The Lounge Lizard

The Lounge Lizard began its life as a project idea by the car magazine, Car And Driver. The goal of the project was to create a sedan that would surpass the performance of the '94-'96 Chevrolet Impala SS. To accomplish this feat, Car And Driver chose a car that was comparable in size and drivetrain layout to the deceased Caprice (aka the Impala).

The magazine began their project by purchasing a brand new (at the time) Ford Crown
Victoria. They then proceeded to heavily modify the appearance (tinted windows,
spotlights, grille guard, etc.). After achieving an aggressive appearance, they moved onto
the performance mods.

To achieve the performance needed, Car And Driver took the Vic to legendary Mustang tuner, Kenny Brown. Once there, the car's engine received numerous modifications, the most notable being an SVO/Eaton supercharger. Along with a blower, the engine received a set of SVO cylinder heads, different fuel injectors, a larger mass air sensor, a 190-liter-per-hour fuel pump, and a different air intake tube. This along with Borla mufflers and a custom exhaust, allowed the Crown Vic's 4.6 liter V8 to pump out 355 hp @ 5500 rpm.

Now that the car produced an adequate amount of power, the next step was to modify the rest of the car to handle the extra horsepower. The first modification was the addition of eight inch wide wheels with 17 inch BFGoodrich Comp T/As. Next the suspension received a major upgrade in the form of stiffer coil springs (in the front), Bilstein shocks (in the rear), and a rear anti-roll bar. The final mod was the addition of a 3.73 Torsen rear end.

After completing all the modifications, Car And Driver took the Lounge Lizard to the
track to see if the car had achieved their goal. To the surprise of no one, the car
performed in an astonishing manner. It ran to 60 in 6.0 seconds and did the quarter mile
in 14.6 seconds @ 97 mph beating the Impala SS in both tests. The car even hit a 150
mph top end and pulled 0.87-g on the skidpad which also beat the Impala.

The ability of this car to be transformed from a regular luxury sedan into a serious
performance sedan proves that the Crown Victoria is one of the best built and designed
cars ever. The amazing thing about this car is not its sheer performance numbers, rather
it's the fact that a 4270 pound car can corner, accelerate, and top out as potently as a
Mustang GT! Not only does this car perform amazingly, it also is quite popular. "One
thing's for sure: It's the most popular car I've ever modified," says Brown. "I've produced
400-horsepower Mustangs that get ignored, but this thing drives people insane. I've
already had the [Indiana] highway patrol ask me about it. And at the gas pumps, you can't
get away without five or six interviews." - Jim