Lincoln MKT Concept
Being a Lincoln family member, this cousin to the Ford Flex crossover isn??™t the kind of vehicle we would expect to get overly excited about.
But the Lincoln MKT concept at the North American International Auto Show is a pleasant surprise. For starters, chief designer Peter Horbury and his team have crafted a vehicle that won??™t be mistaken for the boxy Flex, given the Lincoln??™s curves, rear bustle, glass roof, futuristic interior, and now-signature split-wing chrome grille.
What impresses us most is the interior. This is a concept, with four business-class pedestal seats featuring decadent amounts of legroom, and because they only use two rows in a platform designed for a three-row vehicle, the cargo hold is also ample. To carve up the real estate, there is a series of power-actuated longitudinal rails that rise from the floor to create compartments from the flat load floor.
The carpet is woven banana silk, made from banana-tree leaves and bark. Banana silk is affordable ???for a Lincoln,??? Horbury says.
Second-row passengers can deploy the footrests embedded in the backs of the front seats, much like first-class reclining seats in an airplane, and the thigh supports come heated and cooled. After all, the ???T??? in the name is for ???Touring.???
For one of the nicest interior door handles you??™ll ever see, check out the one-piece sculpted chrome pieces with baroque engraving. Horbury says they even have a chance at making it into the production vehicle.
A three-dimensional contoured surface for the center stack and patented lighting technology are used to project information onto a smoky surface. Flat touch screens already are becoming the norm today, Horbury says, prompting the need for something newer and more innovative??”hence, a touch screen much like the one on the iPhone. The center console tracks back to the rear seats, and LEDs in the three instrument gauges add a touch of class.
The glass roof will make it to the production model, Horbury says. The MKT also has a thick C-pillar for limousine-like privacy and exotic-car blind spots, and the concept rides on 21-inch wheels.
On the ecofriendly side, the MKT has a 3.5-liter flex-fuel V-6 engine with EcoBoost, Ford??™s way of saying it utilizes turbocharging and direct injection. The twin-turbo gasoline engine offers up 415 horsepower and 400 pound-feet of torque, substantially higher than the 340 horsepower and 340 pound-feet found in the MKS flagship sedan, which uses the same engine minus E85 capability.
The crossover has a six-speed automatic transmission, all-wheel drive, and an independent rear suspension.
Continuing the eco-theme, Sabic Innovative Plastics turned recycled pop bottles into materials that have been incorporated into the body panels, wire bundles, and glazes. The leather is chromium-free, and the trim is reconstituted wood.
The Lincoln MKT is slated for production on the same platform as the Flex and will be manufactured in the same assembly plant in Oakville, Ontario, likely by 2010.
The production version would offer three rows of seats, similar to the Flex, with the third row not ???full??? seating, Horbury tells us. And although the two-row model was designed to show where Lincoln can take luxury, a production four-seater is also a possibility. The slim cantilevered seats of the concept represent an area the automaker is working on: smaller seats for increasingly smaller cars. But part of the challenge is that these seats are so different from the status quo that they would upset the economies of scale enjoyed now.
The new Lincoln crossover is not meant to replace the Lincoln Navigator full-size SUV, Horbury says. The idea would be to have a Lincoln buyer move from the MKX to the MKT and then into a Navigator.
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