Ford's Wixom plant ceased operations today after 50 years of building Lincolns. So while my '66 Thunderbird is now something of an orphan, I'm wondering more about the future of three very old vehicles that still bring in pretty good business for Ford.

We're talking about the Town Car, and its platform-sharing Ford Crown Vic and Mercury Grand Marquis. The Town Car, now that Wixom is out of business, is being moved to St. Thomas, Ontario - the plant where the latter two cars already are built. The problem is, Ford's still yet to announce what it will close in a final phase of its Way Forward - and St. Thomas is on that list of potential closures.

We know a little bit about the arguments within Ford to kill all three. They're fleet sellers, which means low profits, and designing a new platform only for the trio is financially out of the question. So if the circle of options only includes North America, it looks like the plan is for Ford to sell the current vehicles, update them as needed, and pull the plug when sales drip below a certain level.

There is an intriguing option we talked about earlier this year. Ford said its Australian operations would be a significant source of future products - rear-drive ones at that. Like GM, Ford is thought to be considering a new range of rear-drivers spun from an architecture developed by its Aussie arm. And as usual, when these rumors begin to float, the usual Aussie Falcon sedan has made an appearance at Dearborn HQ--likely for "evaluation purposes."

It's a do or die moment for these products - but we want to hear your take. Should Ford keep the limo builders happy and keep the Town Car alive? Should a new rear-drive lineup along the lines of Ford's Interceptor take the place of the trio? Or is there room in the Ford portfolio for both?


Ford’s Wixom Plant is History - The Car Connection

In "Chrysler at the Gates of Hell," on the Huffington Post blog, Automobile Magazine’s Jamie Kitman ventures to say that after Cerberus Capital LLC, the owners of the newly named Chrysler Holdings LLC, is through with Chrysler and the UAW, publicly traded companies — often maligned for having short-term returns in sight with long-term strategies left to suffer — will look benevolent in comparison. He also speculates that more predatory loan practices are just around the corner as Cerberus, which bought GMAC last year, now also has access to Chrysler Financial.

But more importantly, one tidbit that Kitman mentions, which has been a sin of omission for many news outlets in recent weeks, is that three ex-politicos, each fallen from grace in the political realm, are involved with Cerberus, with formerly much-ridiculed Vice President Dan Quayle helping steer the well-stocked ship. Quayle is Chairman of Cerberus’ Advisory Board, and has been heavily involved with the investment firm since 2000. Additionally, former Treasury Secretary John Snow and former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld are also involved in Cerberus.

In recent years the once much-ridiculed VP has served as the door-opener for Cerberus, helping to get the group into new markets that would be otherwise difficult and buying them direct access to high-ranking execs. In fact, Quayle helped the private firm establish an office in Germany in 2003 (in of all places Frankfurt), according to information in the former VP’s official bio.

Kitman remarks, “The man who forgot how to spell potato is chairman of Cerberus' global investments unit. Can you imagine corporate officers accountable to shareholders choosing him for an important job?”

UAW president Ron Gettelfinger has been widely criticized in recent weeks for accepting (and endorsing) the purchase of Chrysler by Cerberus before even meeting with the group. Cerberus had provided a written statement saying that there were no plans for additional job cuts directly connected to the sale, but in recent weeks there has been widespread speculation that the group is contemplating how to streamline, or possibly outsource, a significant portion of Chrysler’s production.—Bengt Halvorson

Chrysler At The Gates Of Hell—HuffingtonPost.com

What happens when you can’t tell what’s going on with a spy shot? TheCarConnection reader Kris B. sent us these snappy shots from the parking lot of an L.A.-area Target, and we’re not even sure what’s going on. A MINI Cooper with wrapped fenders and tail? Nothing new, but we’ve driven the new Coopers – and this isn’t even the long-wheelbase Clubman that’s been teasing us for well unto a year.

Kris writes:

Sorry they are not any better quality. Couple funny points - We just took delivery of our new S so I was picking out Minis everywhere, so I noticed these pretty quickly. Also, getting up on top of them, the interior was exactly the same. Really, except for the panels, they looked no different.

Got down on my hands and knees but then started attracting attention to two people in the Starbucks so we decided to leave. I can try and get the exact address of the Starbucks if needed but it was within about five miles of LAX.

