Lincoln Towncar Coupe 1978 images

The 1978 Lincoln Continental Town Coupe offered Ford’s largest available engine that year, a 460 cubic inch V8 making 210 horsepower — the last model year Lincoln offered it before dropping the option for 1979. Despite weighing over 4,600 pounds and costing nearly $10,000 new, the Town Coupe was outsold roughly five to one by Cadillac’s Coupe de Ville. A leisurely 11.6-second run to 60 mph made clear this was a cruiser built for comfort, not stoplight bragging rights. Surviving examples with the big-block intact are increasingly rare finds today.

1978 Lincoln Town Coupe 460 CID V8 Automatic

MCF thanks Gateway Classic Cars for the images provided here.

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By 1978, Lincoln was selling roughly one two-door Continental for every five Cadillac Coupe de Villes rolling out of showrooms, and the reason had almost nothing to do with the engine bolted under that enormous hood. This Town Coupe carries Ford’s biggest available V8 that year, a 460 cubic inch giant that had already been marked for extinction by the time this car left the factory. Buyers who chose it got a car pushing past two tons, wearing a price tag nearly $10,000 before options — real money in 1978. What they didn’t get was much urgency: this thing needed nearly 12 seconds just to reach 60 mph. So why did anyone choose the underdog over Cadillac’s best-seller that year?

The Last Year for Lincoln’s Biggest V8

The 460 cubic inch (459.8 ci) 385-series V8 in this Town Coupe used a Motorcraft 4350 four-barrel carburetor to make 210 horsepower at 4,200 rpm and 357 lb-ft of torque at a low 2,200 rpm, paired with a 3-speed automatic. For 1978, the smaller 400 became Lincoln’s standard engine, with the 460 offered as an option — its final year of availability before Ford discontinued it for 1979, making this one of the last Lincolns built with Ford’s largest V8 under the hood.

A Land Yacht That Lost the Sales War

Despite the imposing engine, the Town Coupe found only 20,977 buyers in 1978 — less than a fifth of what Cadillac’s Coupe de Ville managed the same year. The car weighed in at 4,659 pounds and started at $9,974 before options. Performance numbers matched its mission: 0-60 mph in 11.6 seconds, a quarter mile in 18.6 seconds at 78 mph, and a top speed around 116 mph. This was never meant to be quick — it was meant to float, and today surviving examples with their original big-block intact are an increasingly rare find.

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