John K. Teahen, Jr.: LINCOLN HAS QUIT THE LUXURY CAR BUSINESS

Senior editor of Automotive News (www.autonews.com) John K. Teahen, Jr. agrees with Speedzzter that Lincoln's cancellation of all its V8 sedans is a "Bold Move" toward the cellar.

To me, a Lincoln car without a V-8 makes as much sense as a Ford Focus with
a V-16. "It just ain't fittin'," as Mammy often told Scarlett in Gone with the
Wind.

I must admit that Cadillac has V-6 models, but Cadillac also has a full
stable of V-8s. All Lincoln cars apparently will be V-8 less in 2008, and that's
a shame.

The Town Car is on its way out, and the LS is gone. Production ended in
April. Lincoln's new contingent of alphabet-soup cars (the MKS and the MKZ, the
new name for the Zephyr) will be driven by a new V-6 -- a fine engine from all
I've heard, but there's no way that a V-6 can impart the cachet of a V-8. And
that cachet is one of the things that sells luxury cars.

It seems to me that Lincoln has officially withdrawn from the luxury car segment. . . .

[E]ight-cylinder engines are distinguishing marks of Lincoln and Cadillac cars. Today, they have a few sixes on hand to attract the luxury/economy shopper, but the V-8 rules the henhouse. . . .

In 1920, after the Chicago Black Sox scandal, a tearful youngster begged Shoeless Joe Jackson, "Say it ain't so, Joe." Today, I make the same plea to Bill Ford and Mark Fields.

It seems to me that Lincoln has officially withdrawn from the luxury car segment. [Me too, John. Me too!]

FORD MOTOR COMPANY (TM) BLINKS; OPENS THE CREDIT TAP

Throw all of the "poo-pooing" of Detroit's addition to incentives and sober pledges to kick the habit out the window in favor of "real transaction pricing."

FoMoCo is ratcheting up "the deal" to clear out its bloated 2006 backstock.

According to Automotive News, Ford "will crack open the incentives vault for a month-end sales blitz that will offer 0 percent financing for as much as 72 months for Ford, Lincoln and Mercury buyers, including those with subprime credit ratings."

The newest volley in the incentive war kicks off Thursday, August 24th, and will run through Labor Day weekend. It will cover virtually all 2006 models, except the Ford GT and a few SuperDuty trucks, according to the report, " even ones in tight supply."

More significantly, FoMoCo seems to be traveling a ways down the failed road taken by Mitsubishi. "Zero percent financing will be available to customers with subprime credit ratings, not just customers in the top two tiers, as in past programs."

How "subprime" remains an open question.

Production cuts, extending warranties (although still not as "Bold" as the Koreans), buyouts offered company-wide, early release of the 2008 SuperDuty, possibly peddling Jaguar and Land Rover, rumored renewal of the talks with Carlos Ghosn . . . and now give-a-way financing . . . apparently there's real desperation setting in at the Glass House . . . .

CADILLAC DOESN'T EVEN BOTHER TO TARGET LINCOLN ANYMORE

GM Vice President of Vehicle Sales, Service and Marketing, Mark LaNeve, recently provided a glimpse inside Cadillac's new advertising strategy in a conference call with industry analysts, according to the Automotive News.

LaNeve said "We need to build aspiration and do a better job at getting into the head of the Lexus, BMW and Mercedes owners and really solidify Cadillac from the standpoint of a worldwide premium brand . . .The new campaign is going to do that."

Notice anything missing?

LaNeve did not even mention Cadillac's traditional rival Lincoln. Lincoln simply doesn't rate as even a minimal opponent anymore.

No surprise there. Cadillac sold nearly one quarter million vehicles in 2005. Lincoln moved over one hundred twenty thousand fewer units. In short, Cadillac now sells almost two vehicles for every Lincoln sold. In the few sectors where Cadillac and Lincoln directly compete, Cadillac leads. Only Lincoln's long-neglected Town Car generated respectable numbers over the last full selling season available--providing over a third of Lincoln's sales alone.

Of course, the Glass House brainiacs intend to kill the Town Car and replace it with a V8-less, badge-engineered FWD/AWD.

Lincoln has completely yielded the sports-luxury field to Cadillac and its international competitors from Japan and Europe. Although some loyalists pretend that the underpowered Lincoln Zephyr is "sporty," Lincoln's line-up contains no real answer to Cadillac's XLR, CTS, STS or V-Series vehicles.

Eternal optimists some how believe the relatively weak 3.5 Duratec V6 will compete next year with a host of more powerful (and probably more fuel efficient) V8s and V6, not the least of which are Cadillac's highly-respected Northstar V8s. Fat chance!

Cadillac aggressively promotes itself in motorsports competition. The last racing Lincoln? Probably about 1954.

Given the long and somewhat intertwined histories of Cadillac and Lincoln (Henry Ford and Henry M. Leland shepherded both companies at different times), comparisons have always been inevitable. Except perhaps for when Cadillac lost its way under Roger Smith's radical "lookalike" FWD-based downsizing (which ought to trigger unfavorable comparisons with the "Volvo-ization" of FoMoCo's medium and large sedan line-up), Cadillac has been the stronger of the two. Yet in a few moments of clarity, Lincoln has rocked the luxury car world with an occasional counterpunch (such as Eugene T. Gregorie's 1940 Continental, Bill Stroppe's "Mexican Road Race" Lincoln Capris, or Elwood P. Engel's 1961 "Kennedy" Continental).

