In the comment section of Friday’s Last Call, skitter went off topic (hey, really, it’s okay) and commented on a post The Saucy Minx did over at TTAC about his family’s Ramada. As always, Ms. Murilee’s stuff is a funtastic read. As this olelongrooffan was trying to figure out my segue (only podcast followers will get this obscure reference) to the spectacle I stumbled upon yesterday, I figured this was it.
In that post he commented about the Granada and Monarch but woefully neglected their cousin. Ya know, the one possessing this padded vinyl landau light (yes, that front door is locked and the window is open) plus many more attributes.
By these attributes I am speaking of this protruding hood ornament and the bright chrome grill surrounds.
This one is the haloed cousin to the Granada and the Monarch in a family of large cars and, now, large trucks.
Yes my fellow Hoons, the Lincoln Versailles, the 70’s version of brand sharing that existed throughout Detroit for the next couple decades (and probably the preceding decades as well). But purely on styling alone, this olelongrooffan can see styling cues of the boxy 80’s Town Cow in both the nose, with the quad rectangular headlights, and the solid dish wheels.
And while the interior may possess a bit more faux wood and idiot lights than either of its cousins, I damn sure bet ya that Ms. Martin’s Ramada did not have a Glenn Miller 8-track cartridge in its player!
But I have to say this about that, Four Wheel Disc Brakes back in a Murilee Martin identified Malaise era Lincoln absolutely rules.
Even from the rear there is no doubt this is a Lincoln.
And that padded vinyl top? Where the hell does a Lincoln Versailles owning Hoon even find that color today?
This olelongrooffan never had an opportunity to Hoon one of these Versailles around, nor any of its cousins. But my Aurora owning friend, TheKenMan, is married to Blondie and she daily drove one of these back in the day up in Door County, Wisconsin. She related to me several years ago, that as a automobile whocares, it was a great car to have fun in and she loved hers. As I am sure the owner of this one does also.
And now, this olelongrooffan is looking around for my next segue.
Hooniverse Weekend Edition: The Referral to The Saucy Minx Via Skitter Edition
About
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In 1979, a two-door version proved to be a failure.
<img src="http://www.greensalescompany.com/PhotosMain/images/miscpic/shorty/SHORTY.jpg"width="500"/>-
There have also been people with too much time on their hands who Lincoln-ized regular Granada coupes.
<img src="http://www.americangranada.com/owners/rob_78_versailles-3.jpg">
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So the padded roof is supposed to make us think of genuine leather, harvested from powder-blue cattle…?
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Maybe it's supposed to be from blue whales…
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You don't remember Babe the Blue Ox from the Paul Bunyan stories? This was her fate.
<img src="http://www.brainerd.com/images/pbcover.jpg">
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My family had one when I was little. It was burgundy on burgundy. It had almost zero rear leg room. It constantly made a noise (vacuum?) that I never heard anywhere else.
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[youtube Kz8n0x2B1xA http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kz8n0x2B1xA youtube]
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I remember, last summer, walking around town with a friend. It was three in the morning, neither of us could sleep, and we were sick of whatever game we'd been playing over a LAN – probably the original Age of Empires.
Derek knew a bit about cars, but wasn't especially observant, and so had never been especially proficient at identifying them. This wasn't our first walk, and so if I pointed at something and asked him what it was, he'd generally know. I was training him, if you will, for life in rural Pennsylvania where the only folks unlikely to care about motor vehicles would be the horses on his aunt's farm.
The conversation turned, for whatever reason, to Malaise Era Lincolns – specifically the Town Car/Town Coupe before and after its great downsizing. Derek could picture a newer model, but couldn't bring to mind the appearance of a '70s example.
I thought for a moment, then put on an artificially deep announcer's voice.
"Nineteen feet loooong. Faux wire wheel covers. Vinyl roof. Maroon. Over maroon. Over… maroon."
I believe, then, that my initial reaction to this example was appropriate: "Seventeen feet long…"
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This car is either a '77 or '78. The 1979 Versailles was given a new roofline to make it look less like a Granada that had a J.C. Whitney catalog thrown at it. The '79 was also the first US car with clearcoat paint and halogen headlights.
<img src="http://assets.hemmings.com/uimage/6427072-576-0.jpg?rev=1" width=500> -
For the fun of it, I mounted opera lights from a junkyard Versailles onto the B-pillars of a Chevy Citation sedan that I owned back around 1991. I found the lights on the same trip that I picked the front "bench-bucket" seats out of an X-body Buick Skylark to replace the broken ones in the Citation. The seat cost $20, the lights were free.
Them opera lights looked damn good! -
I wonder just how good the four-wheel discs were?
![http://www.greensalescompany.com/PhotosMain/images/miscpic/shorty/SHORTY.jpg"width="500"/>](http://www.greensalescompany.com/PhotosMain/images/miscpic/shorty/SHORTY.jpg"width="500"/>){kind=link}
![http://www.americangranada.com/owners/rob_78_versailles-3.jpg">](http://www.americangranada.com/owners/rob_78_versailles-3.jpg">){kind=link}
![http://www.brainerd.com/images/pbcover.jpg">](http://www.brainerd.com/images/pbcover.jpg">){kind=link}
![http://assets.hemmings.com/uimage/6427072-576-0.jpg?rev=1"](http://assets.hemmings.com/uimage/6427072-576-0.jpg?rev=1"){kind=link}
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