Luxury is not just leather and wood trim. Luxury is also power. The power to know what’s going on in front of, around, and behind your car via cameras. The power to stay connected with the people you love while on the go through a Bluetooth phone connection. In the case of this custom Lincoln Town Car, luxury is also power in the purest sense of the word: tire-melting, smoke-generating, Earth-turning force. And that power is abundant.
A creative, talented, and patient man by the name of Zack on TheChicagoGarage.com decided to put a Mustang Cobra motor into a 1993 version of Lincoln’s luxury barge.
As you can imagine, it wasn’t just as easy as making a choice. Zack had to make a lot more than just that. He said, “I knew I wouldn’t be using the pcm controlled fan, so I scoured the interet looking for the solution. What an epic win….Use a BMW dual temp switch with a 94-97 T-Bird Fan, custom mounted to a 95 Bronco Radiator. And to control it all, a Volvo 2 speed relay.” Zack assembled his intake from off-the-shelf parts. Instead of buying an aftermarket transmission cooler, Zack used hardware from two junkyard Ford Explorers.
He needed as much cooling as possible because his Lincoln’s Cobra motor strikes with red-hot supercharged force. With e85 fuel running through its veins, it spits out 700 horsepower and 606 pound-feet of torque – at the rear 19-inch Mustang wheels.
Derek Shiekhi's father raised him on cars. As a boy, Derek accompanied his dad as he bought classics such as post-WWII GM trucks and early Ford Mustang convertibles.
After loving cars for years and getting a bachelor's degree in Business Management, Derek decided to get an associate degree in journalism. His networking put him in contact with the editor of the Austin-American Statesman newspaper, who hired him to write freelance about automotive culture and events in Austin, Texas in 2013. One particular story led to him getting a certificate for learning the foundations of road racing.
While watching TV with his parents one fateful evening, he saw a commercial that changed his life. In it, Jeep touted the Wrangler as the Texas Auto Writers Association's "SUV of Texas." Derek knew he had to join the organization if he was going to advance as an automotive writer. He joined the Texas Auto Writers Association (TAWA) in 2014 and was fortunate to meet several nice people who connected him to the representatives of several automakers and the people who could give him access to press vehicles (the first one he ever got the keys to was a Lexus LX 570). He's now a regular at TAWA's two main events: the Texas Auto Roundup in the spring and the Texas Truck Rodeo in the fall.
Over the past several years, Derek has learned how to drive off-road in various four-wheel-drive SUVs (he even camped out for two nights in a Land Rover), and driven around various tracks in hot hatches, muscle cars, and exotics. Several of his pieces, including his article about the 2015 Ford F-150 being crowned TAWA's 2014 "Truck of Texas" and his review of the Alfa Romeo 4C Spider, have won awards in TAWA's annual Excellence in Craft Competition. Last year, his JK Forum profile of Wagonmaster, a business that restores Jeep Wagoneers, won prizes in TAWA’s signature writing contest and its pickup- and SUV-focused Texas Truck Invitational.
