At nearly 233 inches long, the 1977 Lincoln Continental Town Car was the largest mass-produced car sold anywhere in the world that year, beaten only by hand-built limousines almost nobody actually owned. It arrived just before Detroit abandoned cars of this size for good. Here’s what made this generation the last of its kind, and what was actually under the hood of the biggest sedan money could buy.
The Lincoln is the largest mass produced automobile anywhere, at two hundred thirty-three and seven-tens inches or 593.598 cm, it is imposing. It  is only surpassed in size by 2 or 3 European ultra-luxurious, but these are larger capacity limousines and have very low production numbers. The only competitor left here, Cadillac is now smaller and will permanently change the meaning of luxurious transportation. The new Mark V, the Town Car or the Continental are the body styles available in ’77. When the last of this generation Lincoln, left the assembly plant, in 1979, it marked the end of an era that equated large automobiles with wealth prestige, luxury and power. The base engine for 1977 is the small block 400-2V,  but in all states except California the 460 big block with a 4 barrel carburetor is still an option.
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By 1977, one American sedan had grown so large it was outsized only by hand-built limousines that most people will never see in person, let alone drive. The Lincoln Continental Town Car stretched nearly 233 inches bumper to bumper, a length that made it the largest mass-produced automobile sold anywhere in the world that year. It arrived at a strange moment in Detroit’s history, the moment right before the entire industry decided cars this size no longer made sense. Cadillac, its only real domestic rival in this space, had already started shrinking. Lincoln hadn’t gotten the memo yet, or maybe it just wasn’t ready to let go. What was it actually like to be the last car standing at the top of the size chart?
The Last of the Truly Giant American Sedans
When the final example of this generation rolled off the line in 1979, it closed out an era that had equated a big car with wealth, prestige, and comfort for the better part of three decades. The ’77 lineup offered the Town Car alongside the Mark V coupe and the Continental sedan, all riding the same enormous platform, with a 127.2-inch wheelbase supporting a body that weighed nearly 4,880 pounds in Town Car trim. Lincoln built 191,355 of these cars for the model year, proof that even as the size wars were ending, plenty of buyers still wanted the biggest car money could buy.
Big-Block Standard Everywhere Except California
Standard power for ’77 came from the 460 cubic-inch big-block, a four-barrel V8 rated at 208 horsepower and stout enough to move nearly two and a half tons of American steel without complaint. The exception was California, where emissions rules forced Lincoln to substitute a smaller 400-cubic-inch V8 making 179 horsepower, adequate for a car this size but noticeably less muscular than what buyers in the other 49 states got standard. That California carve-out says a lot about where the industry was headed: emissions rules were already starting to close the door on big-inch engines, even before downsizing closed the door on big bodies.
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