David Norton’s turbocharged two thousand two Lincoln: What a Luxury Spectacle Car Should Be
David Norton`s 900-horsepower wide-body Lincoln LS is an «if only» car. Imaginary auto executives fantasize, «if only they would let me build cars like that, I could fix Lincoln!» Fresh car dealers desire, «if only they would ship me some of those, I could charge dual the MSRP!» And the tetchy bean counters, anonymous committee persons, and bus-riding bureaucrats gleefully posit, «if only I could veto such shocking, expensive engineering excess!»
Showroom-stock two thousand to two thousand six Lincoln LS sedans did not typically spark such sultry thoughts. Sharing the DEW98 platform and engines with a forgettable Jaguar in Ford`s ill-fated Premium Auto Group (and in 2002-05 with the flaccid revival of the two-seat boulevardier Ford Thunderbird), the Lincoln LS was supposed to make a generation of youthfull Europhiles leave behind about decades of Continental Mark-series mobile isolation chambers.
Albeit the LS triggered a round of nasty attorney letters inbetween Toyota and Ford over whether anyone would confuse it with Lexus LS400s, the car did too little to wiggle youthful junior executives and fashion-plates out of their 5-series BMWs. In an age when average soccer moms dreamed high-riding equipment for the Rubicon trail, and dads dreamed to pretend the daily traffic jam was on the King Ranch, the underpowered Lincoln LS just never broke through the clutter. Then, as part of Ford`s «Way Forward,» the no-fun committee bureaucrats and penny-pinching bean counters killed it in favor of a cheaper, V8-less, front-wheel-drive Ford platform.
An LS was not David Norton`s very first choice for a souped-up Lincoln. Norton, proprietor of SPEC Clutch in Bessemer, Alabama, has a history of building hot road-course metal, including a wide-body Porsche nine hundred forty four turbo, a 700-horsepower Nissan 240, and an identically powerful BMW 135. Yet his initial conception for a «hot rod Lincoln» trended more toward Kennedy Continentals. «I sought but could not find a decent mid-‘60s coupe,» Norton reported.
Norton switched his attention to the lithe Lincoln LS. Norton admired the lines of Helmuth Schrader`s German-inspired design. «These chassis have a good wheelbase and rigidity for treating fatter power, and feature a 50/50 weight distribution,» Norton explained. Another advantage was that Norton found a one-of-2,331 LS tooled with a Getrag two hundred twenty one five-speed manual transmission, which diminished the amount of fabrication necessary to fit the TKO600 gearbox behind the turbocharged Terminator DOHC V8 that the car should have had to embark with.
An old friend who had been part of a defunct effort to campaign a Lincoln LS in Sports Car Club of America World Challenge racing supplied the final parts of the design. Norton took some cracked, one-off fiberglass assets components and T-shirt monogram artwork left over from the racing project, and had the wide-body design revamped for molding in featherweight carbon fiber. Norton`s team added a fresh carbon fiber rubber hood, doors, bumpers and side skirts to accomplish «what we imagined a race car would look like.»
The final result is sexier than anything Bill Stroppe, Fran Hernandez, and Clay Smith came up with back when Ford could be bothered to actually race Lincolns. «It is very reliable and treats power better than ever imagined,» Norton said. «It is effortless to drive, gets excellent fuel mileage, and is convenient. Just what one would expect from a Lincoln.» It is an «if only» car indeed – with no Mathew McConaughey stream of consciousness existentialism necessary.
