Here's the less pretentious cousin of Lincoln's Continental, a Mercury Grand Marquis from 1977 in Dove Grey. It's hard to pick the year because they hardly changed between '75 and '77, but the Dove Grey color only showed up in '77, replacing Silver Metallic in the Marquis palette. Its current owner wants you to know it's packing the 460 V-8 with a bit of aftermarket badge work.
You can tell it's a Grand Marquis from the wide bodyside rub strip that runs across the rear fender skirts. A Marquis Brougham would have had fender skirts but no rub strip, and a vanilla Marquis wouldn't have fender skirts at all, nor a vinyl roof. The Marquis and Marquis Brougham came with a 400 V-8 and the 460 as an option, but the big motor was standard in the Grand Marquis. Of course, by 1977 we were well into the Malaise Era and even the massive 460 (that's 7.5L if you prefer metric) only put out 197 SAE net horsepower.
This was the pinnacle of size for FoMoCo sedans, and among the very longest postwar autos. The mid-'70s Continental, Marquis, and LTD were enormous cars. The final year before the downsizing, a '78 Grand Marquis with the 460cid mill stretched 229 inches between the bumpers and tipped the scales at over 4600 pounds. That's nearly two feet longer than a current base F-150.
In the early '80s my mom's trusty Malibu wagon gasped its last and my folks bought the Mercury Colony Park station wagon the neighbors across the street were selling, basically a Grand Marquis that could transport a whole soccer team. Us kids thought it was cool because it had every plush-bottomed luxo feature in Ford's arsenal at the time. Alas, that experiment lasted only a week or so, if I recall correctly, before mom refused to continue trying to negotiate parking lots and narrow streets with that four-wheeled supertanker.
This was the pinnacle of size for FoMoCo sedans, and among the very longest postwar autos. The mid-'70s Continental, Marquis, and LTD were enormous cars. The final year before the downsizing, a '78 Grand Marquis with the 460cid mill stretched 229 inches between the bumpers and tipped the scales at over 4600 pounds. That's nearly two feet longer than a current base F-150.
In the early '80s my mom's trusty Malibu wagon gasped its last and my folks bought the Mercury Colony Park station wagon the neighbors across the street were selling, basically a Grand Marquis that could transport a whole soccer team. Us kids thought it was cool because it had every plush-bottomed luxo feature in Ford's arsenal at the time. Alas, that experiment lasted only a week or so, if I recall correctly, before mom refused to continue trying to negotiate parking lots and narrow streets with that four-wheeled supertanker.
This one was photographed in August of 2023 using an iPhone 13 Pro Max.
I'll bet it smells like Hai Karate and Brylcreem inside.
ReplyDeleteGiven the owner (a young auto parts store clerk) I'd guess it's more Axe body spray and Taco Bell. ;-)
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