77.18 --> 77.66
So here we are in a night time or twilight drive , the 71 marquee Brome , all the cars I have , I think this one would be the hardest one honestly , for me to give up .
Is it the best style or the one that people are going to gravitate toward the most at car shows ?
Actually , this car does get quite a few looks at car shows , but maybe not .
But in terms of just an overall driving experience sitting in these twin comfort lounge seats and this car only has 18,000 miles on it .
It just is sublime , so quiet .
You know , we're going 50 some miles an hour , just absolutely smooth .
You can see the turn signal there and it's just the most enjoyable ride .
I mean , this is a terrible road that I'm turning onto here with tons of expansion joints and you feel nothing , you hear nothing .
It just doesn't get better than this .
Nothing in the modern day really soaks up these roads like this .
Not even Mercedes or BMW s the tire side walls are so thin now that they can't , this car just has 15 inch rims .
So the side wall .
The tire is enormous but just a wonderful driving machine .
This car does have the 429 2 barrel .
The a premium fuel , high compression has 320 gross horsepower .
The four barrel was 360 gross horsepower and you know it be easy to put a four barrel on .
But I'm telling you this two barrel is very enjoyable .
It actually feels happier than the four barrel for .
You're just driving around town .
And yeah , it does lack a little top end power , but it's no slouch .
This car also does have the cross country ride package , which was the firm ride package .
It was originally from Alberta and I bought it from an owner in Saskatchewan out on the Prairies in Canada , had it shipped to Toronto where I then trailed it across the border and imported it to the US .
So the gentleman's address that I bought it from , there was no address .
Actually , it was a series of meridian coordinates that that was his address .
He was out on the prairies in Saskatchewan .
So obviously it wasn't used very much .
It was owned by a farmer and he drove his truck most of the time and this was just kind of a Sunday car if you will .
And everything on this car is just about perfect .
The interior is perfect .
I mean , steering wheel is perfect and beautiful as a rim blow , you pinch it and it honks with this cross country package .
It actually handles decently well .
And this is an enormous vehicle before we did this platform in 69 made it bigger .
Mercury's gained an inch in wheel base to 124 .
The Fords gained two inches to 121 inch wheel base .
The Lincoln's gained an inch to 127 .
And I think , you know , 71 is just a great year for these cars .
It's a relatively rare year for them .
But these premium 429 S and 460 s were blueprinted balanced .
And you know , the regular fuel 429 S and 460 s that came after them are smooth , but they aren't this smooth this car , if it's tuned correctly , it almost feels like the engine .
I mean , people always say it's so smooth .
The engine doesn't even seem like it's running .
It's absolutely true .
In this car you cannot , you really cannot discern the engines running .
You got to listen really hard before you key the starter again because you risk keying it when it's already running .
And this car fortunately still has the factory single exhaust .
You can't buy exhaust this quiet anymore and it has no holes in it and it's just absolutely silent .
You hear nothing mean all you hear from the engine is kind of a gentle worrying sound .
You don't hear any rumble , nothing , no rumble .
At all inside this car .
I will be sad one day when I have to replace that exhaust .
What do you expect ?
The car is 51 years old now .
Wonderfully cold air conditioning .
It's a cold fall day here , so I don't , don't need it , but something about twilight drives in these cars is just so relaxing .
The green lighting of the instrument , the quietness , the smell in the air .
This brings back great memories .
The smell of the interior , even kind of the 50 year old new car smell that this car still has .
Amazingly is my favorite time to drive .
These just everything is perfect .
The only thing that I could complain about in this car really is , you know , the steering is still slow .
It's a Ford steering gear which they were slow .
I prefer the GM and Chrysler steering gears .
It's not bad though .
It's not horrible .
It's just I think 20 to 1 ratio as opposed to GM , which was an average of around , it was a variable ratio gear , I think 15 to 17 to one or 14 to 17 to one .
Chrysler was 15 to 16 to one .
So this requires more spinning of the wheel .
But aside from that , maybe you detect in some of these forward rear ends , very slight winding at different speeds .
I really have not detected wines in any GM rear differential that I've had .
So , I mean , I'm nitpicking here really did .
But other than that nothing to really complain about .
And this road is terrible and it's barely upsetting the cabin in any case .
I hope you enjoyed this brief video of a twilight drive in the 71 marquee Brome .
I have to say if you get a chance , if you've been watching the channel , you know that Mercury are my favorite .
And I've got a 72 Continental .
This car drives better than the 72 continental .
The Continental has lower miles than this .
That's that the Continental drives poorly .
I just think it's got too much weight , too much wheel base .
You go over some bad roads and you feel a little bit more bumps , still very well isolated .
But this car is just right and the interior trim is so expensive .
The Continental even has hard plastic on the door trim in some places that there's not a piece of hard plastic on this entire door panel in .
This car is very rich and luxurious .
71 2 only .
They would go to the Ford Common dashboard in 73 the door panels weren't quite as nice then any case .
Thanks for watching .
Hope you enjoyed until next time .
Take care .