Test Drive Lincoln Navigator since 2006 SUV

Car for two

More relatively recently in the United States (mainly in the southern states) there was a fashion for tourist buses, re-equipped for the transport of one-sole passenger. We are not talking about crepers and not about wheels on wheels, whose owners most often are people not very secure. Vice versa. Someone who is not constant in the means of a Texas resident (where everything is the largest in the world), which is not satisfied with the level of comfort, who provided him with the rear sofa of the representative limousine, ordered himself a bus for five stars. You are welcome! At the request of the client, the specialized workshop could equip the office, dining room, compartment for meetings, bedroom, and even the pool.
 
Such buses - as opposed to Cepers - were not used for residence, but only for travel, and for short distances (cross the country and even the staff is still much more convenient by train or plane).
 
Gigantomania quickly sued no - mainly due to restrictions in the rules of the road: huge cars were denied entry into the business part of most cities. But the idea of \u200b\u200busing large chassis for the construction of limousines did not die.
 
Here, by the way, the popularity of SUVs began to gain popularity, and mobile apartment designers turned their eyes to the largest of them - full-sized. Of course, neither the kitchen nor the bedroom in the SUV will not give, but it was possible to increase the comfort of the serial machine of those years significantly.
 
Gradually, the automakers themselves began to produce all the more luxury versions, the demand for individual services of tuning firms began to fall, and with the loss of customers, many of them ceased to exist or changed profile. But not all. There were still lovers of exclusive cars, there are various studios and design studios engaged in the finishing of the already ultra-co-formability machines. The source material for them quite often serves Lincoln Navigator, based on the F-150 truck platform (Motor # 11, 1997).
 
Recently, a similar car visited our edition - Navigator, almost entirely separated in Russia. Almost - because bodywork works and modification of the transmission were performed in America.
 
Somewhere in Pennsylvania, the specialized firm has extended by 950 mm frame, and a deaf insert ripped into the body cut across. The vertical lanterns-lanterns on it (five on each side) are attached to their species of minor mood. Whether in their place of the window, even if the boutaphoric, the car would look more logical and elegant, but, apparently, the client wished it, and maybe the fantasy of American tunignovists did not go further the iron sheet. The resulting car externally loses the standard Navigator strongly. However, such lanterns on Stretch for some reason are considered a good tone.
 
Leaves to desire the best and quality of execution. With a careful inspection, it can be seen that vertical gaps between insertion and doors in the upper and lower parts are uneven. We have already had to deal with pieces of American machines built with quality, far from the reference, therefore I am not surprised. In addition to elongation, the body did not undergo any changes.
 
When modifying the car, they refused to use it on off-road - serially installed on Navigator controlled suspension is reconfigured in such a way that it provides the body horizontal position, but does not change the ground clearance.
 
The driver's compartment remained standard - like the conveyor machine. It is the compartment - a partition appeared behind the backs of the front seats (as in a limousine), the opening in which can be closed with tinted glass and the panel, covered with skin.
 
The main, passenger, compartment is stylized under the cabin of the yacht and is descended in bright colors - apparently, for contrast with a black body. Sea theme reflects three ship devices at the top of the front partition - hygrometer, clock and barometer. The rest of the equipment is quite land. In the center console, a TV with a 14-inch screen, a VCR and a radio tape recorder are installed.
 
A huge interior is designed only for two passengers - there are separate chairs for them. Another landing place is a small folding seat - located on the left in front, but it is very inconvenient and is used only in emergency cases. Together with a car from America, a sofa arrived - for installation in the cabin, but he did not like the customer. Russian designers offered to replace the sofa on the front armchairs from Lincoln Town Car. With their installation there were problems - it turned out that the electric drives the adjustments are very cumbersome. Chairs either stood up too high (the floor in the back of the Navigator is raised), or turned out to be too shifted forward and blocked part of the doorway, which deprived the existence of an elongated body.
 
I had to dismantle the electrical mechanisms - all the adjustment now has to be carried out manually (though, there is no real need for this). The feeling of the elbow passengers will not visit - the central armrest is quite wide. In the upper part there is a telephone, as well as the control panels of telephone audio equipment and the salon climate.
 
Opposite the left chairs, a refrigerator is located. Its hike door can be used as a table. All internal panels are covered with skin that narrow wooden inserts diverse. Over the TV and under the bar are plastic lattices of air conditioning and heater deflectors. The floor of the cabin is covered with a carpet darker compared to the rest of the trim.
 
Behind the seat backs - to the fifth door - a horizontal shelf starts, under which a 700-watt subwoofer is hidden, two amplifiers and a CD changer capable of twist and video. The main dynamics are mounted in the shelf, the rest - in the doorway and the front wall.
 
What is hiding under the luxurious cabin trim? What did the qualified brigade of Masters in the interior needed seven months of painstaking labor?
 
