March 21: Hot rod Lincoln?

 Surely they must have been kidding, comparing a huge, relatively soft riding Lincoln Mark Seven coupe (the two door kind) to a taut handling Mercedes 560 SEC. Don't advertising types have any shame? Well, you can read the ad, so apparently not. Written with a straight face, no doubt. True or not, maybe this car kept a few Lincoln enthusiasts in the fold, but I doubt very many, if any, buyers said to themselves, "I better check out that new Mark Seven before blowing my coin on a new Mercedes."

The power of positive thinking. This was Lincoln's kick at the can, that Cadillac was also kicking around. Trying to transform a big, traditional American luxury yacht into a corner carver, that even a Benz or BMW driver could love. Did it work? If you are any sort of a car person, you already know the answer.

There used to be a song about a hot rod Lincoln way, way back in the days, when the only German car anyone on this side of the Atlantic bought was a strange little round creation called a Beetle. So a "hot rod" Lincoln was relative to what else was available over here at the time.

Now, the important thing here is, that some imaginative soul thought a model kit of a real hot rod Lincoln, might be a good idea. So, of course, my trusty companion, the Car Modeling Cat (CMC) and I took this kit, that I had bought fifteen years ago and made our own hot rod Mark Seven.......

Usually these kits are based on a real car that someone somewhere had built in real life, but no amount of research has found any info on any pro street Lincoln Mark Seven ever being built. So, of all the cars the model company could have used, strange that they chose this subject. Oh well, they did and the CMC and I built it. And since it was a supposed drag strip terror, I posed it with a vintage funny car (talk about imagination).

The transformation from street car to pro street is less than subtle. By the way, the idea of a pro street car is one that resembles a production car, but with a monster motor and huge slicks at the rear. No one would ever mistake one for the other, but at a quick glance, they do look sort of similar. Until in real life, when that monster motor is cranked to life.

Stock 1985 Mark Seven

Maybe this is the way Ford should have made their original Mark Seven and marketed it as faster than any Mercedes ever........in a straight line?

Ridiculous or not. Real or imagined, the CMC and I brought to miniature life this car, that the Lincoln division of Ford, at one time thought they might have a true competitor for those European brands. I don't always know what is going on in that furry little creature's head, but I'm convinced while building this model, she shared my thought of how ridiculous this car was........

A Mercedes competitor indeed.

Until next time.......