[VAL] Vanessa & Hot Rod Lincolns!

[estatewagons@xxxxxxx]

 Vanessa - keep this in mind:  (I love the idea of a Hot-Rod Lincoln....but maybe 
not for a tow-vehicle...)  (or...at least if you want to do a hot rod Lincoln....think 
about a 1970's model with a 460 V-8 and a 3-speed C-6 automatic.  Actually...then 
you would not have to hot-rod it....as it would have plenty of grunt right from the 
factory!)  (make sure it has the proper axle ratio for towing) (beware....there were 
some 1970's Lincolns that came with 400 V-8's which in effect are a small block design 
and they had some design problems)

When you start adding things to an engine that were not stock from the factory - you 
may get performance - but you also may end up with a one-of-a-kind set-up.  That is 
okay if you know all about it and know how it needs to be set-up, tuned etc.  I mention 
this as it is important if you use a non-stock vehicle to travel with (and pull a 
trailer).  If it needs service some place far from home and far from your mechanic (if 
you don't do your own work) you could be looking at a real headache.

Mechanics would look at a non-stock set up from at least two points of view.

1.  they won't touch it.

2.  they will welcome you (and your credit card) with open arms....

I don't mean to steer you away from being creative...just know that it can come 
with a high price tag just when you don't want it.  i.e. Murphy's Law.

A vintage tow vehicle comes with enough extra responsibilites....keeping an eye 
on all the vintage parts and pieces holding it together....why go out of your 
way to create something that no one wants to work on.

There are plenty of great old vehicles out there that were designed right - from 
the factory - to keep you and your trailer happy...I'd look for one of them.  
"It" needs you to give it a good home!

You mention a vehicle of the same era as your trailer.  There are some great 
vehicles from the early 50's to think about.  The Cadillacs had great engines and 
transmissions.  They offered  a Hydra-matic.  There was a short period about 1953 
when the Hydra-matic factory had a fire...and Cadillac used Dyna-flo's.  Plenty 
of people have towed with Dyna-flo's in their Buicks...but I'd be cautious at 
this point...from a service point of view.  They feature (by design) a lot of 
slip...and that could mean it could be subject to a lot of heat when towing.  (I 
am sure someone with a Dyna-flo will pipe in here!  And in fact I'm a Buick fan - 
I recently sold both my '56 wagons)  The big early 50's Chryslers had great V-8's 
(the early and first generation Chrysler Hemi) though I'd be wary of towing with 
an old Chrysler Fluid-Drive transmission...(has anyone on the list had any 
experience with one of those transmissions???)

If I were to randomly go out and buy a 50's tow vehicle today....I'd probably 
look for a '57 or '58 Chrysler New Yorker wagon.  Power....fins...room for lots 
and lots of stuff...and a Hemi with a Torque-flite and a highly regarded torsion 
bar suspension design.  That is about as modern as it got for the 50's.  Chrysler 
even offered fuel injection for about 2 seconds...in 1958.  Sadly it was not 
ready for production and they quickly withdrew it from the market.

Above all - have fun (and do your homework...)

Oh - and one more thing about putting a supercharger on your Lincoln - keep in 
mind that cars are designed as a package - and while you might up the horsepower 
and the pull-power....the rest of the mechanics might not be matched to the 
"extra power" ...like the brakes and the drive-line and the U-joints and the 
transmission (particularly the transmission...as most modern automatics  feature 
"over-drive" and torque converters with a locking feature....and the added weight 
of a trailer can be really - really - really hard on those features.  Ford found 
that out when they started putting automatics in the pick-ups with an electronic 
Overdrive feature.  I remember they had a lot of headaches with weak truck 
automatics until they finally figured it out)

RL