Jalopnik
This somewhat battered '77 Continental parks on a very narrow street in my neighborhood and causes much gnashing of teeth among residents who have a tough time navigating their SUVs around its vast bulk. However, I approve of this car, because of the grille.
Let's take another look at that thing. Sure, things had gone to hell for Detroit in the mid-70s, what with gas prices and smog laws and an unstoppable torrent of cheap reliable gas-sipping cars pouring in from Nippon. But, dammit (pounds fist on table), Detroit could still make a massive chrome grille!
I'm going to take a wild guess and say this thing- which could be purchased with a gas-swilling 460 or a not-much-more-economical 400- gets about 8 miles per gallon. Maybe.
But who the hell cares when you've got opera windows? This car has class and lots of it!
That tasteful rococo filigree on the rear lenses really makes a statement. And hey, the wild-ass fins of the 50s were still being alluded to in car design as late as 1977!
But before we start thinking this car sucks, we'll make a quick return to that mighty grille. No, it doesn't suck.
Although this particular one could use a few bits and pieces (that marker light is an easy junkyard find these days), this Lincoln is more or less complete.
As a reminder of Malaise Era car design and how painful it was, this Continental still has the govt-mandated huge smog decal on the rear door window. The sad thing is that those standards are godawful compared to today and the engine made no power- not even a good tradeoff.
Lose about 5" of ride height, put some Moon discs on it, tint the windows far beyond legality, and install Cherry Bombs, and you'd really have something here.
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Comments
Opera windows are teh win!
That grille is an art deco masterpiece. The rest of the car...not so much. A friend of mine growing up had a gold Lincoln continental coupe, the diamond jubilee edition, with real gold and diamonds embedded in the opera windows...I still laugh thinking about his mom chauffering him back and forth to high school in that pimptastic ride.
Not as sexy as this Town Car-amino/Ranchero!!
[www.grandmarq.net]
"parks on a very narrow street in my neighborhood and causes much gnashing of teeth among residents who have a tough time navigating their SUVs around its vast bulk."
Whaaat, no mention of the SUV's vast bulk? You got Moby and Dick tryin' to pass in a back alley and it's tight? Who'da thunk?
On another note, I dated a girl for a summer in Orlando. Her folks had this, or one if it's stable-mates. My God, you could land a 747 on the hood of that thing! And we ended up, ahem, *cough* *cough*, snuggling in my Dad's '81 Subaru 1800 wagon... go figure.
Hell yes. Awesome tank. I think the more slab-sided ones were cooler, but it's still awesome to see anything with this bulk and presence on the street.
Of course, a '63 Continental Convertible is close to the epitome of American-car.. sigh... (dreaming)
Wow, what a trip. I sware I dreamed about this car a few nights ago. Only it was a 2 door and in much better shape. Jinx!
Mom had
Mom had one of these bad boyz as i got my license--it was the ULTIMATE double date machine... The interior is the size of a studio apartment. Unfortunately, the crushed velvet seats really held the weed smell...and momsie was a cop.
great, now ELO tunes will be playing in my brain ALL day!
Oh my! I had 2 identical 1977 Town Cars, blue with blue leather interior, both with the 460. I got 9-11 miles per gallon, but it wasn't a Cali emissions car.
I've always wanted to take a diesel engine out of a school bus, something like a DT466 or a 5.9L Cummins, and transplant it into this car. You could haul a 10K GVWR trailer with that combo, a fine way to show up at the track with race car in tow!
On the list of parts to pickup at the junky, don't forget the rear fender skirts - the 1977 was the only TC that had both the fender skirts and the Grecian Temple radiator - oh, and I think the "Continental" was dropped in '76 and the '77 was just the "Town Car"
This brings back fond memories of my first car...a 1969 Sedan DeVille...given to me by Grandpa. What a great car for high school! Everthing was over the top in that car, ash trays in every door and a giant one in the dash, enough room in the back seat for an orgy, and a trunk big enough to park an Accord in. Sure, it rode like it had marshmallows for suspension and got 8 miles per gallon on a good day, but hey it had a 472 cube V8 dammit! I kinda miss the ginormity of it.
'77 was the "Town Car". My dad bought one when he "made it." Which could mean...a lot of different things.
In any case, this was an y awesome car to grow up in. So heavy the brakes smoked on long hills. So big you could've put a sand box in the back seat. And opera windows for a kid to watch the world rush by.
Silver with a red interior. And longer than today's Town Cars.
I actually...miss this boat.
Do i recall aone of these vehicles on the block at Barrett Jackson this past year?
I personally would love to own that vehicle, restore it and roll on holidays. Good or bad, that vehicle represents an era.
Why can't Lincoln still have the STYLE this car had. Like it or don't but it makes a statement. I love old boats.
5 cigarette lighters and an ash-tray big enough for real cigars.
Mom had the 1977 Mark V (or is that MKV) when I was growing up and I got to drive it now and then (late 80's). IMHO the Mark was a much better looking car and even though the 460 was under powered with that soft suspension it was still kind of scary under hard excelleration (sp?).
Awesome, my grandpa had a '78. His was burgundy with a white top.
Still one of my favourite cars ever. Why? Look at this thing...sweet
I remember one of my relatives having a Ford with those kind of flip up headlights. Really retro cool.
12-15 around town 18 mpg on the highway (properly tuned), at least, that's what my dad says, he used to sell these.
@Retiree: Sounds like CARma (sorry)
Anyways, I could dig on this, although I prefer the Mark V (I think it's the Mark V, whichever one was also made in '77). Still, as has been mentioned, no matter how cool, how over the top pimptastic this is, it'll never really compare to the eternally classy Contientals of the '60s (I used to see a '66 parked in a driveway on my way to high school - as a kid on a bike, I often dreamed the owner would part with it for something I could afford, but I never tried to make an offer).
@detroit9000:
I'd totally forgotten that! I owned a '72 Coupe DeVille as a project car for awhile. I thought it was pretty amusing that each seat had it's own lighter and ashtray. Of course you could smoke in hospital waiting rooms when these cars were new...
@RalphieDC:
Excelleration: The speed with which you become better at something.
I was thinking how awesome one of these would be to use as a cruiser/tow vehicle. Just add air bags to the rear and a class 4 hitch and tow in comfort. Maybe add an overdrive tranny for some mileage, but like SexCpotatoes said these things are capable of not-so-horrific mileage.
Reason being, these monster engines made their peak power extremely low in the power band. Which means these things just idled around. The engines didnt have to work.
They werent particularly mediocre engines, they were just designed for drivng smoothness and low, low end TORQUE. By just changing the cam and going to a shorter runner intake youd prolly gain a ton of HP, but expect to juice it a little harder to get moving.
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