Cruise Missiles

Those who dare to be just a bit different usually have no problem standing out in a crowd. It's no secret that MM&FF is primarily focused on the late-model Mustang, but that does not mean we shun the oddball combinations that are often stumbled upon. We're always on the lookout for unusual Ford hardware to showcase, and with the wide array of intriguing automobiles we put together, our latest Luxobarge shootout promised to be anything but ordinary.

If you take a step back in time and revisit our April 2001 issue you will find the first Lincoln shootout, titled "Lincoln Mafia Shootout." Our ex Editor-At-Large, "Spinny" Vinnie Kung, is known to the Ford world as being into (How can we say this politely?) odd cars. He had an idea to put together a totally different shootout based on the Lincoln Mark VII LSC platform and it has since turned out to be one of the more popular shootouts we've contested.

The following year (see the February 2002 issue), Kung broke it up a little bit by allowing different makes of Ford and Lincoln "barges" to be a part of the mix and changed the theme to the Luxobarge shootout. Lincolns continued to be part of the game, but Thunderbird Turbo Coupes, Mercury Cougars, Ford LTDs and Lincoln Mark VIIIs were added to the equation for a little extra diversity. That shootout again brought interesting and positive feedback, which is why we wanted to continue with the theme, only this time around we took a slightly different approach.

For this go-round, Lincolns were part of our plan (contested at Raceway Park in Englishtown, New Jersey), but we also gathered up a host of other heavyweights from our stack of entries. The Mercury Marauder has made a rather quiet, but positive, splash into the performance market with its 4.6 DOHC V-8 and we had two of them show up to strut their stuff.

We also had a pair of Crown Victoria Police Interceptors. These cars are cool and definitely make for interesting racing and high-performance street vehicles.

From the "say what?" file, how about an old '67 Ford Galaxie 500 complete with a 390 FE big-block? Brian Lewis of Port Jefferson Station, New York, was the owner of this striking ride and showed up hoping to give the "new-school" crowd a history lesson. Edelbrock RPM cylinder heads, Comp Cams shaft-mounted roller rocker arms and a Holley 750 vacuum secondaries carburetor were some of the modifications under the hood and with 17x8-inch Torque Thrust IIs on BFGoodrich 245/50 rubber, this ride is about as cool as "heavy" can get.

Geno Angelino, owner of Lincoln Motorsport in Gloucester, New Jersey, and a past participant in the Lincoln shootout, played an instrumental part in finding two Mark VIIIs for us and they didn't disappoint.

The MN12 chassis Mark VIIIs have 281ci Modular engines, which are rated at 280 hp and, with a camshaft, intake and exhaust change, these beasts can make similar power to an SVT Cobra. One of our participants ran a 13.82 at 101.49 mph and would have gone much quicker if the nitrous kit being used didn't develop fuel pump and bottle pressure problems.

If these machines spark your interest you can visit one of the many Web sites devoted to Lincolns, Crown Vics and Marauders such as jerseyvics.com, crownvics.net and mercurymarauder.net. These sites have plenty of information and chat rooms to keep you up to date on what's going on with these cars.

In the end, some of our drivers generated career best runs while others generated massive on-track carnage, but a fun time was had by all. Which brings us to the all-important question: Should we continue with the Luxobarge theme? Should a Lincoln/Crown Victoria/Marauder/etc. shootout take place next year or have you guys (and girls) had enough of the 4,000-pound heavyweights?

If you would like to read about or participate in our next Luxobarge bash, mail in a photo of your ride along with some information about it to: Muscle Mustangs & Fast Fords, 365 West Passaic Street, Rochelle Park, NJ 07662, attn: Luxobarge Shootout. If the interest is there, we'll be delighted to keep it going.

FIRST PLACE
We'll begin our coverage with the quickest and fastest candidate at the shootout, Bernard L. Craft of Princeton, West Virginia. Craft and his lovely wife, Joyce, made the drive to E-town on Tuesday afternoon for the Wednesday shootout but, thanks to two days of persistent rain, the gathering had to be pushed back to Friday. The Crafts were nice enough to put their plans back home on hold and wait out the rain in a hotel until the sun came out on Friday. They spent the down time sightseeing in the center of the universe, exciting New York City.

It's a good thing Bernard stuck it out, because his street driven '88 Lincoln Mark VII LSC was the class of the field. The D.S.S.-built 331 was helped along by a Kenne Bell 2200 Flowzilla supercharger and a Randy Haywood tune up (of NMRA Super Street Outlaw and Mod-motor fame) and was backed by a manually shifted Art Carr AOD. This combo was good for a career best 11.37 at 120 mph and two other mid-11-second blasts--an 11.61 and an 11.54. Craft's previous best time was an 11.47 at 118 mph, which was done at "The Rock" in Rockingham, North Carolina, during a Ford Open Comp race.