What do you think? Tell us your best guess – and forever more and after, send your spy shots to editor@thecarconnection.com. We can’t make you famous for more than about 15 minutes, but we do promise to keep you out of Lindsay Lohan’s path.

2008 MINI Clubman Spy Shots—TheCarConnection.com

What is it about anniversaries that always draw our attention, well, mine, anyway? Considering all the news releases that cross TheCarConnection.com’s threshold each day, I might have ignored one from Mazda had it not noted that today marks the 40th anniversary of the Japanese automaker’s first production rotary vehicle. In the decades since, the automaker has continued rolling out the unusual, high-power alternative to the piston engine – nearly 2 million and counting – which is currently offered in the sporty RX-8 model, here in the U.S.

Now, to be more precise, one could date the so-called Wankel engine all the way back to 1919, when the then-17-year-old Felix Wankel first dreamed up the idea. And we mean dream. The idea came to him in the middle of the night, and the next day, he vaguely recalled telling friends in slumberland that, “my car has a new type of engine: a half-turbine half-reciprocated engine. I invented it!” Actually, it took the young engineer another 38 years to make his midnight vision a functional reality.

Unlike a conventional, internal combustion engine, the rotary has no reciprocating pistons. Inside the engine block, shaped a bit like a figure eight, is a triangular rotor. It operates much like a regular four-stroke engine, with the standard intake, compression, combustion, and exhaust functions – all while rotating, motion turned into amazingly smooth driving force.

When Wankel and the German company, NSU, produced the first effective prototype – in 1957, exactly a half-century ago, since we’re tracking anniversaries – almost 100 different companies lined up for licenses. That included manufacturers as diverse as the American automakers, General Motors and American Motors – which originally designed the bizarre Pacer to house a rotary. Unfortunately, the upcoming energy shocks effectively killed off those efforts, but we’re getting ahead of ourselves.

Mazda was even more committed to the rotary concept, debuting the R16A, a mid-engine sports car concept, in 1965, and then launching production of the Cosmo Sport, with a 110-horsepower twin-rotor, on May 30, 1967. Within a short time, the maverick manufacturer was hoping, the Wankel would become its primary powerplant.

My own experience with rotary power dates back to 1973, when I convinced my family to cough up the down payment on a brand-new Mazda RX-2. It was distinctive looking and fast as I could hope for, a real alternative to the muscle cars most of my friends owned down the Jersey Shore. Only a college professor’s BMW 2002tii could give me a real run for the money.

Mazda might have made it big but for several issues. There was the first energy crisis which revealed that while phenomenally powerful, rotaries offered mediocre mileage, at best. Worse, my own RX-2 spent more time in the shop than it did running. Bad dealers didn’t help, but it turned out the early seals at the tips, or rotor corners, usually failed catastrophically. Intriguingly and inadvertently, that provided a platform for one of the great names in quality and customer satisfaction. The first to uncover the unexpected technical problem was the then-young J. David Power. He parlayed that research into the California-based research empire that still bears his name.

My own situation ended far less fortuitously. After repeated failures, I finally scrapped my RX-2 as a total loss. But I remained fascinated by the technology. After nearly going broke, a chastised Mazda discovered new and far more reliable seals, the ones used in the RX-8 today. Current rotary designs also make more power and deliver better mileage. And Mazda is even developing a version that could run on clean-burning hydrogen.

So, party on, rotary engine, and Happy Anniversary.

Celebrate with Mazda over at their rotary Web site

We here at TheCarConnection.com have run a couple of contests on the best excuse you've used to get out of a speeding ticket. But we have to take our hats off to "Barbie Cummings," the nom de porn of a gal pulled over for a ticket in Tennessee, who apparently fellated her way to scot-free status. Cummings, whose real name is Justis Richert, says not only did Tennessee Highway Patrol trooper James Randy Moss offer to let her escape a ticket in exchange for oral sex - Richert claims Moss' patrol car and its in-car video camera recorded the incident. The trooper has since been suspended; the porn star says she has photos, video and a ticket to back up her story, the Associated Press reports. Richert, 21, was stopped on May 7 outside Nashville in her pink Honda Accord.

By the way, we're still interested in hearing your best speeding-excuse stories. Tell us a few here - and stay tuned this summer for the return of our annual contest and fabulous prizes.

Trooper suspended over porn star claims--Associated Press