Sometimes an automaker creates a chassis design that continues to make money decade after decade, and that’s just the jackpot that Ford Motor Company succeeds in building 1960’s Ford Falcon. While that car is still in production in Argentina throughout 1991the reality The reward for Dearborn comes with many vehicles that end up being built on modified versions of that platform. Have Original Mustangof course (and its Mercury Cougar siblings), but also Ford Maverick/Mercury Comet and its successors, Ford Granada, Mercury King And Lincoln Versailles. That last car is one of the rarest of all the 1960s Falcon descendants, and I found a prime example in a cemetery in Sparks, Nevada.
The Lincoln Versailles is not the first Ford product to be named after Pad of Louis XIV in France. That honor went to the mid-1950s Ford Vedette Versaillesa flat-head V8-powered brother with Simca Vedette And Chambord.
Lincoln Versailles was produced from 1977 to 1980. The idea was that it would compete with very successful Cadillac SevilleOne Chevy Nova-based luxury car debuted for the 1976 model year.
These cars did not sell well, just over 50,000 units were produced in 4 years of production. This is the first scrap yard example I’ve seen in at least 20 years.
Versailles comes with a strong Rear axle assembly 9 inch and equipped with disc brake All roads around. Since it plunged straight into a 1964-1973 Mustang (and many other related Fords), behind Versailles is always the first thing purchased when one of these cars arrives at the scrap yard. This one was probably snatched away by the very first scrap yard customer who realized what it was.
The interior is very, very nice. The front seats seem “Flight Bench” double compartment, finished in turquoise “Champagne Dorchester” fabric.
You won’t see the interior this Luxury in a Granada! And I will know, since I took my first driving test in my family’s 1979 Granada.
Factory AM/FM/8 track radio is standard on this vehicle. For an extra $321 ($1,395 in 2022 dollars) you can also have a factory CB radio. The after-sales But also provide stem-mounted CB.
A mechanical-digital watch with a Cartier badging is also standard equipment. This is actually the same watch went into Fords of the decade much cheaper.
Because Granada and Monarch have fuel tanks located between the taillights and Versailles need a deeper deck cover for “continent kit” look, Lincoln installed a small door in the deck. That workaround is much cheaper than relocating the fuel tank.
The price of this car starts at $13,763, or about $59,805 in 2023. More expensive than in 1979. Lincoln Continent sedan ($12,093, or $52,550 now) and only slightly cheaper than Lincoln Mark V 1979 personal luxury coupe ($13,771, or $59,840 today). Meanwhile, the 1979 Granada luxury sedan can be purchased for $4,678 ($20,328) and Mercury will sell you a Monarch car for just $4,737 ($20,585). Just to make it more difficult to sell Versailles, it will be seen in Lincoln-Mercury galleries like like Monarch.
The engine is a 302-cubic-inch (5.0 liters) Windsor V8 capacity 133 horsepower. The three-speed automatic transmission is the only one available in Versailles.
The door card says This vehicle was built at the Wayne Stamping and Assembly Plant in Michigan (now part of Michigan assembly plantWhere Rangers And country music was born today), then sold out of the Oakland, California sales office (which makes sense for a car in Nevada, since Oakland isn’t far away).
The pride of owning a Lincoln, has a 110-inch wheelbase. The use of a song by Frank Sinatra interesting, because of Sinatra’s friend Lee Iacocca boxed as president of Ford by Henry Ford II in 1978, then ordered the establishment of a Royal Edition Frank Sinatra immediately after being hired to run Chrysler. Revenge!
