technically she has a flat as she tries to pass him (a spike coming out of his rim might have had something to do with that) and the movie was Goldfinger

"Do you expect me to talk Goldfinger?"
"No Mr. Bond, I expect you to die."

Gotcha, all dem der lakes makes it hard to build dem straight nodak roads, eh?

A fellow Minnesotan I see :)
I'm dead center of the southern edge of the state. If you're ever in southern WI on I-90, go to Wildcat Mountain State Park. The road right around the park (33) is spectacularly tight and twisty. Managed to kill the fuel pump in my (now traded) Towncow in one of the curves last summer(wait, so driving a curvaceous road while on fumes and a 167k fuel pump is a bad idea? who knew?). The rest of 33 heading towards La Crosse is pretty good too. Gonna be heading that way soon (rather not say the specific day just in case some one is watching ;) ) in a bland sedan but I'm still hoping the roads are clear that day :D

although the redesign in the early 90's for the panther changed every part of the car, parts interchange between the 80's and 90's panthers is remarkable. Case and point: the 90 Lincoln Towncar had the new 90's body but still had the old 80's chassis (5.0 and all) underneath. The Crown Vic chassis had more modifications in 03 than 92 (Vic changed over after the Town Car) when it went to rack and pinion steering, changed rear suspension geometry. Ford is pretty good at updating platforms without actually changing basic mounting points (see 91-96 and 97+ Ford Escorts for another example) Not so good for people wanting the best car when it's new; great for people wanting the best car when it's 20 years old...

I've been hearing that the 3.8 is a horrible engine and personally haven't had that experience. My mom bought a 93 sable with the 3.8 (I assume it's the same engine - maybe that's my problem?) with 150k miles on it back around 2000. It towed our camper for several 600 miles round trip vacations early in our ownership, and was severely neglected when it came to oil changes, and just really did little to no maintenance work to it. We finally took it to the junkyard two summers ago with 230k. The rear springs were junk so it ate rear tires (see: pulled our camper), the a/c needed to be recharged every 3 weeks during the summer, and the engine had the notorious "low oil" light flicker that I believe meant the crank bearing were on there way out (like they had been for the past 2+ years). the final straw? coolant line burst, Mom continued to drive it to where she was going, and killed the water pump seals. The thing still drove on and off the trailer at the end of it's life too. Maybe the cracked head (that it had for the majority of it's ownership) preserved the headgasket?

I could see that backfiring: "But honey, they're flame retardant!"

Justy all the way - a friend of mine had a post facelift one recently (just sold it now that his E30 is together) and the thing was surprising decent off road. Plus 4WD in the snow was rather fun :D

Well, Even though I do love the over the top-ness of the 90's GT, I know of the wonders of the BP because I have an LX-E. It has more dents than HP (even with the mazda powerplant) but was a stupid fun little car.

Oh, and I should add that I go in and out of present tense because even though I still have the car, it's been sitting in the weeds for the past two years. Late November I dragged it to shorter weeds to try to get it running, but the MN snow has put a stop to that.

This is what I get for trying to comment in the wee hours of the morning... really thought this car was newer than it is. I'll be quiet now. Maybe even get some sleep...

same chassis? waaaaa? the USDM escort, from 91 until it's death a decade and a half later, used a the Mazda BG chassis. Pretty sure the Euro Scort here uses some ford chassis. And since I'm living in 'Murica and I assume you can read my username, you can probably guess which car I prefer :D The mazda BP engine in the USDM GTs is also a much more refined engine than the CVH junker the standard US models had (I own both so I think I might be a decent source) Also, the BP sans muffler sounds absolutely glorious near the 7k redline. Alright, one last thing before I step down from my soapbox: That is not a fart can. Fart cans can hold a potato in the tip with room to spare ;)

/rant /rambling