupe. Now that was one enormous car!! It was basically a 2-door Town Car. It was teal with blue velour interior. It had a 400-M with about 3 horsepower. But I loved that car! It had a moonroof that was as big as the windshield on my ’97 LSC! Then I got a ’71 Continental with the 10.5:1 D0VE-C head, 365hp, 500ft-lb 460 V-8. Now that car was a friggin’ monster! It would literally melt a set of rear tires if you weren’t careful. It had a bottomless pit of low end torque that is sorely missing in most modern cars. The kind of torque you can only get from a big cube big block V-8. It was such a great car. I miss it too. My next Lincoln was a 1988 Town Car with the good ol’ 302 with 160hp (dual exhaust package) and a C5 AOD. It was white with a blue carriage roof and blue velour interior. Of course it had power everything and all the goodies. I loved driving that car. It was smooth, quiet, and reasonably fast considering its anemic powerplant. And it got 20+ mpg most of the time. After that I had a couple of T-Birds and Mustangs before getting my ’96 Mark VIII in 2000. For me, that was the ultimate Lincoln. It was a sleek, sexy, 2-door coupe with a powerful state-of-the-art V-8 and all the bells and whistles. I had wanted a Mark VIII since I first saw one in ’93. But I could never even dream of affording a new $40K car. I ended up getting my dream Lincoln with 63K miles on it 7 years later for $4K bucks!! What a steal! The only thing wrong with the car was leaky front air springs. I drove that car for 10 years before finally selling it this year with 204K miles on it. Luckily, I had bought my wife a ’97 LSC a couple of years ago. Now that she has her ’96 Cobra convertible, the LSC is mine! I loved the ’96 but the ’97 is better. It’s not as fast as the ’96 but it is better looking, more comfortable, and classier looking. The GEN2 Mark VIII is overall a better car as far as looking the part of a premium luxury car. The GEN1 shared too much with other, lesser FoMoCo products. For example, the turn signal stalk and dome lamp in my ’96 Mark were identical to the ones in my ’94 Ford Explorer and the interior door handles are exactly the same as the ones in the ’96 Cobra (of course, so are the ones in the ’97, but they’re chrome!). Every once in a while, my wife graciously allows me to drive her Cobra. On those rare occasions, I thoroughly enjoy myself. There’s nothing like driving a small, nimble RWD car with 300+hp and a manual transmission around corners! I love tossing that car because it sticks to the road like glue. And I love rowing through the gears (no “flappy paddles” for me, thank you very much!). But no matter how much I enjoy driving the Mustang, it doesn’t compare to the Mark. The Mustang is just too small. I like big cars. I feel cramped in the Mustang. In the Mark I have plenty of "wiggle" room. I don’t feel like a sardine. The Mark is also much easier to get in and out of than the Mustang. Granted the Mustang has a 1.5” Eibach lowering kit, but even so, it’s so small and cramped, I have trouble getting in and out of it easily. Mostly due to my back and knee issues. The Lincoln’s seats are also far more comfortable than the Mustang’s. And although the Mustang is faster and handles worlds better than the Mark, I would still rather be sitting in my Hot Rod Lincoln. Now if I could just get the Mark to handle anywhere even close to the Cobra, I’d be a seriously happy camper!
I lost count at around 30 or so