Detroit, Michigan.
Sunday, February 19, 2017.
Related reading from:
- Mr. Tactful: My Curbside Classic: 1988 Lincoln Town Car – A Tactful Rebuttal; and
- Tom Klockau: Car Show Capsule: 1988 Lincoln Town Car – Black Cherry Landau Sundae.
Wordless Outtake: 1989 Lincoln Town Car – Town (Car) Pride
– Posted on March 10, 2017
The very same car is seen on the Google street view image.
https://www.google.com/maps/uv?hl=en&pb=!1s0x8824d32688ea3a99:0x2869100aece86937!2m19!2m2!1i80!2i80!3m1!2i20!16m13!1b1!2m2!1m1!1e1!2m2!1m1!1e3!2m2!1m1!1e5!2m2!1m1!1e4!3m1!7e115!4s/maps/place/%2522mannones%2Bmarket%2522/@42.3517521,-83.0315389,3a,75y,40.59h,90t/data%3D*213m4*211e1*213m2*211s8UUZNJn3UjYD70meprXd1A*212e0*214m2*213m1*211s0x0:0x2869100aece86937!5s%22mannones+market%22+-+Google+Search&imagekey=!1e2!2s8UUZNJn3UjYD70meprXd1A&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjKhOyaq8zSAhUK02MKHWblDDkQpx8IVDAK
It must belong to the owner, or a regular.
Needs a good detailing and it looks like it could still stand tall. But then again we can’t see the condition of the vinyl top from here.
It was the AOD transmission that drove him there. 🙂
The thing that astounds me, given the general location of that vehicle, is that it still has stock wheels on it. The town in which I work has a similar demographic that favors such cars, with no stock wheels in sight.
It’s one of the areas you would see the widest difference among neighbors in the world. Within 2 miles, there are stock Imperial, Merkur, Dodge Omni, Indy cars, Formula One cars in the past, also the beater cars in unimaginable conditions with plenty of bullet holes.
Stock wheels means that this car is owned by an ADULT, a working adult.
What is the function of the fence and razor wire on the roof of the store? Security measures?
There is a criminal element that will climb onto the roof of a store and try to break in via the ventilation system or roof hatch (if there is one.)
Thats what I thought. Thanks to my sheltered upbringing I’ve never seen that before.
Which is ironic, since such a foolish approach to breaking and entering into a liquor store most definitely requires inebriation to begin with.
This place is as fortified than the Mack tanker in the Road Warrior.
Heck they will try to go through the roof itself. When my FIL finally bought his own building to house his business we reinforced or made very unfriendly every point anyone could get in. 12′ Chain fence with barbed and razor wire, 3′ thick reinforced concrete planters in front to prevent someone from driving through the front, iron bars on windows and steel security doors, exposed nails set upright in concrete at places burglars could step either inside or out. In the 15 years before this he had been broken into 11 times in rental buildings. The next 20 years afterwards until the business was closed 0 times. Made the building pictured downright inviting in comparison.
This picture re-ignites my long-standing affection for late-’80s Town Cars. 1989 is one of my favorite years of Town Car — for some reason, I think the amber from turn signal lenses (as opposed to clear in previous years) really help the ’89 model a lot. Plus, I think lighter colors are best in this car, and I believe this color is a light tan called Pastel Adobe, which I think is a dignified color for Town Cars.
If I concentrate hard, I can just picture this car at an oceanfront condo in Florida as opposed to a liquor store in Detroit.
I believe that those body styles (1980-89) are called “Jewel Box” Lincolns.
They are rather trim and elegant, vs large or balloon-us, in appearance. In particular the 1985-89, which have the much nicer looking blended in to the body bumpers.
The 1985 and up have the advantage of fuel injection as well. I still have some lust for them. 🙂
That is a nice color combination and with the alloys attractive enough. I would strive for the 160 HP dual exhaust engine if I could find one so equipped.
I have driven the 1980’s Lincoln cars quite a lot as livery cars.
Both as standard Town Cars and stretched limousines.
They are smooth and quiet rides, but the feeling you get right from opening – not to mention closing – the door is not cool.
