If the car was designed for 20" wheels then there is no need to change them. However, the Lincoln LS was not designed with it's F-1 formula inspired suspension to handle the weight of 20" wheels and tires. Now I'm not bashing the 20"+ wheel guys by any means. If you like them then ride 'em!djKale said:Looks nice! But some of you guys will have to swap out those 20s for 18s...LOL! This car should have come out 5 years ago (or more). 300HP doesn't raise too many eyebrows in 2006.
Kale
captainalias said:Why do I think they're not going to keep the concept touches and screw everything up?
Good observation Hyelife- didn't notice the leather on the dash.
djKale said:Looks nice! But some of you guys will have to swap out those 20s for 18s...LOL! This car should have come out 5 years ago (or more). 300HP doesn't raise too many eyebrows in 2006.
Kale
Kelleyo said:I'll post my thoughts again:
The car looks like it was designed by Chris Bangle. It appears that the engine layout will be a Transeverse AWD system with a 4.4 derivitive of the Yamaha engine in the XC90, which itself started life in the Taurus SHO.
I have several issues with transverse engines. Note, Audi's AWD are Longitudinal. I am not talking here specifically about RWD vs FWD vs AWD, I am talking about engine orientation.
I owned an Escort GT and 3 Taurus SHO's (2 V6, 1 V8) over a 10 year span so I have a little "hands on" experience with transverse FWD. I did not know how good Longitudinal RWD was in comparison until I got my first LS (it had been so many years since I had one).
1. Transverse are terribly hard to work on (usually the rear set of plugs are a bear)
2. It is hard to tune exhaust as one bank of cylinders will always have a longer distance to the rear of the car. Where do you place the X or H pipe? Routing the exhaust from the front bank is tough to. It usually goes under the engine somewhere which has an impact on ground clearance.
3. Weight distribution is usually heavily biased toward the front. In most cases the transvers engine is sitting in front of or directly over the front wheels. Definitely was improved with the LS after owning SHO's.
4. The width of the engine and the transaxle and CV's all conspire to make the turning radius horrible. My LS can turn circles inside the SHO or any other Taurus. All of the FWD low end rental cars I get on the road have a terrible turning radius.
5. Tourque Steer. Nuff Said.
mark0101 said:one thing I wanna know, Does it have HID.they keep saying halegon projector. I mean if they are going to create the best lighting system, HID has to be in there.
Dutch said:It looks okay, but it looks too derivative and too much like everything else on the road. Parts of it look like a scaled-up Zephyr/Milan/Focus, and I also see a lot of Altima in it. I also definately can agree with the person who said it looks like Bangle designed it.
If the car went on sale tomorrow, it would be cause for some excitement. Unfortunately, by the time this car hits the streets, it will look as bland and dated as the Five Hundred's Passat-derived styling.
And about turning radius, it's not about tire size. FWD cars have huge turning radii. My LS had the same tire size as my wife's Taurus, and the LS turns on a dime, the Taurus is like the Queen Mary.
The platform is Ford's D3, which is based on the platform underpinning the Volvo S80, so, yep, it's a transverse V8. This also fits with the use of the Ford/Yamaha/Volvo 4.4 V8 that's now powering Volvo's XC-90; if it weren't crosswise, you can bet your sweet bippy that it'd have the corporate 4.6l V8 shoehorned in there.2001LS8Sport said:I didn't see where the engine is transverse mounted. That would surprise me with an AWD vehicle...but anything is possible I guess.
IIRC, the SVT Lightning has suede (or at least suede-like leather). I remember it being very soft to the touch the one time I got to sit in one, and it still looked very nice (the truck was used).bobslydel said:I like how the sedan looks and like the sounds of the specs but I am skeptical of the suede seating. I bet that would look like sh** in no time. Looks like it would get dirty fast to me. Is suede easy to clean? I would rather have leather.