swajames

The point of the test, and one has to assume it was a Ford sponsored test, is a very reasonable one which is to highlight that through the use of FI and DI, a 3.5 liter V6 in the MKS is very competitive (in terms of HP and torque) as the benchmark and class-leading 4.8 and 5 liter V8's but with a 15K price advantage (which widens as you option up the cars to a reasonable level over and above the poverty-spec). The video also showed that the MKS can handle. That, of course, isn't at all influenced by altitude. The MKS engine's output per liter is almost exactly the same as the 335/535 powerplant.

jm545i

Of course, and the MKS acquitted itself rather nicely given the competition, and clearly FI is coming back in a big way.

Still, if you're comparing apples to apples on the ability for THIS FI car to compete with THESE big-displacement V8's, they really ought to be doing the test at an altitude where most people who don't live on the Continental Divide reside - somewhere close to sea level. I'm not taking anything away from the MKS on this, as you say, it did pretty well, and certainly must out-handle the Benz and a few of the otheres.

The performance advantage of FI at 12,000 feet is nothing to be completely dismissed. I don't know how well the turbo cars are really tuned for high-altitude running (FI cars can also experience power loss at altitude), but it wouldn't be shocking if the 535i outperformed the 550i under similar circumstances. If you want to play conspiracy theorist, given the ease at which you can increase performance on a turbo car, you could also wonder if Lincoln sent in a ringer..... just sayin' ! :0