The 1993 model year was the debut of the all-new Lincoln Mark VIII personal luxury coupe. The previous Mark VII, which had been around since 1983, rode on the Fox Platform, originally developed for the midsize Ford Fairmont sedan.
With its live rear axle and pushrod motors, the Fox Platform was getting increasingly hard to pass off as a premium ride in the last decade of the previous century and Ford spent a wad engineering the new MN12 platform for the replacement. The MN12 had a proper independent rear suspension with upper and lower control arms and debuted with the 1988 Ford Thunderbird and Mercury Cougar.
Lincoln's version of the platform, the FN10, appeared with the Mark VIII for 1993 and paired the independent rear suspension with the Intech 4.6L DOHC 32V V-8, part of Ford's new Modular engine family.
The car had 16" wheels, anti-lock brakes, self-leveling air suspension that automatically lowered ride height by nearly an inch at speed, and speed-sensitive power steering that dialed back the assistance at higher speeds for better feel.
The Intech V-8 was rated at 280 SAE net horsepower, enough to launch Car and Driver's 3,811-pound test ride to sixty in only 6.8 seconds, which was pretty brawny for the era. The quarter was dispatched in 15.3 seconds at 94 miles per hour, and the governor didn't shut off the fun until the speedo read a buck thirty. It even circled the skidpad at an un-Lincoln-like 0.79g.
All this fun went for a base price of $38,850, which is about $86,500 in current dollars.
Incidentally, the MN12 platform was considered for the Mustang, but it would have resulted in a car that would have been too heavy and expensive, so the Mustang would gallop into the next millennium with a live rear axle.
The Light Mocha Pearlescent paint marks the one in the photo as a 1993 model, and it was photographed in July of 2025 using an Olympus PEN E-P5 and an M. Zuiko Digital 12-45mm f/4 PRO zoom lens.
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