Air ride suspension for Lincoln Mark VII

A Lincoln Mark VII LSC is not your typical luxury car. Its very name hints at its true mission. LSC is an acronym which represents Luxury Sport Coupe. The car was designed by Lincoln to compete with the best coupes Germany’s carmakers had to offer in the 1980s. While the LSC aimed to compete with the Mercedes-Benz 500/560SEC and BMW 633/635CSi, the base, Versace, and Bill Blass editions catered to more traditional Lincoln buyers.

Lincoln engineers incorporated many unique features in an attempt to attract buyers. The Mark VII was the first domestic automobile with anti-lock brakes, beating the Corvette to production by a few months. It was also the first US automobile to offer aerodynamic composite headlights. The most notable feature of the Mark VII line is actually underneath the car. Ford and Goodyear spent millions of dollars and miles designing and perfecting an electronic air suspension for the Mark VII and 1984-1987 Continental. Each corner of the vehicle is supported by a large, rubber air spring. An on-board compressor fills each spring independently to counter passenger or cargo weight. The entire system is controlled by a microprocessor. LSCs received 37% stiffer air springs in addition to larger anti-roll bars and stiffer damper tuning to help them achieve a more European ride and handling balance.

After years of square-lined formality, Lincoln air ride suspension premium coupe took a dramatic new direction with the 1984 Mark VII. Though it shared a platform with the bustleback Continental, this swoopy semifastback was derived from the new-for-’83 Ford Thunderbird/Mercury Cougar. The result was smooth, distinctive, and more visually aerodynamic than any previous Mark. A humped trunklid, modest taillamps in the rear fender trailing edges, and a toned-down Mark grille were stylistic links with the past, but the car was clearly aimed at a very different clientele: younger, affluent buyers who’d been defecting to high-dollar, high-status imports, a group Lincoln had never courted before. It was also a bold challenge to Cadillac’s Eldorado, which was still relatively overblown.