Craft's Lincoln still wore the original silver paint on its sheetmetal and was purchased as a daily driver years ago before being turned into a racing machine. It had little problem yanking the left front wheel off the pavement and was the most exciting ride of the day. He explained that he was extremely close to building a four-cylinder Mustang (with a V-8 conversion), but decided on something a little bit different. Craft experimented with different fuel pressure settings in an attempt to run quicker but in the end, he loaded up for the drive home with his best pass ever and a huge smile on his face.

Second place
The runner-up at the 2003 Luxobarge bash easily earned the Long Haul and Hard Luck awards in unison. Chris Lanigan made the shootout by transporting his black '92 Lincoln Mark VII LSC Special Edition via train from Florida to Maryland before driving the rest of the way on Interstate 95.

Lanigan had the only nitrous-equipped Mark VII at our shootout, which consisted of a 357ci Ramsey Performance and Lanigan-constructed Windsor bullet and a 200hp NOS Big Shot plate system. Lanigan's day started on Wednesday where, after arriving in New Jersey, he stopped off at LaRocca's Performance in Englishtown for a professional tune on the chassis dyno. It was there that the stuff began to hit the fan.

First the starter went bad. After replacing it, shop owner Jimmy LaRocca diagnosed a problem with the Ford Racing EPEC system and had to replace it, as well. After finally getting down to the nitty-gritty, one of the Kook's long-tube headers began leaking due to a few threads that were stripped on the header flange. Lanigan wanted desperately to attend our shootout and made a six-hour round trip to Maryland to purchase a new flange.

Once all was good on the dyno, he cruised over to the track. The first attempt saw a tire spinning 13.03 at 106.77 mph, but on the second lap the factory differential decided to throw in the towel and release one of its spider gears. A replacement differential and installed in time for him to catch the train in Maryland for the journey home. Lanigan feels that he should run in the 12.0s at 110 mph shortly.

Third place
We had the luxury of having two Mark VIIIs at our shootout, with the quicker of the two belonging to Matt Tumminello of Bayside, New York. Tumminello's Mark VIII was hooked up by Geno Angelino and the crew at Lincoln Motorsport and was packing a 100-horse custom nitrous system under the hood for a quest into the low 13s.

The 4.6 DOHC 32-valve mill was mostly stock, but was treated to a LMS chip, 900-cfm mass airflow meter, a cold-air ice box kit, 255 fuel pump and a matching fuel pressure regulator. Joe Pizzonia of Lee Myles in Hollis Queens, New York, worked on the OEM valvebody in the transmission and 4.10 gears with a Traction-Lok diff replace the originals.

Tumminello wound up fighting nitrous gremlins and never used the system to its full ability. On motor he pulled off a fine 13.82 at 101.49 mph, but on the nitrous problems persisted and a full run was never achieved. On a positive note, Tumminello generated some of the smokiest burnouts of the day. Luxury Mark VIIIs doing killer burnouts--we love it!

Fourth place
Right behind Tumminello was the second Mark VIII, owned and driven by Walt Kucinski, the special products and prototype manager at Lincoln Motorsport. Kucinski was battling fuel pump problems, which kept his car out of the 13-second zone where it usually runs. Kucinski's Mark VIII also packs a few go-fast goodies from the LMS shop including a chip, mass airflow sensor, cold-air kit and 255-lph fuel pump. The factory transmission was also replaced with a Baumann Engineering unit and a 9.5-inch, 3,500-stall torque converter.

When the car shifted into high gear at the finish line, you could clearly hear the engine running out of fuel. Needless to say, Kucinski was not thrilled with his performance, but still ran some very impressive low 14-second times.

Fifth place
We had two '03 Marauders at our shootout with the quickest one belonging to local boy Mike Mielnicki of Monroe, New Jersey. His '03 was bone stock, but looked tough with its brick-like aerodynamics as it leapt from the starting pad and generated some decent 14-second passes with a 14.21 at 95.19 being the best.

There is not much to report on as far as performance modifications are concerned, but Mielnicki did install a K&N Engineering air filter, a Reinhard computer chip to alter the fuel and timing curves and 4.10 gears, which help get the 4,356-pound behemoth up and in motion. Mielnicki was thrilled to be an attendee at our shootout and represented the Marauder crowd well with four solid 14-second passes. We are aware of a few Marauders that are noticeably quicker than Mielnicki's, but those we contacted were either unable or unwilling to attend.