My 1976 Mercury Grand Marquis closed the doors with a sound of luxury late in the 1990’s, not like slamming the door in a box.
The Ford/Lincoln Mercury idea of tilted steering wheel in the 1980’s is kind of “aha” too.
In the 1980’s I by far prefer the RWD Cadillac Fleetwood Brougham to the Town Cars.
My love for Town Cars came back strong with the new model in 1990, even though they had a tough competetion from the much improved Fleetwood Brougham from 1990-92.
By 1993 Cadillac handed over the trophy to the Town Cars complety i.e. by adding too much black plastic to the interior door trim in the Broughams.
What I always found (slightly) interesting about the 1989 model year Town Car was the fact that there was supposed to be a “Gucci Edition” for ’89, but apparently the deal with the Gucci people fell through. It became known as the “Special Edition” TC instead.
I got this info per pricing guides for the ’89 TC. The Gucci listed a Coach Roof with center opera light as standard equipment. The SE TC had a smoother Coach Roof and a B-pillar opera light.
If you look closely at the pic below, you can see that the Coach Roof is slightly different than the standard TC Coach Roof. It doesn’t have the “bulges” that the typical “convertible-look” top has; it’s smooth. And it also has the center opera lamps.
This is a production model, not aftermarket, top/opera light configuration.
Lots of atmosphere in this photo and amazing how rust free that Lincoln is.
It’s hard to tell in the photo but the bottom 8 inches of this car is wrapped in Chrome cladding. There’s often lots of rust hiding on these cars that can’t be seen. The padded vinyl top is another problem area to watch.
Subaru Outbacks and various Pontiacs have the same problem since there are many places for the rust to hide.
Always wondered why they changed the Town Car’s turn signals for 1989 only? Same with the ’91 Crown Vic, though from amber to clear.
Yes, the EFI 302 in Panthers was one of the best motors and could easily be modified to HO power.
Ford likes to do little things like that. Take the 2005 Crown Vic and Mercury Grand Marquis. They have a rear mounted radio antenna. This is the only year there was an external radio antenna in the entire 1998-2011 production run.
A shout out to fellow Canadian OntarioMike…
One comment on this photo…to paraphrase Johnny Cougar,
“Ain’t that America!”
W/O viewing the article the misses and I knew it was Detroit.
Window says, “Open 7 Days”. With all the security measures, I’d be willing to bet it’s only during daylight hours.
If you use Google Earth to move around to the back of the store by going down Hunt St. to the right side of the store you can see an early 1969’s white Lincoln Continental with the suicide doors just sitting in the weeds of a vacant lot behind the market.
Here’s the 1960’s Lincoln
I like that nickname “Jewel Box.” It’s much more complimentary than some. I walk past one of these cars every day in my parking lot. These are not too big, even in comparison to the modern cars around it. The styling is dated of course, but you could refer to it as “Classic”. These are well trimmed out and spacious inside. The one in my lot is very well preserved, but it is obvious that it is a car that has to work for it’s living, not a pampered pet. Car and Driver tested this model when it debuted. They reported that these were not only a great improvement on the previous overly large models and that with a few subtle modifications could be a proper American road car.
We should have a photo contest hereat CC. This pic would a strong contender
Back in 2004 I was working as pizza delivery drivet for Pizza Hut in Woodstock GA and our young cook had a Lincoln just like that, in dark brown color, Cartier Edition.
By the end of his shift, if I was around, we would invite me to go out side just to watch him leave the parking lot doing an epic burn out. Good times.
I buy RWD-only, relatively-large American sedans. Now that we’re a bit past the mid-point of the 21st century’s second decade, the “options” are ever more limited. GM / Cadillac made ever fewer RWD Broughams as time went by… plus those Oldsmobile V-8s were inferior. Cad finally smartened up by using Chevy V-8s, starting in 1990.
Most of the Broughams are dark colors, though—-and their relative scarcity contributes to higher asking prices compared to more reliable Town Cars.
I prefer the Eighties Town Cars glass headlights over the Nineties plastic ones: glass doesn’t become opaque like plastic does.