1975 Lincoln Mark Iv on 2040-cars

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What will the next Presidential limo look like?

With recent news that the Secret Service has begun soliciting proposals for a new armored limousine, we've been wondering what the next presidential limo might look like. The current machine, nicknamed "The Beast", has a design based on a car that's no longer sold: the Cadillac DTS. If General Motors gets the job again, which wouldn't be a surprise considering the government still owns a chunk of the company, the next limo's shape would likely resemble the new XTS (below, left). But Cadillac hasn't always been the go-to car company for presidential whips.
Lincoln has actually provided far more presidential limousines throughout history than Cadillac. In fact, the first car modified for Commander-in-Chief-carrying duty was a 1939 Lincoln K-Series called "Sunshine Special" used by Franklin D. Roosevelt, and the last Lincoln used by a president was a 1989 Town Car ordered for George H.W. Bush. If President Obama wanted a Lincoln today, it would likely be an amalgam of the MKS sedan and MKT crossover, as illustrated above.
And what about Chrysler? The only record we could find of a President favoring the Pentastar is Nixon, who reportedly ordered two limos from the company during his administration in the '70s, and then another one, known today as the "K-Car limo," in the '80s after he left office. Obama, however, has a personal - if modest - connection to Chryslers, having owned a 300 himself before he took office. A 300-based Beast (above, right) would certainly earn the U.S. some style points.

Junkyard Gem: 1988 Lincoln Mark VII LSC

The Lincoln Division put the Continental Mark VI on the Panther platform for the 1980 through 1983 model years, making it much smaller than its vast Mark V predecessor but not much nimbler and certainly not as opulent. For the 1984 model year, though, the new Continental Mark VII moved onto the Fox platform, making it sibling to the Mustang and therefore more of a true high-performance luxury coupe. By 1986, the Continental name was gone from the Mark VII (relegated to Lincoln's cushy land yachts), and the LSC version came with the same hairy V8 as the Mustang GT. Today's Junkyard Gem is one of those cars, found in a Denver yard last month. For the 1988 model year, the base Mark VII got the axe, leaving only the Bill Blass Edition and the LSC. Sadly, the Bill Blass Mark VII didn't come with an inflatable Sherman tank. For 1988, all Mark VIIs came with the 225-horsepower 5.0-liter High Output V8 engine, same as the Mustang GT.  Could you get a manual transmission? Sadly, you could not. Swapping one into one of these cars is pretty easy, but the more likely swap has always been to grab the 5.0 out of a Mark VII and drop it into a non-V8 Fox Mustang. If you were shopping for a BMW 5-Series or Mercedes-Benz E-Class in 1988, the Mark VII offered an attractive Detroit alternative. The 1988 LSC cost $25,016 (about $58,200 in 2021 bucks), while a new BMW 528e cost $31,500 and had a mere 127 horsepower. The M5 had a wild six with 256 horses— 31 more than the Mark VII— but it cost a terrifying $46,500. Meanwhile, the Mercedes-Benz 260E offered just 158 horses and cost $37,250. Granted, both of the Germans offered manual transmissions, but approximately zero American luxury-car buyers actually wanted three pedals by the late 1980s. Truth be told, this car looked like a great value next to its Teutonic competitors at the time, more so than GM's and Chrysler's efforts of the late 1980s. Not quite 150,000 miles on the clock on this one. The Mark series continued through the Mark VIII and then that's all she wrote, Katie bar the door. This content is hosted by a third party. To view it, please update your privacy preferences. Manage Settings. Here's how you turn the ordinary into the extraordinary. This content is hosted by a third party. To view it, please update your privacy preferences. Manage Settings. To appreciate the Mark VII LSC, you must do three things: 1. Drive it. 2. Drive it. 3. Drive it. Related Video: This content is hosted by a third party.

Lincoln recycling tree fibers into new MKX armrest

Want to hug a tree, or at least a really small part of one. Then set your arm down on one of those armrests in the 2014 Lincoln MKX crossover. The US automaker is working with Weyerhaeuser and Johnson Controls on a tree-based, cellulose-reinforced polypropylene material used in the component that connects the armrest to the floor console, Wards Auto says. With properties similar to plastic, the tree-based material replaces fiberglass and is about six percent lighter. No big deal for now, but if the material starts getting used for things like battery trays and interior storage covers, that loss in weight may eventually start adding up enough to boost fuel economy a bit, providing a green double bonus. Lincoln parent Ford, which isn't saying how much more (or less?) it costs to use the new material, established its Biomaterials and Plastics Research team in 2001. In 2007, the company began using soy-based foam in car seats used for models such as the Lincoln Navigator and Ford Mustang and has since broadened biomaterials use to components like floormats and cupholder inserts. Ford also used recycled plastic bottles from the 2012 North America International Auto Show for seats in the Focus Electric.