Nothing in FoMoCo's current "Way Forward" suggests any "Bold Move" to restore Lincoln or even arrest its current downward trajectory. So Cadillac need not worry about hearing "footsteps" out of Dearborn anytime soon.

WHO WILL HAVE THE FIRST GT500 TO MAKE 1,000 HORSEPOWER?

The October 2006 issue of Muscle Mustangs and Fast Fords magazine contains a brief report on a remarkable 5.4 Modular-powered Ford GT supercar out of Florida. (See page 50) Stage 6 Performance, and HP Performance, and GT owner Joe Cormin has conspired to pump up the GT’s output over 1,000 horsepower.

Using a brace of Garrett GT35R turbochargers, blowing into the GT’s factory air/water intercooler, the 5.4 banged out 852 rear-wheel horsepower and 723 lbs/ft of torque on pump unleaded gasoline! Tipping in a tank of race gas and twisting up the manifold pressure to 22 psi netted a massive 1012 horsepower and 898 lbs/ft of torque AT THE WHEELS!

No word on internal modifications. However, Richard Holdener cranked out similar numbers (990 h.p.) with a stock-block HP turbocharged ‘03 4.6 Cobra engine.

Although the 500 horsepower GT500's 5.4 omits the GT’s aluminum block and dry sump lubrication, its internals are reportedly a virtual carbon copy of the 550 horsepower GT. The main difference in production-line output is due to the GT500's cheaper Roots-style Eaton M122 supercharger (the GT used a slightly more efficient Lysolm-type supercharger).

Thus, assuming some GT500 owners have any money left after threading the added dealer mark-up gauntlet, Cormin’s GT suggests the real race is going to be who will have the first 1,000 horsepower Shelby.

It probably won’t take very long to find out.

Of course a more interesting question is whether anyone will develop a "twincharged" version of the GT500 (Ford won’t, but will somebody engineer the necessary large supercharger bypass and software to make "twincharging" a GT500 practical?).

NO V8 FOR LINCOLN: ANOTHER STEP TOWARD THE ABYSS.

Automotive News is reporting that Ford Motor Company (tm) has cancelled plans to offer a V8 in the 2008 Lincoln MKS sedan (a/k/a the Lincoln MistaKeS)

The cancelled mill was to be a tiny 4.4-liter version of the Yamaha lump from the Volvo XC90 crossover, built at the Lima, Ohio, engine plant. [Apparently there are limits to how many hand-me-downs FoMoCo will snatch from Volvo . . . .] Unnamed sources claim the "Lincoln" V8 was ash-canned as part of "the Way Forward" cost cutting.

But it's just further evidence of Lincoln-Mercury's worsening myopia. Given the widespred speculation that the RWD Town Car is dead when the Wixom, Michigan, plant is shuttered next year, Lincoln will be virtually the only pretender among the "luxury" class to not offer a sedan with more than a "buzzin' half-dozen" cylinders.

More frustrating is that Ford's 4.6 & 5.4 liter Modular V8s each have compromised bore centers so that they will fit into FWD applications. Of course, the only FWD that Ford ever equipped with a Modular V8 was the long-forgotten, Taurus-based Lincoln Continental. Yet even then, FoMoCo showed no willingness to pump up the power to compete with Cadillac or the international luxury makes. Ford's raid on the Volvo parts bin as the "Bold Move" to score a fleet of tepid, low-performance sedans on the cheap has insured that the FWD-compromised Modular will go unused in FWD/AWD sedans for the foreseeable future. Thus the decision to mar the Modular with too-narrow bore centers now looks asinine in the light of history.

But even dumber is FoMoCo's continuing dilution of the storied Lincoln franchise.

Ray Crawford didn't master La Carrera Panamericana with a six! And Edsel Ford's brilliant original Zephyr and Continental each sported twice as many cylinders as any "Way Forward" sedan. The milestone Continental Mark II -- shepherded to production by William Clay Ford, Sr. (Billy's dad) -- didn't try to skimp by on only six puny "holes." In fact, every gasoline-powered Mark-series Continental has featured at least V8-power (excluding an obscure Mark VII option that smoked along on a BMW-sourced turbo diesel) Even Henry M. Leland's first Lincolns in 1920 were V8-powered. The classic Lincoln Ls and Ks that followed all smoothly carried their inherent elegance with precision eight- or twelve- cylinder engines.

Ironic that given Henry Ford's hatred of six-cylinder engines and his market-shattering innovation in low cost V8s that FoMoCo is now banking on the assumption that America's love affair with V8 power is over for good. (Speedzzter wonders if Lincoln's clueless executives visited the Woodward Dream Cruise and/or the events of the Monterey Weekend, both of which featured plenty of V8s) . Are Lincoln's executives cognizant of the competitive disaster which befell Oldsmobile (once America's sales leader) and Buick when they jettisoned all V8 power?

It would be one thing if Lincoln were engaged in some sort of "mutual disarmament." It would still be a horrible idea, but at least the playing field would be somewhat level. Yet no serious Lincoln competitor (excluding Honda's hapless Acura brand -- which never had a V8) seems poised to turn their backs on nearly 100 years of luxury-class tradition.

Thus, a V8-less Lincoln will be hamstrung to compete in the luxury class and probably in the "near luxury" class as well. After all, you can still get a V8 in a Chrysler, Chevrolet or a Buick nowadays . . . .