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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.

High-tech, remote-controlled Golden Sahara II custom car going for auction

Imagine a vehicle with automatic braking, remote operation, self-opening doors and a big screen on the dash. You're probably imaging a Tesla Model X, but we're actually talking about a car called the Golden Sahara II, a custom car originally built in the 1950s, and it's going for auction at Mecum's event in Indianapolis. According to Mecum, this custom car started out as a 1953 Lincoln Capri owned by George Barris, the man who created the original Batmobile. He didn't have it long before it ended up in a crash that led him to use it for a major custom project. He teamed up James Skonzakes, known as Jim Street, to create and pay for the build. In 1954, the car was finished with wild body work, actual 24-karat gold-plated exterior trim and a pearlescent gold paint created from fish scales. It carried the name of Golden Sahara, and it cost $25,000 to build. This content is hosted by a third party. To view it, please update your privacy preferences. Manage Settings. In 1956, Street decided to invest a whole lot more into the car. He sent it to a shop in Dayton, Ohio where it was fitted with a myriad of high-tech features. These included a central control stick that could operate the throttle, steering and braking, push-button steering controls on the dashboard for both the driver and the passenger, a remote control for moving it slowly and for opening the doors. It had sonar antennae at the front for automatic braking, a TV in the center stack, a radio, a phone, and even a cocktail cabinet in the back and mink carpeting. All of these features were on display when Street appeared with the car on the TV show I've Got a Secret, seen above, as well as in a period news story in which Street's wife demonstrated the features including the light-up wheels and tires for turn signals. That clip is visible below. The total cost of the car, now called Golden Sahara II, was $75,000. Adjusted for inflation, that's nearly $700,000. This content is hosted by a third party. To view it, please update your privacy preferences. Manage Settings. Eventually, Street stopped showing the Golden Sahara II, but he never got rid of it. It was recently found in his garage, and the car will finally go for auction in May at Mecum's Indianapolis auction. The car will be sold in unrestored condition, which looks to be fairly rough, but savable. It appears the remotes are still there, too. The car will be auctioned with no reserve, so it will have a new owner.

Poor headlights cause 40 cars to miss IIHS Top Safety Pick rating

Over the past few months, we've noticed a number of cars and SUVs that have come incredibly close to earning one of the IIHS's highest accolades, the Top Safety Pick rating. They have great crash test scores and solid automatic emergency braking and forward collision warning systems. What trips them up is headlights. That got us wondering, how many vehicles are there that are coming up short because they don't have headlights that meet the organization's criteria for an "Acceptable" or "Good" rating. This is a revision made after 2017, a year in which headlights weren't factored in for this specific award. This is also why why some vehicles, such as the Ford F-150, might have had the award last year, but have lost it for this year. We reached out to someone at IIHS to find out. He responded with the following car models. Depending on how you count, a whopping 40 models crash well enough to receive the rating, but don't get it because their headlights are either "Poor" or "Marginal." We say depending on how you count because the IIHS actual counts truck body styles differently, and the Infiniti Q70 is a special case. Apparently the version of the Q70 that has good headlights doesn't have adequate forward collision prevention technology. And the one that has good forward collision tech doesn't have good enough headlights. We've provided the entire list of vehicles below in alphabetical order. Interestingly, it seems the Volkswagen Group is having the most difficulty providing good headlights with its otherwise safe cars. It had the most models on the list at 9 split between Audi and Volkswagen. GM is next in line with 7 models. It is worth noting again that though these vehicles have subpar headlights and don't quite earn Top Safety Pick awards, that doesn't mean they're unsafe. They all score well enough in crash testing and forward collision prevention that they would get the coveted award if the lights were better.