Sixth place
Just a hop, skip and a jump away from MM&FF Command Central is Russ Golyak of Elmwood Park. As the owner and proprietor of jerseyvics.com, a New Jersey Crown Victoria car club, Golyac was the best candidate in our quest for a Crown Vic Police Interceptor. His white '99 ex-Pennsylvania police cruiser was packing an Allen Engine Development Rev II-ported supercharger installed by Golyac and Patrick Gorman and, considering its huge 4,116-pound curb weight, it still mustered some impressive 14-second performances.

The SOHC 4.6 was treated to a complete custom exhaust kit by Doug's Street Shop in Fair Lawn, New Jersey, consisting of 2 1/2-inch pipe with high-flow catalytic converters and Magnaflow mufflers. The factory 3.55 gears are still in use, but Dunlop SP Sport 5000 Z-rated tires provide some extra traction. The factory 4R70W four-speed automatic was also left in its OEM configuration.

Golyac opted to pass on the driving and handed over the keys to his good friend Charlie Han who proceeded to run a best e.t. of 14.33 at 97.51 mph.

Seventh place
This was the first time Kenneth Merring ever raced his '90 Lincoln Mark VII and his lack of experience almost wrote him a check he couldn't cash on the first lap. Upon leaving the starting line, Merring mashed into the throttle and experienced severe and almost uncontrollable tire spin. Not realizing the need to lift or pedal the throttle, Merring kept his foot in it and began to fishtail violently before finally finding enough traction to complete the run. Needless to say, for a high 14-second car, the lap got everyone's attention.

After receiving some valuable driving tips, Merring had it under control and on the next few laps he looked like he had been doing this for years. Part of why the rear wheels spun so effortlessly was, no doubt, due to the instant boost of the Kenne Bell 1500 supercharger mounted on top of his factory 302. With a Baumann Engineering transmission shift kit and 8 pounds of boost, Merring had no problem breaking the tires loose and eventually ran in the 14s with a 14.97 at 95.66 mph.

Eighth place
In trying to break up the hardware some we elected to bring in the old-school '67 Galaxie 500 of Brian Lewis. The New Yorker showed up with his awesome light blue Galaxy and demonstrated that "heavy racers" can be way cool if approached correctly. Powered by a stock 390 short-block, the 4,184-pound barge was treated to a pair of Edelbrock RPM cylinder heads and a matching Edelbrock cam, which works with Comp Cams shaft-mounted roller rocker arms.

Up top, an Edelbrock Performer RPM intake houses a Holley 750-cfm dual feed vacuum secondaries carburetor and a complete line of MSD Ignition hardware ignites it all. A 3.50-geared Detroit Locker sends the power out to 17-inch Torque Thrust IIs spinning BFGoodrich 245/50-series rubber. Lewis' Galaxie was a blast to watch run as it annihilated the rear tires during launch. Still, with limited traction and almost 4,200-pounds, the FE laid down some impressive numbers, including a best time of 15.14 at 92.32 mph.

Ninth place
Ryan Hurley was the second Marauder participant at our gathering and was behind the wheel of his stock '03. With a DOHC V-8 powerplant, the Marauder is the perfect family car, but with a kick--it can pull off low 15-second times in factory form with ease and, when modified, can be transformed into the perfect sleeper or rice burner digester.

Ryan plans on performing a ton of modifications in the near future. He spent his day at our shootout gathering baseline runs before getting to work under the hood with a host of bolt-on components. MM&FF tested a stock Marauder and ran a few high 14-second times in the cool April air so 15-0s in August for Ryan seemed right on the money.

Tenth place
Tom Raia of Staten Island, New York, was another Lincoln Mark VII contestant who came out to Englishtown to strut his stuff. In a similar fashion to Chris Lanigan, Raia wounded the differential in his 8.8-inch rear and wasn't able to generate the times his sleeper was accustomed to. His '87 Mark VII was mostly stock save for some minor bolt-on components and 4.10 gears, but could do no better than a 15.21 at 87.86 mph. He also got a flat in his street slicks, and needed to return to his radials for the remaining passes.

Eleventh place
Rounding out the Luxo-bash was Chris Carney of Highland Mills, New York, who weaseled his father, Fred, into letting him participate with his '00 Ford Crown Victoria Police Interceptor. Like Ryan Hurley's Marauder, Carney's Vic was also bone stock from Ford, but we were in the need for some different sheetmetal and gave Carney the chance.

As expected, his best times were in the 16-second zone, which is about what unmodified Police Interceptors run, but limited traction off the line put the kabosh on his first-ever 15-second lap. Carney wrapped up the day by activating the squad lights as he blasted off on another 16-second hit.