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Five cursed and haunted cars

Any kid lucky enough to grow up in Detroit is familiar with the Henry Ford Museum. It's huge, full of shiny things and a great place to take a child and let them burn off some energy. After several field trips and weekend outings however, the dusty concept vehicles and famous aircraft tend to lose their punch for youngsters. As a fifth grader, I was already gazing on the museum's many gems with glassy eyes. On yet another school trip, we made our way to John F. Kennedy's death car, a gleaming black Lincoln limo. The aging volunteer docent told our little group something I had never heard before. "You know, this car is haunted. Several employees have reported seeing a gray presence right here," he said, pointing to the back passenger side seat. I perked up. Now here was something I had never heard before. A haunted car? Sure, it happened in Goosebumps, but this was real life. It made sense, in a way. Cars can be violent, emotional places. That's certainly the case with JFK's limo, as well as the other four cars on this list. And maybe those gut-wrenching deaths can permanently doom a car. 5. Archduke Franz Ferdinand's Graf & Stift Death Limo World War I tends to be a forgotten war, despite being pretty terrible in its own right and setting the stage for the entire 20th Century. The French forces, for instance, lost more lives in the first month of WWI than the US did in the entire Civil War. Everyone who has been through a freshman world history course knows the conflict started when Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife were shot by a Bosnian anarchist. The crazy thing is, Ferdinand had already avoided an attempt on his life that day, and was actually on his way to the hospital to comfort those who had been injured in the crossfire. One of the would-be assassins simply walked out of a cafe and saw his intended target sitting in front of him where the open-air limo had stalled. The archduke and his wife were shot through their heads and throats. Their deaths would not be the last caused by the limo. Throughout the war and into the 1920s, the limo was owned by fifteen different people and involved in six accidents and thirteen deaths, not counting the 17 million or so killed in the war triggered by the Archduke's assassination. The first person to own the car after the Archduke was an Austrian general named Potiorek, who went insane while riding in the car through Vienna.

Junkyard Gem: 1995 Lincoln Mark VIII

Except for a pause during the 1960s, the Lincoln Mark Series of personal luxury cars stayed in production from the 1956 through 1998 model years. These were big, swanky machines loaded with the latest in gadgetry and — other than the handful of 1984-1985 Mark VIIs with BMW diesel linline-sixes — they cruised with great opulence on American highways courtesy of powerful V8 engines. The very last generation of the series, the Mark VIII, boasted a spaceship-style interior, slick body lines, and a sophisticated dual-overhead-cam version of Ford's Modular V8 engine. Here's a 1995 in Deep Jewel Green Metallic paint, photographed in a Colorado self-service yard. I've documented examples of the Lincoln Mark II through Mark VI while performing my car-graveyard studies, and the Mark VIII's distinctive wraparound cockpit makes most of its predecessors look cheap and stodgy by comparison.  The four-valves-per-cylinder version of Ford's rugged 4.6-liter Modular V8 made 280 horsepower in the Mark VIII, just two fewer horses than the V8 in BMW's 840Ci coupe that year. The Mercedes-Benz S500 coupe had a 315-hp V8 that year, while the Lexus SC 400's V8 made a mere 250 horsepower. The BMW cost $69,900, the Mercedes-Benz had a $91,900 price tag, and the SC 400 went for $47,500 — the Mark VIII could be purchased for just $38,800 that year. That's about $66,300 in 2019 dollars. Of course, the Cadillac Eldorado coupe was the real competition for the Mark VIII in 1995, and the unfortunately-named ETC (Eldorado Touring Coupe) came with a 300-horse DOHC Northstar V8 (admittedly, driving the front wheels) and a dignified wood-trimmed interior. At $41,535, though, the Cadillac had a higher base price than the Lincoln. I think this one was pretty clean, prior to getting banged up in the junkyard, and 140,905 miles seems low for a flagship Ford of the era. Perhaps it got too many unpaid parking tickets, or maybe that complex DOHC engine developed some expensive problem. This content is hosted by a third party. To view it, please update your privacy preferences. Manage Settings. Tempted? Featured Gallery Junked 1995 Lincoln Mark VIII View 17 Photos Auto News Lincoln Automotive History

2015 Lincoln Navigator gets lots of updates, still not all-new [w/video]

If there's one brand that could really use some fresh, all-new product, it's Lincoln. The MKC crossover is on the way and looks promising, but the just-revealed 2015 model year update of its fullsize Navigator would appear to stop somewhere short of being "all-new." This, despite replacing a product that's been on the market since 2007. Oh sure, there's a brash new face, complete with the company's love or hate split-wing grille, and the revised rear-end treatment does look better to our eyes (if overly familiar). But in the era of the bold new all-aluminum Ford F-150, the Navigator is still based on the outgoing model's all-steel bones, so it's more of an extensive mid-cycle refresh than a completely new piece.
Unlike the F-150, there's no aluminum suit on this black-tie bruiser
That's a shame, really, because the class the Navigator is playing in features a host of really modern, stylish, luxurious crossovers and sport utilities like the Cadillac Escalade, Land Rover Range Rover, Mercedes-Benz GL-Class and more. Unlike the F-150, there's no aluminum suit on this black-tie bruiser, but that's not to say it isn't bringing some new tech to the table in 2015. Under the hood, for example, is Ford's well-received 3.5-liter, twin-turbocharged EcoBoost V6, putting out "at least" 370 horsepower and 430 pound-feet of torque. That's a solid engine, and should be a whole lot more spunky and efficient than the archaic 5.4-liter Triton V8 currently being employed in the outgoing model.