1977 Lincoln Town Car
When General Motors downsized its entire B and C-body lineup in 1977, from the Chevrolet Impala all the way up to the Cadillac Fleetwood Brougham, Lincoln did nothing. The Continental simply kept growing, and by 1977 it had quietly become the largest mass-produced automobile sold anywhere on earth. The only vehicles longer were purpose-built limousines like the Rolls-Royce Phantom VI and the Soviet ZIL-4104.
The 1979 Town Car sat on a 127.2-inch wheelbase and stretched 233 inches bumper to bumper, wider than six and a half feet, with 42 inches of rear legroom. Under the hood sat a 402 cubic inch V8 producing 315 pound-feet of torque arriving at just 1,800 rpm, backed by a three-speed SelectShift automatic. You did not drive this car so much as pilot it.
The base sedan started at $11,200. Lincoln sold 76,458 of them for 1979 alone, nearly five times the number of coupes. Ford marketed the 1979 Continental specifically as the final traditional full-size American sedan, and they were right. The following year it arrived on a completely redesigned platform, shorter, lighter, and more fuel efficient.
1979 was genuinely last call. The days of truly uncompromised American land yachts were finished, and Lincoln knew it. Nobody who bought one in 1979 complained about the timing.
