Found in the Wild: LTD Power

Kids these days have no idea how good they have it. I constantly hear people complaining about how slow and laggardly the Subaro BRZ is with it's "paltry" 200 horsepower and 7-second 0-60 time. Well listen here you little shits. In 1978, Ferraris had about the same performance and horsepower of that there BRZ. To prove my point, here is a 1978 Ford LTD.

Cars were pretty much unanimously slow between 1975 and 1983. The federal government introduced strict emissions and fuel economy standards and automakers struggled literally for decades to get power and drivability back to where they were in 1970. Our featured LTD sports a 5.8 litre V8 that pumps out 150 wheezing horsepower. It's saving grace was the 290 lb/ft of torque that was really just a byproduct of such a large engine.

Ford made tons of LTD's in the 70's but this particular car is quite rare. That's because this maroon beauty is a two door. It's a sports barge! And check out the cool little window and crest embedded into the B-pillar. The vinyl roof was de-riguer for luxury cars of the 70's.

The LTD is covered with cool, ornate faux luxury touches. It was a lot easier for manufacturers to build luxury than performance in the depths of the malaise era. Cars like this sucked gas, wallowed everywhere and speared pedestrians on their guilded hood ornaments. The cars of today could never have upright grills or big chrome bumpers to mow down poor people. That day is gone forever.

These cars are fantastically affordable. You can find LTD's and other 70's luxo barges for sale any day of the week in mint condition for only $2-3k. Yeah they handle like a waterbed and accelerate like cold molasses down a hill but do you really care when you look so cocaine fabulous?