Off topic. I just bought the last great American made luxury land yacht

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The Big Tomato

I have bored you all with my love of Town Cars and driving them to 300,000 before trading them. I owned three of this vintage. The first was a 1975, purchased from a friend who was an engineer for Ford. The second was a 1978 with Moon roof and crushed velour upholstery. I could never muster the love for it I had for the 75. Then I had an 1980 Mark with design by Givency in the Cabellero series. The variable ventry carbs were a pain, so I traded for another 1978. It had every option Ford offered, leather interior, sun roof and was the clear winner for my favorite Lincoln. I kept it after it's active life as daily driver was over and the kids used it for a couple years. All of the 70's Lincolns had the 460 although a 400 was available. 16 miles per gallon on the road in pure Detroit metal laden luxury. My friends said, "riding in your lincoln is just like taking a trip in a ripe tomato!'
 
Another Lincoln lover here

I've had four big Lincolns, and I love them!

I had a 1966 stretch limo, a 1970 with 50,000 miles on it, a 1976 with crushed velour interior in pretty good condition (VERY pimpy!), and now I drive a 1993.

I'd never own an SUV, but I sure love the big sedans. And I still get about 20MPG, which is better than a lot of the beasts they're selling today.
 
Well, now that you have a fabulous Lincoln, the next obvious thing to do will be to join the LCOC, the Lincoln and Continental Owner's Club! There are over 4,000 LCOC members who can help you restore that beast back to it's original beauty and drivability. The Lincoln Forum is the "forum" for the club, and it's a gold mine of information, parts, vendors and friends! http://www.thelincolnforum.net

I am a member of and volunteer for the LCOC; I'm the chairman of their Website Committee. The LCOC is the best one-stop place for Lincoln lovers and owners. I'm the owner of a '73 Town Car, and every week, I feel like I open up the trunk and throw a handful of $20 bills in there, never to be seen again!


View attachment 4-24-2007-17-00-0--drhardee.jpg
 
Here's a frontal pic of the great beast, that fabulous 70's color is called " Light Ginger Moondust Metallic", AKA "babyshit brown". It really is a pretty bronze color when it's waxed and the sun catches the metallic paint. I'm no size queen, but she's 229.9 inches long and features a 128" wheelbase. She weighs in at a healthy 5,260 lbs, and sips premium fuel at the rate of one gallon every 12 miles in town. But, there are only 10 of them (1973's) registered in the LCOC database, and I doubt seriously if I'll ever see myself coming down the road!

4-24-2007-17-05-23--drhardee.jpg
 
Drhardee,thanks for the links. Your '73 is awsome. It looks basically like mine except with the wider grill.

As mentioned above, I'm interested in the 1977-79 convertibles. I saw some pics on the forum page. Do you know anything about those cars? I've heard that they were dealer promotion cars - the dealer had it sent from the factory to a conversion shop; and I've also heard that they were factory authorized. I called Lincoln's archive division about 10 years ago and they didn't know anything about them.
 
Great Cars~
Unless you can't drive them..Or you are 100 and are 4 foot and can't see out of it. Liek teh lady who tried to cremate me in her Blue Town Car eairler
Although we have had many issues with the car we bought from them, Leith Lincoln Mercury seems to always have 4 or 5 of these big cars for sale used..

 
I have the last of its kind

a 1996 Cadillac Fleetwood Brougham, bought last June 30th in Sedalia w/157k and the coveted all cast iron LT1 Corvette engine (which is what got me hooked in the first place) Gas is $2.65 in CoMO and Western MO, $2.74 in KCK. I have a 23 gallon tank and it costs me $38-45 to fill up with a 1/4 tank left. Part of me wants to get rid of it, but one part wants me to keep it cause it may be a classic soon and I can't find a decent fuel efficient car with 21 cubes of cargo room and enough juice to get up the brutal highway hills of Calloway County!
 
alexb1186

Keep it. It probably gets better mileage than most SUVs and many full size trucks, plus in will probably start attracting collector attention when it hits 25 or 30 years old like my Lincoln.

If you have room, look for a deal on a little fuel efficient car for running small errands that don't require all that cubic feet, unless your entire area is hilly - in which case you need something with a little power.
 
Gas Prices . . .

All you guys with under $3.00 gas are so lucky! Here regular is around $3.25 or so. Since my daily driver is diesel I was thrilled to find it for $2.97 this morning . . . the first under three buck fuel I've seen in quite awhile. It almost made going to the dentist worthwhile (I don't usually drive in that neighborhood).

While those old land yachts get pretty hopeless mileage in urben driving, some aren't so awful on the highway. In the city weight is the enemy, and there is no way to repeatedly accelerate 4000-5000 pounds from a standstill without using a lot of fuel.

Once over about 60 mph, though, aerodynamic drag gradually becomes more important than weight. While the land yachts generally don't have low drag designs, their frontal areas are often less than on modern SUVs, and the overall drag is a function of both aerodynamic efficiency and frontal area. SUVs are pretty hopeless in that they are tall and have a lot of ground clearance. The height increases the frontal area, while the excessive ground clearance allows a lot of airflow under the vehicle. That's bad because underbody areas are rarely smooth and thus a lot of high-drag turbulance is created between the underbody and road.

