LCOC Western Region Member Shares Family Heirloom with Lincoln Museum

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The newest addition to the roster of historic vehicles on display at the Lincoln Motor Car Museum in Hickory Corners, MI is a 2000 Lincoln LS sedan made available by newly elected Western Region board member Bazil LaRoche. Bazil chose to offer the LS to museum authorities in response to an appeal by museum authorities earlier this year for specific vehicles to help round out their collection.

Bazil LaRoche
Bazil LsRoche’s 2000 Lincoln LS is on loan to the Lincoln Motor Car Museum.
Bazil’s Lincoln LS is loaded on a trailer for shipment to the Lincoln Motor Car Museum in Michigan.

The car was bought new by Bazil’s grandmother and has remained in his family for 20 years. Instead of an outright donation, Bazil agreed to a two-year loan of the LS for display at the museum. Lincoln Motor Car Foundation Trustee Jim Ayres called the loan “a very generous gesture on the part of one of our members. We really appreciate having the car on view for many visitors of the museum to enjoy.”

The LS continues in the Lincoln tradition of luxury cars built on smaller chassis. Wikipedia describes the LS as a four-door, five-passenger luxury sedan that was manufactured by the Lincoln division of Ford Motor Company. The LS was introduced in June 1999 as a 2000 model-year vehicle with either a V6 engine (which was offered with a manual transmission) or a V8 engine, both featuring rear-wheel drive and near 50/50 weight distribution.[2]

The LS shared the Ford DEW98 platform, along with the Jaguar S-Type and the Ford Thunderbird. The Lincoln LS was originally to be marketed in two versions: the LS6 and the LS8 (the names had reflected the vehicle’s engine sizes), however, Toyota‘s Lexus division became concerned about the potential name confusion with its Lexus LS and Lincoln ended up using only the name “LS”.[3]

Trim levels ranged from the base V6 model to the Special Edition V8 LSE trims in 2004, which featured revised front and rear fascia, taillights and foglights, and front grille.

LS models were manufactured at Ford‘s Wixom Assembly Plant until production ended on April 3, 2006 and the plant was idled as part of Ford’s The Way Forward. Approximately 262,900 LS models were manufactured, including 2,331 manual transmission V6 models, and 1,500 LSE editions