Growing up in western Pennsylvania with a father who was a body man, it was only natural that young Ron Aul caught the car bug. He could have easily gone in one direction, but he went another. "Where I live, a lot of guys were and still are into GM cars," Ron says. "You'd go to the cruise night or to the drags and it would be full of Chevys, Pontiacs, Oldsmobiles, and Buicks. Even though I can appreciate those cars and have owned my fair share of GM stuff over the years, I've always been more partial to Fords."
Ron's first foray into the world of performance-oriented Blue Oval machinery was a '71 Mercury Comet GT. "It weighed about 2,800 pounds," says Ron. "I put in a built 302 making 340 hp, teamed it up with a C4 automatic, and added 3.50 gears." Considering the power-to-weight ratio, it's fair to say that Ron's little blue Comet went pretty good.
The Comet eventually departed the Aul driveway, but the ever-resourceful Ron was always on the lookout for another of Henry's wheeled conveyances. Perhaps the logical choice would have been a Mustang, but with kids and other commitments, a ponycar just wasn't in the cards. "It's the back seat thing," Ron says. "When buying cars, there always had to be room for the kids, and a Mustang simply wasn't practical. Don't get me wrong, I love them, but it just didn't make sense to buy one."
A Bit Of Luxury
After driving some Fox chassis T-birds and Cougars, Ron thought that he could still have fun with a Fox, without it being a ponycar. Reading up on the Lincoln Mk VII LSCs, especially the '87-and-up models that got the 225hp Mustang V-8s, Ron's curiosity surrounding these cars was beginning to get the better of him. The fact that they were handsome, fast, and affordable only made things more appealing.
Ron started looking and lucked out when he came across an '88 LSC for sale right in his own backyard. "It was an original California car, owned by an older lady who'd brought it back east from the Golden State," he says. "The body was good, no rust, just faded paint and a few of the usual shopping mall parking lot dings." The car was sitting and Ron thought it was only likely to deteriorate, so he put an offer in to buy it. "She refused me at first, but then I think she realized the car needed work and that, as a car guy, I'd take care of it." So home to the Aul household it went.