A Lincoln Town Car stretched limousine, seen in Tai’an in Shandong Province in the summer of 2018. The enormous machine was in a great shape and perfectly maintained. The white paint looked as new and the chrome bits were as shiny as ever.
The Town Car belonged to a car-rental shop and was available for weddings and other horrible days in life. It was stretched by about four meters in the middle, with 3 vertical chrome strips on the BCD pillars. The wheels were factory original and were in great condition too. The vinyl roof was of a slightly darker shade of white, slightly faded, but that is to be expected.
It is a Lincoln so it had a keyless entry pad on the passenger door, above the door handle. To open it, the driver needs a keypad door code. It was a smart solution for folks who lost their key, or who, for reasons their own, didn’t like to carry a key in their pocket. But it just looked so ugly.
The interior was slightly reworked. The seats were covered in a fiery red shade of leather. I had a similar color in my Jeep. It was a popular after-market interior color in China. And for a wedding car it makes a lot of romantic sense.
The rest of the interior was red too. It even had red carpets. The drinks cabinet seems period original.
The bench for the bride.
The third generation Lincoln Town Car was made from 1997 until 2011. Power came from a 4.6 liter V8 with 235 hp and 386 Nm. The motor was mated to a 4-speed automatic.
US-market license plate area is too small for Chinese plate.
The Lincoln Town Car was not officially sold in China at the time, but many cars arrived via the gray market. And Hongqi assembled a rebadged version for the Chinese market called the Qijian CA7460. The stretched limousines were mainly bought by Chinese wedding companies and hotels. Even now, quite a few are still around. But just a tiny few are in a shape as great as this one in Tai’an. Hopefully it’ll see many happy marriages more.