Tech Notes
Who: David Norton
What: two thousand two Lincoln LS
Where: Bessemer, AL
Engine: Woodstock, Ontario, Canada`s Sean Hyland literally wrote the book on Modular Ford V8 spectacle (How to Build Max-Performance Four.6-Liter Ford Engines (Cartech, 2003)), so when Norton determined to consign the powerless Jaguar AJ Trio.0 V6 to the wastelands, Sean Hyland Motorsports (SHM) got the call. In the end, SHM supplied a balanced 0.020-over Ford Terminator DOHC V8, displacing two hundred eighty three cubic inches. A quartet of SMH two thousand seven hundred twenty three camshafts, featuring 0.482/0.470 lift and 225/235 degrees of duration at 0.050-inch, conduct the battle symphony from atop ported SHM race four-valve goes with 52cc chambers. From the inwards, the SHM Terminator block houses an OEM forged Ford crankshaft, Manley Pro Series I-beam rods, and boost-friendly Manley 11cc dish pistons. ARP head studs pinch down MLS head gaskets from the rebellion of twenty five pounds of turbo boost. A mid-frame Borg Warner S400 75mm turbocharger, exhaling into a Sullivan EFI intake manifold brings Norton`s Terminator one step closer to serious horsepower. Cracking the habit of detonation, boost is chilled through a custom-made charge air cooler based on a Spearco core. Custom-made stainless steel 1.5-inch primary headers supply spent gas drive to the turbo. A Big Stuff three engine controller barks electronic orders to ID1050x injectors, dual Turbosmart Compgate forty wastegates, and crank-triggered LSx coils on MSD Power Grid brackets. NGK TR6 spark ass-plugs touch off the power making conflagrations. With an Evans water pump, SPAL dual 11-inch electrical fans, and a Mocal oil cooler, Norton is less likely to burn it all down. Squishing unwanted sounds are a pair of Borla Shootout mufflers on Trio.5-inch stainless steel harass pipes.
Transmission: Norton pulled a SPEC PT Trim Super Twin clutch and SPEC forged billet aluminum flywheel from his company`s stock and surrounded them with a Quicktime bellhousing. The SPEC clutch feeds the outpouring of SHM turbo power to a Pro Maneuverability TKO six hundred five-speed manual transmission, into a Driveshaft Services custom-built 4-inch driveshaft.
Rearend: Instead of waiting for the end of the light duty, OEM independent rear suspension, Norton had Barry Trivette and Harry Robinson of Robinson Racing Enterprises fabricate a custom-made four-link and Panhard bar, and fit in a lightweight Moser 9-inch Ford axle. The husky axle contains Three.50:1 final drive and hardened Moser axles.
Suspension: QA-1 Coilovers suspend all four corners of Norton`s Lincoln. Spherical links and polyurethane bushings hard up the OEM front and rear sway bars. The balance of the suspension and steering are Lincoln Wixom factory-issue.
Wheels/Tires: Stanley Chen of Toyo Tires supplied broad Toyo Proxes T1R tires in 235/35R19 (front) and 315/25R19 (rear) sizes to Norton`s wide-body project. Vincent Wong of I-Forged Wheels provided I-Forged Fortune Nineteen×9.Five and Nineteen×12 wheels to substitute the spindly 17×7 Lincoln LS stockers.
Paint/Figure: Lincoln ran out of clever names for the clearcoat black hue that cloaks the iridescent, custom-built dry carbon fiber broad figure built by Goolsby Customs of Bessemer, AL. No castle of glass, the LS dry carbon fiber assets parts are as much as 70% lighter than even lightweight moist carbon fiber without leaving out any strength. Goolsby Customs relocated the rear door jams to fit the Lincoln`s fresh broad look. A Fuel Safe fuel cell with a Sparco locking fuel door keeps the hydrocarbons-in-waiting secure.
Interior: Most «if only» enthusiasts will view the inwards of Norton`s Lincoln as «somewhere I belong.» Augmenting the factory Lincoln leather-lined luxury is a custom-made Dakota Digital instrument package integrated into the OEM cluster. A Clarion NX706 head unit with an Arc Audio XDi 1200.6 amplifier, Arc Audio 6.Two and Five.Two components and two Arc Audio XDi 12D4 subwoofers, helping the listeners go numb. Danny Smith of Bessemer, AL treated the wiring. An Optima Yellow Top battery and a one thousand nine hundred ninety nine SVT Cobra alternator liberate the juice for the entertainment system.
Spectacle: The potency of Norton`s Lincoln LS is not for the faint, with nine hundred horsepower at Five,800 rpm and eight hundred twenty five lbs/ft of torque at Five,500 rpm available at the wheels. Off-boost fuel economy checks in with a miserly seventeen city/26 highway mpg. Top speed is haul limited to an estimated two hundred mph.