The upshot is that if you must drive something big and inefficient, a nice old luxury car may be capable of better highway mileage than big modern SUVs, particularly if the car is recent enough to benefit from fuel injection. The benefit for the rest of us on the road is that it is so much nicer to look at an old Lincoln or Caddy than yet another Suburban/Range Rover/X5/Escalade/Navigator!
 
I agree, Hydralique. Once the newness wears off on the Lincoln, I won't really drive it too much, but I've been driving it all week and it sure is a pleasure. Handles well and gives such a smooth ride.

My daily driver is a 1998 Olds 88 that gets 30mpg Hwy and in the mid to high twenties in town.

I admit it - I love big cars. Hey, I'm Texan and we like "Big"

My '58 Buick is 20ft long, 5000 lbs, and gets 15 mpg on the highway, with or without the A/C running.

My '68 Galaxie is about 17 1/2 ft, 3700 pounds, 17mpg Hwy.

My '77 Ford F250 is longer than the Galaxie, 5200 lbs, and 10-12 mpg Hwy. I use it only for hauling things.
 
Hehe . . . when I lived in Texas I mostly either drove big (to me anyway) D-series Citroens or small Fiat/Bertone X1/9s. One night 20 years ago I was getting out of an X1/9 in my cowboy boots behind the Round-Up bar in Dallas, and two guys who were leaving stopped and said "That car is too small for you!". Actually, at 6' tall I fit fine in an X1/9, but then they were headed to an F150 so I suppose it is a matter of perception!

When I was a kid my parents had a '68 Ford too. It served well for years, albeit with the usual late '60s Ford-isms, like having to hold the automatic transmission selector hard in the "park" position when starting or it wouldn't turn over. It was still around when I started driving but I found the steering and brakes kind of loose and generally tried to use one of the Citroens. My grandmother had a '64 Country Sedan wagon ordered with the TOL Thunderbird 390 and trailer towing package. Like the '68, stopping and steering could be downright spooky, but I think it would have towed an apartment building in a straight line, with the air on even. After her death it was sold to someone who refurbished it to tow an old Ford race car to the track and back. She would approve, but then she really loved big cars. Wish now that I had saved her yellow '66 Frigidaire WCI!

One wonderful memory I have is being driven through north Dallas in 1968 by my Dad's best friend in his new triple-black Continental Mark III. At the time it was so different in style from almost any other American car (with the possible exception of the '68 Grand Prix) that people would literally look at it and just stare. Since then I've always had a soft spot for a Mark III, especially in black over black with the black leather. It isn't what I would prefer to drive, but if I am going to be chauffered, oh yeah!
 
it's my daily driver and I mostly do 55/45 percent city/highway. I'm only 21 and my mom pays the insurance on my car cause it's cheaper, I just cough up the dough for oil changes, gas, and minor repairs. I can't afford another car and I can't keep 2 cars!

I really like having 21 cubes cause I can stuff about 5-6 vacuums or more in there and I like it when it comes to going back home from school.
 
~I really like having 21 cubes cause I can stuff about 5-6 vacuums or more in there and I like it when it comes to going back home from school.

I feel the same way about my rusty '77 Ford truck. Having a truck is so convenient, I can't believe that I actually went so long without one and I can't picture my life without one. I have no plans to get rid of this one. It is a 3/4 ton, great mechanically but not cosmetically. It would cost way more to get another than to paint this one.

Big cars are also great, I carried washing machines, safes, and many other bulky items in the '78 Mercury I had as a teenager.
 
Update on the car:

I've been playing around with it all week. I fixed the windshield washer yesterday. Today, I looked at the A/C. The seller said that the compressor was out and he unplugged it. I plugged it in and it works fine - just needs a charge (and maybe leak detector, but I haven't seen any oil leaks around the fittings or hoses). (The seller is an A/C repairman, but I guess car systems are different than home systems)

The car has a factory CB radio, but the seller told me that he missplaced the handpiece. I looked in the trunk and the receiver is also missing and the wires are cut - he didn't mention that.

All in all, I think the price I paid was pretty cheap. The engine runs great with no smoke or oil leaks. Transmission shifts great, no noise or slippage. The ball joints and steering linkage are all tight. The factory marks are plainly visible under the hood and in the trunk. The seller listed the car with 160,000 miles. The odometer says 60,000 and I'm beginning to wonder if it actually turned over.
 
Oh, it needs a hat!

You'll have a lot of fun with this, I love this era.

When I was in eighth grade, my best friend lived next door to a funeral director's family. He bought some new "rolling stock" for the business and drove the black four-door monster home. It was all black, inside and out - I'll never forget that smell of that new Lincoln, amazing.

I'm still holding out for my 1979 Cutlass or '78 Firebird.
 
That's a great car you got there! I just finished another 800 mile round trip in my 1978 Grand Marquis with 400 CID engine and over 262,000 miles...still drives great. I replaced a lot of accessory components on mine just due to wear such as carburetor, fuel pump, alternator etc. but the original engine and transmission still work fine.

I would not run the AC compressor until you have it professionally checked out. On mine it was not cooling and I left it running and the magnetic clutch burned out. I still need to get my AC system repaired.

Also I would recommend a three-way gauge combo of a voltmeter, temperature and oil pressure gauge. If the dashboard is the same as on the Mercury there are only two idiot lights for engine status and they are pretty much useless:
"ALT" and "Engine". "Engine" being for temperature or low oil pressure.
You will have no way of knowing the car is beginning to overheat or the battery is not charging.
 

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