In the late 1960s, if you wanted to prove that you were king of the neighborhood, you had one of two options: Cadillac or Lincoln. You either had a Continental Mark III or an Eldorado. Other than being two-door coupes the size of a small aircraft carrier that carried big-cube power and a drinking habit that would shame an entire Naval fleet, the two could not be further apart: the Eldorado was a front-driver that ran GM’s unitized powertrain system, while the Mark III was a gussied-up Thunderbird that somehow managed to not look like a hasty re-hash, but instead came off as a classy follow-up to the Continental Mark II vehicles of the 1950s. Ford struck gold when Iacocca told the designers to slap a Rolls-Royce grille onto a T-bird, and Iacocca often looked at the Mark program as one of his best ideas ever (as if all of the waterfall grilles seen at Chrysler in the 1980s didn’t tell that story hard enough.)
Mark IIIs were not performance cars. The 500 ft/lbs of torque was not meant for boiling the rear tires off, regardless of what some of you older readers remember from high-school antics. This was a car that moved with authority, cocooning the driver and passengers from the world outside, moving along steadily but without urgency. The 460 under the hood wasn’t meant to romped on. It wasn’t meant to launch, wasn’t meant to corner or any of that boy racer foolishness.
But nobody told this guy. This thing is bona-fide evil incarnate. It’s beauty and power, with enough darkness about it that even those who would question what the Lincoln brings to the table might be having second thoughts anyways. It takes monumental confidence to walk into a gun fight with a knife, knowing that you’re going to walk out unscathed because you can do more than just one trick.
Revenge of a Land Yacht—-Wowser
That put a smile on my face! too cool.
Makes me wish I would’ve kept the 460 powered, metallic brown 1976 Thunderbird that my buddies and I used to cruise around in high school.
Those cars (69-72) have long been in my Top Ten. There’s not a bad line on them. Didn’t the 71 usher in the “moon roof”, giving us the modern galss sunroof?
There was a 3rd choice, Imperial LeBaron coupe with 440 wedgehead, 4 barrel holly carburetor, 727 Torqueflite, 2.2 to 1 gear ratio positraction differential. That boat would get up and move until Government Air Pollution Controls stole all the Horsepower in the 1970\’s.
My dad bought a 1970 in the summer of \’74. That was one heck of a car. Stump-pulling torque, quick – yes, it was, for its time and size – and begged to be hammered away from the light. Passing another car was fun. 0-60 was under 10 seconds, not bad for it\’s size.
Of course, even with its rudimentary anti-lock brakes, panic stops were – panicky. Handling was abysmal – we joked that it needed roller skates on the door handles on anything but the gentlest curves. As I recall, it got about 14 mpg on long runs and about 8 around town. Michelin radials were standard equipment.
BUT it was exotic, well finished, had a fine quality and comfortable interior, and rode like a Rolls. The interior was like a cockpit – especially in black, with the high belt-line, low roof line and narrow windows.
That was the summer I graduated high school. The folks let me use it a lot, and I kept it clean, waxed and pampered. Finally, in 1979, it had about 120K on it, needed new exhaust ($700 then) and fuel quality had dropped to the point that I had to retard the timing about 6-8 degrees to keep it from knocking ferociously. It just wasn\’t usable. We parked it and (cringe) got a used \’76 Seville instead.
The color Olive Stardust Iridescent – brown at first glance, brown with gold highlights at the second, and greenish under streetlights. Maybe it was one of the first color shifting paints(?)
The base paint was a translucent brown with black, aluminum and green particles, and was provided by RM, as an extra cost color – I think it was about $100 more.
I had a triple brown 71 in the 80s great car put a holly 750 dual fuel feed carb on it best carb ever had it at 120 miles an hour sure didn’t feel like it I sure miss it my first show car 1984 8 to 10 miles to the gallon I don’t miss that 80.00 a week in gas
I had a Mark identical to this one. I ran it 3 times at a dragstrip and the best it done was 14.305.
Always one of my favorite cars.. My goal is to one day build one with a Kaase Boss9 in it.. Love this one.. awesome car
Please run a spot on “FLASH CADILLAC”…. roughly of the same era.
Used to be in Albuquerque, now in So Cal I think
Ya you really could lite them babies up, I no bounced the front end off a couple times but never on a take off
YES!
I still have my 1972 Thunderbird that I bought new in 1971. I love that car. Not a race car but a fantastic highway car.