In the early and mid-2000s, Ford came out with a series of V10-powered show cars that presaged a new, twin-cam engine from the automaker. The Shelby Cobra and GR-1 and the Ford 427 concepts showed that the Blue Oval was serious about building a world-class performance motor that could be as sporty and aggressive as it was aspirational and luxurious. But the 40-valve V10 never happened until one insane enterprising YouTube channel decided to build its own from a Ford Triton V10 and a custom top end. Better still, the engine Ford should’ve built also ended up in the car it should’ve built: a customized rear-wheel-drive Lincoln Continental.
The Engine Build Became A Custom Job
The folks at Build It Yourself have been working on the four-valve V10 project for months now, as explained in the video below. Starting with a 6.8-liter Triton V10 that was available in the Ford E-Series, Excursion, and F-Series Super Duty, they attempted to cobble together cylinder heads by cutting apart ones from an SN95 Mustang Cobra, which came with four valves per cylinder. However, when those units couldn’t stand up to the pressure, the fellas had to build completely new heads in-house, since no local machine shops would take up the challenge. In the process, BIY also put some high-lift cams on the engine, theoretically enabling a 7,000-rpm redline.
The custom intake manifold and equal-length headers also promise an incredible soundtrack to go along with their deep breathing, and the engine makes good once it’s hooked up to a test stand and fired for the first time. With all that personality and custom fabrication on hand, one might expect Build It Yourself to select an appropriately sporty platform for its V10 creation, like an old Mustang, a Shelby Cobra replica, or even a luxed-up Lincoln Town Car. Instead, the garage bought a wrecked Lincoln Continental, the Taurus-based one from 2017-2020 that looked great but was hamstrung by ho-hum, front-drive–biased dynamics.
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The engine is still in stock form but a boost is on the way.
The Lincoln Conti Got Torn Apart And Rebuilt Too
It wouldn’t stay that way for long. After removing frame rails, cutting out the firewall, and ripping up the floor, the YouTube channel installed the front and rear subframes from an S550 Ford Mustang, meaning this V10 Conti would be rear-wheel drive. The custom-fabricated transmission tunnel made space for a six-speed manual, turning the Lincoln into an Americanized E60 BMW M5, with a heavy-breathing V10 sending power to the rear wheels via a firm handshake from the driver.
In its latest video, Build It Yourself gets the Lincoln on the road for the first time. The car is far from finished – it doesn’t even have any front-end bodywork and the channel wants to imitate the stock interior as closely as possible. But riding on custom-milled 20-inch wheels that ape the originals and sporting the massive brake setup from a Ford Mustang Shelby GT500, it looks mean and menacing. After finishing a long list of final tasks, the car springs to life and idles down the driveway before its builders get brave enough to hit the road. We won’t spoil the ending, but grab yourself a beverage of choice and crank up some good speakers. Your ears will thank you.
Source: Build It Yourself on YouTube
#Lincoln #Continental #Common #E60 #BMW