We showed photos taken on the arrival of the car to Moscow. They are clearly visible to complete devastation in the rear, passenger part - naked iron, welds, wiring harnesses ...
 
The client, as it turned out, pretty foggy presented himself, what he needed. Some of his desires could not be installed in the car at all, others demanded serious alterations. As a result, only the coordination of the project with the customer took five weeks ...
 
First of all, the ribs were mounted - special ribs, located at some distance from body panels and employees for mounting internal sheat. First, the ribs put steel, welded, then they were replaced with aluminum, bonded rivets. From the inside the entire body was covered with noise insulating material. Installed frameworks for equipment and seats, guides for glass in the partition, laid the wiring and air conditioning pipelines. There are two in the car: one serves the driver's compartment, the other is passenger. The layout of the additional air conditioner turned out to be unsuccessful, had to carry out the fan electric motors to the outside and covering noise insulation the main line - when the air is turned on, it is buzzing, as an organ.
 
The lining of the cabin is made of a fun - two-layer sheet plastic, easily forming when heated. To get rid of visible fasteners, there are special latches and piston on the inside of the panels. Disassemble the salon, not knowing exactly where to click and what to pick up, and not break anything - it is impossible. Plastic sheets are covered with leather, under which places are laid elastic gaskets. The ceiling of the cabin is stolen from fiberglass. There are several centimeters left between it and the roof, which is necessary to accommodate the hatch mechanism.
 
After the car's salon was completely mounted, the car mercilessly chased the worst roads, trying to terminate the interior. As a result, it turned out that some refinement are required.
 
At the insistence of the client, not automotive in the car, but the usual - 220-volt - TV and video recorder. The required voltage provides a 12/220 converter, outstanding 1 kW. For its power supply under the hood, more powerful are placed than on the basic version, the generator and two batteries. The latter are made in America for some kind of space technology, and with dimensions, slightly exceeding ordinary, have a capacity of 700 and 1000 Ah. By the way, the converter works in the opposite direction, so it can be used to charge batteries - directly from the outlet in the garage.
 
There is a preheater with a timer working on gasoline - at a specified time you will be waiting for a warm car.
 
Numerous additional equipment has eaten the space in the cabin - there is no place for baggage. If you open the back, fifth door, only aluminum edges of electrical appliances are visible and a tiny niche for tools to the right below. The spare wheel is left at a regular place - outside in the rear breath ...
 
Inspection is completed, it is time to get settled in the cabin. Yes, yes, in the passenger compartment, since the main thing in this car is clearly not the driver. Moreover, the driving qualities of Lincoln Navigator we have already been well studied.
 
The door swallows wide, the footboard under the threshold is available - for such a high car landing is quite comfortable. Having dropped into a good chair and closing the door, I start to feel at home. The sounds of outdoor life in the NE salon penetrate - you sit like in cotton wool. Slopped with keys on the armrest. Mechanisms opening the hatch and windows work silently. Turn on the radio - numerous speakers came to life. Rubbing the ranges, accidentally hit the rap. Subwoofer Zarechhal in the head so that it urgently had to remove the bottom. Now - TV. Thanks to a strong tinting of glasses in the cabin, quite dark even on a clear day - the screen does not glare, the image is clear. In motion, however, the reception is very unstable, so it is preferable to watch the video.
 
I lower the glass in the partition - to communicate with the driver. The car swallows smoothly, unfolds, sharply accelerates ... We are in the transport stream. Through the side windows, almost nothing can be seen - even with a reserved curtains, watching the road through a narrow window between the salons uninteresting. I tremble the opening - I raise the glass and after it is an opaque partition. Now you can concentrate on your own feelings. The machine moves gently, slightly swaying sometimes on the irregularities of the road. Turns, acceleration and braking are felt only through the vestibular apparatus - there are no body rolls. Lincoln Navigator even as standard is famous for the smoothness of the course, and having an elongated base, it is quite capable of moving in it with Rolls-Royce.
 
Complete isolation from the outside world and a small rocking lull - start to think that you are on the ship, plowing the water surface. Maritime interior only reinforces this impression. I was so relaxed that did not even get behind the wheel - a carefree enjoy the comfort until the end of the trip and left the car with great regret.
 
Conflose, going to get acquainted with the car, I was tuned skeptical. Not towards him - rather, the very idea of \u200b\u200bhis alteration seemed dubious. As a result, the modernized Navigator made an excellent impression. The goal that specialists put in front of them is to build an extremely comfortable car - achieved.
 
Of course, there are some drawbacks - for example, a broken lower duct grille in the cabin (probably someone hurt the foot), or a slightly dug seal - at the top of the fifth door, but, given the volume and results of the work done, you can not pay for these trifles attention.
 
Evgeny Romantsky
 
 
 

A source: Motor magazine