Kim Jong Il Funeral Limos THE EPITOME of Capitalist Excess: '75 Lincoln Continental (!)

Reaganite Republican ^ | December 29, 2011 | Reaganite Republican

[Reaganite Republican]

Towering hypocrisy right to the end...

A number of news reports coming out of North Korea today purport the American-looking cars at the head of the Kim Jong Il funeral procession to be 'Russian limos'... but the first point of note would be that such cars were only manufactured in the Soviet era: the GAZ Chaika has been out of production for decades, and ZiL only recently made/restored a single old-style limousine to custom Kremlin order- an open parade-car looking nothing like the car above.

And as one personally familiar with all these designs (have touched and sat in every type of Russian limo ever made), I can assure you the USSR produced no model with the appearance of the cars seen in the DPRK over the last few days-  they have never even shown a prototype with hidden headlights with this sort of appearance.

But to look at the pics emanating out of Pyongyang yesterday, the large cars in the Kim Jong Il procession are plainly a mid-70s Lincoln -some of the largest, most indulgently over-the-top Detroit barges to ever hit the street- as the front clip is unlike any Soviet (or other) car (large US-reg 5mph bumper, for one), yet a dead-ringer for the FoMoCo products' stance and lines in the mid 1970s. 

At first I thought 'That could never be!', Uncle Henry's velour-lined, 460 V-8 Detroit luxo-barges put on front-line display at a state funeral in the mostly harshly anti-capitalist Stalinist regime on the planet... but how the hell would the average North Korean know the diff? They've probably never even heard of a Lincoln Continental. All the regime had to do is take the badges off and lie about it... just like how they claim in propaganda designed for domestic consumption that the Pyongyang Metro is 'all their own' DPRK tech when it's a common knowledge everywhere else that they bought the (outdated) trains and control systems from East Germany back in the early 90s.

But the Norks couldn't even be bothered to scrape up a couple cars not so symbolically American and loudly bourgeois...? I know they're broke in North Korea, but the Chinese make big, tacky cars- couldn't they borrow a couple of their commie-fake-Rolls limos from the embassy? Shows you how stupid they their own people are, and they're probably right because they made them that way: must really be giving those poor saps the mushroom treatment over there if they've never heard Hot Rod Lincoln before (!).

On top of all that, the old man Kim Il Sun led his final, glorious march to the mausoleum in what appeared to be a Lincoln limo as well... right down to the oh-so-Detroit-70s 'opera windows' (covered this time).... this is in all likelihood the same car, broke out of storage:

Kim Il Sung 1994 funeral procession

Kim Il Sung 1994 funeral procession

Compare that the Kim Jong Il funeral procession yesterday as 

shown on North Korean state television...

[YouTube]

Video/more at Reaganite Republican

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Pyongyang Metro   BBC   Yahoo   The Australian   FoMoCo

[Safetgiver]

Also used in my ‘64 Ford Galaxy. Man can it fly!.

[6SJ7]

Can't you just feel the oppression in those photos.

Right down to the monochromatic monotoney of the clothing, cars, and scenery.

[Reaganite Republican]

They are saying he’s trying to emulate the GRANDFATHER with the high-n-tight haircut and clothing is what I read.

Kim Jong Il was not popular in reality, and they are trying to revive a retro, glory days feeling for the son

[Reaganite Republican]

Cleveland’s are the same block as the 460?

News to me... and my dad worked at Cleveland Engine in Brookpark for 35 years

[Smokin' Joe]

The FE block series included the 352, 360, 390, and 428. IIRC, the 460 was a different design, and superior to the 400 modified (which stunk for northern latitudes).

I never built a 351, but I have built FE block engines, mostly 390s.

[smokingfrog]

Kim was an Elvis fan, and Elvis owned a few Lincolns, so it makes sense that he might have collected a few of them over the years.

[Reaganite Republican]

I really never thought about that angle, hmmm

The hair AND the car, Kim Jong El

lol

[Reaganite Republican]

Well, don’t count on the Taepodong 2 to keep you company, ‘Lonesome’- you’re beyond range lol

[ExCTCitizen]

LINCOLN new slogan.. yes, we’ll even drive COMMIES to their graves

[Hootowl99]

“That would be FORD’s FE engine, replaced in the mid 70s by the 335 ( 351 ) Cleveland engine, and the 385 engine family.”

Yeah, the 460 continued into the 80’s sometime in trucks. I had one in a heavy duty 1978 F-150 that was rated for 10K lb towing. 12 mpg in town, 12 mpg empty on the highway and 12 mpg towing 5000 lb of full keeled sailboat on the highway. It just loafed along. Also, as a heavy duty truck engine, it was exempt from the whacked out air pump, cat converter, etc. pollution control stuff that killed the big V8s in automobiles

In 1969 I was in high school and a friend's mother was hauling several of us in her new Continental to a school extracurricular thing about 120 miles away in NW Oklahoma. While on a 60 mile straight stretch of US highway, I was in the back seat and looked over the front seat and saw she had the cruise control on at 110 mph. No sensation at all of the speed in that big barge.

[Hootowl99]

“Also used in my ‘64 Ford Galaxy. Man can it fly!.”

I didn't recall the 460 being in Galaxy 500’s but doesn't surprise me. We had 1968 or 69 Ford LTD loaded up with a 428CJ engine, police special package. My step dad was a deputy sheriff and it was his work car.

[Safetgiver]

Put the 460 in myself. Lot of chopping, but..