1971 Lincoln Continental With Air Ride on 2040-cars

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J Mays retiring from Ford design, succeeded by Moray Callum

Ford's highly influential head of design, J Mays, has announced that he'll be retiring from his position after 33 years in the industry, 16 of which were at the Dearborn, MI-based company. Upon departure, he'll be succeeded as group vice president of design by Moray Callum. If that last name sounds familiar, yes, he's the brother of Jaguar's Ian Callum.
It's difficult to explain just how big of a role Mays had on not just Ford's design over the years, but on the entire industry. Before heading to Dearborn, Mays worked for Audi, BMW and then Volkswagen, where he was involved in concept cars that paved the way for design icons like the first-generation Audi TT and the Volkswagen New Beetle. As for his Ford resume, it's extensive.
Mays joined the company in 1997 as design director for Ford, Lincoln, Mercury and Mazda, as well as the Premier Automotive Group (Volvo, Land Rover, Jaguar and Aston Martin). He was heavily involved in the Ford Fusion, Focus, Fiesta, Taurus, F-150 and Mustang, while also contributing to concept cars like the Atlas, Evos, 427, Forty-Nine, Shelby GR-1, Lincoln MKZ and the MKC.

2015-2019 Lincoln MKC recalled over fire risk in engine bay

Ford has commenced a recall of 142,734 examples of the Lincoln MKC from the 2015 to the 2019 model years. The potential issue centers on the battery monitor sensor in the compact luxury crossover. After reports of 19 fires in MKCs in the U.S., Canada and China, Ford's internal investigation found that the monitor sensor housing could be damaged when technicians worked in that area of the engine bay. If the housing damage caused the sensor to short circuit, the short could lead to an electrical load in the sensor's power circuit that causes enough heat to set fire to surrounding material. That could lead to a fire in the engine bay at any time, while driving or even when the MKC is turned off. The Lincolns were built from August 20, 2013 to August 2, 2019. The automaker says it isn't aware of any injuries or accidents due to this; all of the models that caught fire were parked and off at the time. Because of the risk of fire at any time, Ford is recommending that owners park outside and away from structures until owners have had the issue repaired. The fix is a trip to the dealer to have a fuse added to the battery monitor sensor power circuit that can kill the current in the event of a short. Ford will begin sending letters to MKC owners on June 26. In the meantime, owners are free to contact Ford customer service at 866-436-7332 to find out more about the recall or if their MKC is affected, or they can get in touch with their local Ford or Lincoln dealer. The company's internal number for this recall is 23S28. Owners can also contact the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration Vehicle Safety Hotline at 888-327-4236 (TTY 800-424-9153), or go to www.nhtsa.gov, and refer to campaign number 23V378. Related video: This content is hosted by a third party. To view it, please update your privacy preferences. Manage Settings.

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.