Test drive Lincoln Continental Mark V against BMW 8

Climate control, power accessories and automatic light sensor - could a 1960 Lincoln be as cool as a 850 BMW M2019i

The revived BMW G8, which was released last year, has become one of the most striking and breakthrough cars of the Bavarians over the past few years. And it's not just the stunning design and the gigantic V500 with over XNUMX hp. with., but also in a set of advanced equipment.

Heating, ventilation, adaptive cruise control, lane keep assist, automatic laser light and even a night vision system with pedestrian recognition. Another thing is surprising: almost a good half of such equipment appeared on cars more than half a century ago. It's just that few people know about it.

In 1960, Theodore Maiman invented the laser, Jacques Piccard sank to the very bottom of the Mariana Trench, and this Continental Mark V rolled off the assembly line of the Lincoln plant in Detroit. In general, many other breakthrough events took place 60 years ago. For example, an artificial kidney was created, and for the first time, living creatures launched into space, the dogs Belka and Strelka, returned to Earth safe and sound.

But an ordinary person, especially an American, did not care much about what was happening behind the closed doors of laboratories or in the second near-earth orbit. It was much more important to see the fruits of technical progress in everyday life, and to feel how they change life for the better here and now. So ordinary Americans were much more delighted and delighted with the newly launched Tappan microwave oven and the Faema electric coffee maker.

This Lincoln was also one of the markers of rapid technological progress. For 1960, it was incredibly technological and breakthrough and, as it turned out, was more than half a century ahead of its time. And even now, according to the set of equipment and comfort options, the Mark V can put on the blades almost any modern mass car.

The beauty of the Lincoln did not leave anyone indifferent. Mark V surprised with graceful uprights with a reverse slope and a convex roof, as if hovering above the car. Its hardtop body is a sedan without a B-pillar. Europeans often call "hardtops" two-door cars with a removable hardtop, although they are mistaken. Such modifications of roadsters are more correctly called "targa".

The Continental Mark V became an experimental car for Lincoln, and indeed for the entire Ford corporation. This was the first monocoque model on the American market. Customers at Lincoln dealerships were surprised and did not fully understand what all the components and assemblies of the car were attached to in the absence of a frame.

At the same time, it was heavier by about a centner for the still frame competitors, classmates. But the people at Ford cared little, as well as the customers. Indeed, under the hood of the Continental Mark V, the most powerful at that time 7-liter V-shaped "eight" with a return of 350 forces was installed. Even the Cadillac 8-cylinder big block developed "only" 325 forces.

But what customers appreciated most about the Continental Mark V was comfort and equipment. Therefore, the box is only "automatic", and hydraulic boosters are available both in the brake system and in the steering mechanism.

Well, almost any modern car will envy Lincoln options. Here, electric motors control everything they can. Electric drives can move not only the sofa and glass, but also the radio antenna. Oh, and by the way, pay attention to the seven power window keys. In addition to the standard four buttons responsible for raising and lowering the side windows, a couple more controls the rotation of the front vents, and a single button lowers and raises the rear large glass.

In addition, there is a central locking system, an electric parking brake and even an air conditioning system, which is essentially a prototype of climate control, since it can cool the air in two separate areas of the passenger compartment: left and right.

But a high-tech triumph is the automatic photocell-based light sensor mounted just above the dashboard. Moreover, it not only turns on the headlights when dusk falls, but also reacts to the light beam of oncoming cars and can automatically switch the optics from far to near.

Today Lincoln produces just over one hundred thousand vehicles a year and sells its models only in the US and China markets. The brand, which in the middle of the last century had every chance of becoming something like the American Bentley or even Rolls Royce, first took the blow of the fuel crisis of the mid-1970s, and then - the influx of inexpensive Asian cars into the American market.

Lincoln's current models do not boggle the imagination, but rather follow trends, trying to find their niche in the market. But the technical heritage of the legendary American brand surprises and delights to this day.