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Originally Posted by I~LUV~Caddys8792  Did the '76 have the leather seats or the velour ones? If I remember correctly, the 1977's shed a lot of weight...I think they went from 5200 lbs in 1976 down to 47-4800 in 1977. So if that one was as quick as you make it sound for a mid '70s land yacht, then it might be quicker than that '77 I drove?
Rick, I bet I'd like the handling/suspension/steering feel of your '96 much more than any other mid '90s Town Car or LT-1 Brougham. Now as far as power and acceleration goes, that's gonna be a different story. |
It had white leather seats.
It was an odd car, it was white, white leather and white carpet, red dash. It had no vinyl top at all, yet it had the "ring" that went between the front and rear doors with the opra light and around the roof, almost like a landau top should be there but I didn't see any indication that there was one... also this car did *not* have the oval opra windows that I thought they all did. It was a 1976 Contential Town Car, which from my understanding all the made was the Contential, and the Town Car was a package ontop of that. I think in '77 they went to the taller and better looking grille design? I much prefer that over the '76.
As soon as I walked up to the car I was not interested in it, because as it was described was not the condition it was in, I really wanted to leave at that point once I established I wasn't interested in it, but the guy offered for me to drive it so I figured why not... it wasn't a long drive or anything special, just kinda down the road a couple miles few side roads and back.
I was pretty impressed with the power... I mean compared to todays cars it isn't anything to go crazy over, but it really moved along quite well... like I said I only did a couple WOT runs, and one from a stop when it actually was in 1st... and it pulled hard, I'd say better then my '79 did. Then again the car was just so big that it could have felt like it was accelerating faster then it was, I know I looked at the speedo and it was passing 70 pretty quick tho.... old guy in the car was just like yeah thats right keep it to the floor, shes in that low gear, don't let off it just yet.... but.... yeah one persons description can mean something totally different to another.
I dunno, you need to get your butt down here some time for one of these Caddy meets so you can drive the Town Car
By then it would probably have like 150k on it... but all is well. I don't know how fast it is, it is defintly quick to me atleast. I found a trick out the other day but if I put the shifter in 1 and run wide open, it'll shift at a slightly higher RPM but a much more positive shift into 2nd... since it's all electronic controlled... thats cool cause if I was to ever auto-x the car (as I have had thoughts of doing, just can't find it around here) just leave the shifter in 1 and turn OD off, then it would automatically default to the lowest gear for the given speed and never shift into OD... that could be quite fun. Although 1st runs to 35 or 40 under WOT, but if the shifter is in 1 it won't downshift into 1st until 28mph... still neat tho, I was quite surprised at how much firmer it shifted.
The sorta local (like 35miles?) 1/4 mi drag stirp has their test n tune nights... I wanna see when the next one is, I'd really like the race the Town Car, see how it compared to my other cars I've had and if it beats the 15.9 as my fastest car that my '93 Coupe ran.... plus it would still be cool, it's been a long time since I've been to the track. Maybe then I would be able to get a baseline to what it runs.
Reason why I said you would like the power tho, cause you mention alot you like the low end torque of a V8, with the Town Car as soon as you jab the gas it's moving, in fact since I normally drive the Zu, I am used to giving it alot more throttle input (plus it's more fun to drive like that) so when I get in the Town Car I'm really jumping off fast from a stop until I adjust again. But besides the low end torque it's got nice midrange and top end power too, accelerating at any speed is sorta just instantanious (sp?) but I think your Benz accelerates above 80 faster... it still hits the 107 limiter without much trouble... overall it's a nice package, I've thought about adding some go-fast parts, but... for what? it's powerful and fast enough as it is, plus I like keeping it stock. I can't complain about it, and personally I am starting to really like the 4.6 OHC alot... kinda sorta making me think about manual trans Mustang GT convertibles.... cheap and not bad... not in the same category as the E30 tho....