Will Ford pony up Lincoln?
Automaker considers building coupe based on the Mustang

Amy Wilson
AN / October 10, 2005

DETROIT -- Ford Motor Co. is considering making a Mustang-based sporty Lincoln coupe this decade, possibly in 2009, insiders say.

The proposal, still in its early stages, would give Lincoln its first rear-drive coupe since the Mark VIII was killed in 1998.

Ford has acknowledged studying a Mustang-based Mercury. A company insider says the Lincoln proposal is more serious.

The Lincoln would have a unique interior and exterior.

 

I can definitely see this happening. Given the amount of Mustangs sold so far and the projected future sales for the Mustang, the total development cost for a Lincoln based Mustang are going to be next to nothing. Anything built off that platform will be a cash cow.

 

Sounds like Ford may have a Camaro & Firebird - like duo....

 

The Lincoln would be luxury oriented, not performance oriented. The 1984 to 1992 Lincoln Mark VII used the same Fox platform as the Mustang, but oriented towards luxury. The new Lincoln coupe would have the same relationship with the Mustang as the Lincoln Mark VII had with the Fox Mustang.

 

http://www.autoweek.com/news.cms?newsId=103330

 

Could be. But the Fox MkVII was larger than Mustang.....really having more in common with the Fox T-Bird rather than the Fox Mustang. From the sound of the story though, it appears that this new Lincoln coupe would be a mechanical twin of the Mustang, with merely new sheetmetal and interior.

It'll be interesting to see how this all develops.

 

not THAT much larger than the mustang.... yeah. mk7s are closer to T birds and cougars. MK8s were totally unrelated from mustangs, as well. they were on a modified MN12 chassis (fantastic car if you ever get the chance to drive one). if guion has been tellin us right over the past few years, the ideas been bouncing around inside ford for a while. Im sure theyd put some of the cost back into the D2C platform for a lincoln (IRS, atleast).

 

This has proven to work well with Nissan/Infiniti's 350Z/G35 combo

 

Ford really knew how to get a lot of derivatives off a platform back in those days. Hard to believe that the base of all those Mark VII's, 1982 through 1987 Continentals, 1980 through 1988 Thunderbirds and Cougars, and 1979 through 2004 Mustangs was the humble Fairmont. (Of course, you can easily see the Fairmont in the 1981 and 1982 Granada/Cougar and 1983 through 1986 LTD/Marquis.) I hope to see a few interesting things off D2C.

 

The cool part is, if it sell's well, Pontiac can bring back the Trans-Am in 2014.

 

Wouldn't it be amusing if the Lincoln inherited the solid rear axle from the Mustang, although admittedly this is not very likely.

 

I can already hear the theme music for the commercial....

"My pappy says 'Son your gonna drive me to drinkin'
if you don't stop drivin that hot rod Lincoln'"

 

Wouldn't the Cougar alone be a better fit here?

Just make it the more upscale vehicle. Hell knows Mercury probably could use a more eye catching "sporty" car than Lincoln does.

 

My thoughts exactly, bring back the REAL Cougar and leave it at that.

 

Well, this news came out of left field!

Like ehaase mentioned, I would expect IF Ford went with the Lincoln version instead of a Merc, I would expect it to be much like the Mark VII "Fox" instead of a Lincoln Mustang.