2006 Lincoln Zephyr Road Test

After a nice meal and some esoteric jazz ramblings at Dizzy's on the Columbus Circle, the former named after the great late, great

The Zephyr's ride is sublime, overcoming New York's finest pavement irregularities with aplomb. (Photo: Trevor Hofmann, Canadian Auto Press)

trumpet player, Dizzy Gillespie, who died in 1993, and who I was fortunate enough to see play in front of my dinner table in the early '80s, I walked back to the Mandarin, past Central Park, to my 48th floor view of the Hudson - part of the Lincoln experience.

As beautifully appointed and calming as this room is, I felt equally pampered (well almost) in the Zephyr. Its ride is sublime, overcoming New York's finest pavement irregularities with aplomb, while handling, although no road course was provided, seems adequately suited to executing sharp corners with ease, performing quick lane changes or, avoiding potential accidents.

Getting technical, the Zephyr's fully-independent undercarriage includes short and long arms (SLA) with rearward facing control arms and a stabilizer bar, plus nitrogen filled, gas charged, hydraulic coil over shocks up front, and a multilink system with more or less the same hardware attached in the rear. The steering system? Power rack and pinion, of course.

While

The Zephyr features standard four-channel antilock brakes (ABS) and electronic brake force distribution (EBD), which helped during the ultra-wet test drive, but no stability control is available. (Photo: Trevor Hofmann, Canadian Auto Press)

all this sounds top-level, I should mention that stability control is not even on the menu, which I think is a major oversight, especially when traction control, four-channel antilock brakes (ABS) and electronic brake force distribution (EBD) are provided standard, the building blocks necessary to incorporate an effective anti-skid system. While the Zephyr remained stable during the torrential downpour I experienced during my test drive, if it were to become unsettled in wet and or otherwise slippery situations, there would be no electronic safety net ready to pull driver and passengers out of harms way - something to consider. While all-wheel drive won't help in this situation, unless piloted by an exceptionally talented race driver with gobs of power at his/her disposal, the Zephyr will come so equipped in model year 2007; optional of course.