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A 'Woodie' Without Wood Copley News Service What is the Lincoln Blackwood without black wood? The new Blackwood, due in dealer showrooms in August, is supposedly a manifestation of how faithful Lincoln stayed to its original four-door Concept Truck, introduced at the 1999 Detroit auto show.
"We're gonna build it!" Lincoln enthusiastically told the press. What happened? Sun, salt, heat and cold proved insurmountable obstacles. "Show me a way to do real wood, and get it to last 10 years, and I'll still put it on there," says Dave Wotton, the chassis supervisor. So, the Blackwood is little more than a Navigator-based take on the Ford Explorer Sport Trac, with fake-wood applique on a plastic pickup bed. Actually, it's a photograph of the real wenge wood -- a process also used to generate the paste-on headlights on Rusty Wallace's NASCAR Ford Taurus. Imagine. All this for just $52,500. Make no mistake about it, though: Lincoln will sell a lot of these. The projected yearly sales goal of 10,000 units could easily be met in Texas alone, where newly minted oil-industry billionaires can't wait to turn that cargo box into a 26-cubic-foot beer cooler, golf cart and/or gun rack. Like Henry Ford's original Model T, the Blackwood comes in any color you want -- as long as it's black. Says Lincoln publicist Jim Trainor: "Look, if it was red, it would be a Redwood, wouldn't it?" Seriously, other colors are being considered for future years, like Silverwood, Hollywood (would that be a green?) and Mauvewood (just kidding). "We can't find any other color that looks good with the wood," says Dave Reiche, vehicle development engineer. The decision to scrap real wood and go with a photographic applique on molded plastic panels appears to have come pretty late in the game -- because the whole truck seems to be built around the bed. In anticipation of relatively weak wood side panels on the bed - rather than stamped steel panels -- Lincoln designed a unique box-within-a-box that takes the stress off the exterior panels. All the exterior trim pieces are mounted to a square-channel steel space frame. It is, in turn, cantilever-mounted to the chassis. Inside the bed are stainless-steel bins with hatch covers, a carpeted load floor and LED track lighting -- all reached by double Dutch doors and an industry-first motorized tonneau cover. If the thought occurs to you this is not a true truck bed -- no 4-by-8 sheets of plywood here - you're right. "Think of it as a 26-cubic-foot trunk," says Henry Brice, chief program engineer. Actually, the Blackwood is more of a "tow truck," using four-wheel disc brakes and 18-inch tires and aluminum wheels. Its 8,700-pound trailering capacity is facilitated by a Blackwood-specific, load-leveling air/leaf spring suspension system. An Explorer-type independent rear suspension, expected on the next Navigator redesign, was eschewed as "not truck-like enough" for the Blackwood. Otherwise, the 300-horsepower, 5.4-liter V-8, four-speed automatic transmission and most other running gear, as well as most interior appointments, are straight from the Navigator. Expect fuel mileage of 12 miles per gallon around town and 17 on the highway, using 91-octane gas -- the same as any two-wheel-drive Navigator. The only available option is the $1,995 navigation system. Features that are optional on the Navigator, such as the Alpine stereo with CD changer, 18-inch alloy wheels, and front seats that huff and puff climate-controlled air, are standard on the Blackwood. "We didn't want to nickel-and-dime customers to death with options," Brice says. "We wanted the package to be 'the package.' We even debated making the 'nav' system standard. But there are some people who just don't want or need it." There also are some people who don't like its low, upward-facing mounting position between the front seats. Lincoln spinmeisters proclaim that in its production version, the Blackwood "remains true to its 'visual promise.'" Maybe. Purists will still mourn the lost woodie. A truck, though, in any flavor is expected to fill an important hole in the expanding Lincoln lineup. Lincoln believes the Blackwood is, like the Navigator and the LS, "found money." That is to say, nearly 70 percent of the people buying those models are new customers; they'd never owned a Lincoln before. Jerry Garrett is a free-lance auto writer based in San Diego and a contributing editor to Car and Driver magazine.
Base MSRP -- $52,500, including $690 destination charge; price as tested, $54,495 Options on test truck -- Navigation system. Competition -- Cadillac EXT. Where assembled -- Kansas City, Mo.
PLUSES -- Comes fully loaded, strong towing capability, unique styling, competent ride. MINUSES -- Price, lack of promised wood-lined bed. News Index | Features Index |
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AutoWord Copyright© 2001 Copley News Service |
The concept was to bring back the "woodie" in a classy way, with a cargo box made of exotic, black-grained wenge wood from Africa. More wood lined the cargo box.