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Steve: In this day and age with the world wide web and good reference books things have changed in many respects.

I have seen some called experts on certain subject matter
aren't what they claim to be when some careful research is made into the claims they make.

In this case Mr. Blend may very well be an expert on 34 Packard V12's and written two books. However for him to make the statement that the 58 Lincoln was based on the styling of the Predictor is only speculation on his part with no hard facts.

John F. Shireman

Someone correct me. I thot Chrysler went to UNIT BODY CONSTRUCTION across ALL passenger car product lines in 1958?

1980's and EARLIER:

Tastes not withstanding, i doubt that ANY manufacturer in the world ever built a car that comes anywhere near the Cadillac in terms of STRUCTURAL STRENGTH and durabilty to withstand severe driving abuse, conditions and demands.

Most people such as doctors, lawyers, CEOs and the People Magazine crowd tend to buy according to trend or what ever Hollywood is pushing this year.

The true test is to look at car owners who drive out across an oil field, across a backwoods air strip, across the desert at 100-110 mph ALL DAY LONG, pulling and airstream thru the rockies and other such demands that i doubt very seriously any MB, BMW, LIncoln or Imperial could withstand mile after mile after mile......

Possible exception would be the BIG Buicks.

No doubt the Cadillac was an excellent car with a creamy smooth boulevard ride. But they were nervous at speeds above 70 and a handful above 80.

As an old friend and long time Chrysler owner said "with a Chrysler you never had to back off".

If I had to chose a car for high speed work in the late 50s the best available was the 57 or 58 Chrysler New Yorker or Imperial with deep breathing hemi v8, torsion bar suspension and Torqueflite transmission.

For the real travelling man Chrysler offered the 300D. This was a genuine 5 passenger luxury car with over 400HP, that would do 145 MPH and came with all luxury features like air, leather, power accessories and so forth.

Today's luxury cars don't offer much more speed and the contemporary Cadillac was a good 20MPH slower.

A 56 Packard would be a close second to the Chrysler. Their torsion bar suspension was even better than Chrysler's. I suspect for high speed work the 2 speed tranny was a drawback and I'm not sure about the engines, given what I have read here about oil pump and lifter hassles.

This is all speculation on my part. It is interesting to reflect on the range of choices a luxury car buyer had in the fifties. And how little progress we have made.

If the Plymouth Plainsman had the Predictor rear window in 1956, well so did the Predictor, and going the correct direction with the retracting rear window. Also the Packard Balboa had that rear window in 1953. So I don't see how it could be copied from Plymouth the same year the Predictor was out.

Also the 1958 Lincolns were supposed to be based on the Lincoln LaTosca concept car, however, if you look at a 1958 Lincoln, you can see influences from both the LaTosca and the Predictor in it. While the basic design for the 1958 Lincoln would have been well underway by the time any Packard employees got there, there still would have been time for adding touches like the Predictor roof and other cues here and there.

And while Packard may have dropped their six cylinder, Cadillac never even had one in the 1930's or 40's, and even LaSalle didn't either. And Packard did not have a V-8 when that was a very important buzzword in the late 1940's and early 1950's. Especially since you could even get one in a low price Ford.

And again, while Chrysler had unit body construction for Plymouth, Dodge, and Chrysler, Imperial remained body on frame from 1957-1966. They specifically insisted on body on frame for the Imperial to provide more structural integrity and a better ride for their premium car.

Here's an interesting promo film from 1958. Watch the Cadillac and Buick fly to pieces trying to keep up with the Chrysler.

You will have to follow all 8 segments to get the full story.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YBNWBHYp41w

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Which is exactly why Ford still uses body on frame construction for the Lincoln Town Car and the Ford Crown Vic. Everything else (trucks excluded) is unit body, which is the crappiest way to build a car, IMHO.

That may be why the construction was used initially, but it's used now because Ford sees no reason to spend serious money on redesigning these cash cow vehicles.

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I would hope they have something very serious besides a new fender or fancy interior in the works & taken more than just passing notice of their brothers across town.

Granted, the new(er) management seemed to have had a bit more foresight than others but the simple fact is Ford's in debt up to the tip of the nose. Todays cash cows possibly being tomorrows albatross should haunt them. There was a bit in the news today about GMs new board ordering the respective divisions to speed up the new car intros so that ought to be causing a bit of thought.

They may be selling Fusions today but how many Fusions does a Town Car make when it comes to $$. The standby Crown Vic police car isn't seen that often out here lately & in what seemed to be the pickup capitol of the world with one in every other driveway, those also seem to have dropped off quite a bit.

Ford looked at discontinuing EN114 platform a while ago and decided to keep it on even though it was lower volume because it could be profitable so long as investment was minimized. You know the demographics on these cars. There were some suspension upgrades a while back but no big changes.