1977 Lincoln Continental Town Car

I'd drive the heck out of that thing.

 

Unfortunately the new owner if he hopes to at the very least to retain any of his outlay won’t be able to. That has to be because of the 1,800 miles. Other than triple black, which is always the money shot I can’t imagine what the rationale for that kind of bid was. Hope he’s not going to try to double his money. lol

 

That sure seems like crazy money. Came across this one. It's a two door with 31,ooo miles. Asking $69,900.
Wonder when the turn for these cars happened? I didn't think there was that big of a demand to justify the price.
1979 Lincoln Continental Town Coupe | eBay

 

I don't think it did. I think exceptional quality cars will always command more, be it a Connie like this or a Caddy Cimarron. With 31k and a desirable color combo, I think this one will be all in at about 30k. Why? I've been a L-M hobbyist since a teenager, and these cars(same with Imperials and 58-60 Linc's) are just too much car for a lot of people. Too big and too complex. Even if I somehow won the powerball, I wouldn't go over 30-35k for this car, as nice as it is.

Plus its a 4hunnert, and believe it or not, some ppl wouldn't want it because of that. Wouldn't bother me tho....

 

As someone who has loved these cars for almost 30 years, I agree with you. It's not like a GTO or Camaro or El Camino, simple and relatively easy to work on and average sized. These cars are ridiculously large, complicated electronically and sometimes mechanically, and replacement parts do not fall out of the sky for them. I love them for that and have owned a number of them throughout the years, and every one has been a challenge in one way or another to keep running.

And I never understood the hate for the 400 people heap vs. the 460, either engine is perfectly fine for me as well. I will say that a 460 is going to drink gas just sitting in the garage...

 

We had a member on the Ranchero.us forum, whose dad was the Ford engine rep to NASCAR back during the '60s and '70s, and straight-up owns the all-yellow and all-red Torino Aero Cobras (he shared the video with us on his dad's interview on those and his Boss 429 Ranchero). Anyhow, the 351M/400, when Ford originally designed it, tried lightening the block webbing as a weight savings measure, which backfired on them, as it introduced weak areas that were succeptible to the engine's harmonic vibrations, and crack easily above sustained 4800 RPM, IIRC. You cannot even change the crankshaft balance to reduce the harmonics, Ford and Ford race teams have vainly tried. It's a good engine, but no way will it get anywhere near as good as the 429/460.

 

Sure, but how often is a Lincoln Continental going to be blazing past 4800RPM? It's like guys who hate on the Olds 403 because of its thin webbing and shared coolant passages - sure, it can cause problems but your 4500lb car with 2.56 gears isn't going to be hitting +5kRPM regularly unless you're abusing it (and likely an idiot).

Not everything needs to be a race engine.

 

I have some Lincoln’s with 400 and 460’s. As elB rightly pointed out I wouldn’t take either off the starting gate to red line them. I do have to say my ‘78 Town Coupe with a 460 gets better gas milage than my friends ‘79 Town car. That ‘78 loves 70 mph. It seems like it’s in its zone there. I’ve gotten 14-15 mpg. I have a ‘79 Mark with the 400. I don’t really notice any performance differences. But there sure isn’t any appreciable gas savings either. I’m sure it was a cost cutting maneuver on Fords part, plus also a nod to the gas saving push for economy. Not a 400 hater, but I’ll take the 460 any time.