First of all Rod Millen did a great job on driving and remember the Lincoln took 'em on one at a time. The Lincoln did not just sit on the fastest time and wait for the others  to top it.  It ran four times and was totally consistent which shows it was easy to drive. The BMW in anybody elses hands but Millen would not have been so fast. He had to rev that sucker like hell to get it to breathe and it did come alive and made one run... doubtful if that time could have survived four repeated trips up the mountain.
  Lets not get too far away from the point here though. When people shop for a luxury sporty car they think in terms of cylinders. They want a V8 or maybe if they can afford it a V12. Lincoln was just trying to get buyers to look again at their little 6 cylinder car and not be so quick to pass it up. Lincoln is saying in some situations our car might even be faster than those big expensive 8 cylinder European cars and their point was well taken.  The real winner is the car buying public who in no other time in history can choose between so many fine automobiles.

at 12k ft elevation i believe that's about a 100hp drop in the n/a vehicles while any turbo/supercharged engine power remains the same.  Which explains why they chose the 550i over the 535i or 335i (turbocharged models) bmw for the competition (but then again it is titled 6 versus 8 lol)....don't get me wrong, the lincoln does deserve props for this new engine...oh the sts wasn't in it because it has a v6 motor...the test was lincoln's 6 cyl vs. 8cyl...and the v8 cadillac models..i believe are supercharged so it would probably make the other competitors look bad..haha

Where was the Cadillac STS in this competition?  Oh, I forgot; Cadillac and the rest of what is left of GM was being salvaged by the Federal Government.

Bravo, Lincoln!  Despite coming in second place to the BMW, Lincoln has proven to be the value leader.  Before I purchased my Lincoln, I looked at and tested BMW, Lexus, Audi, & Cadillac, all of which were priced about $13,000 more than the Lincoln, were not as comparably equipped as the Lincoln (except for the Lexus which did have the same amenities), and they did not perform appreciably or noticeably better than the Lincoln.

Keep up the great work and keep building a world class luxury vehicle, and don't give up on R&D.  I have faith that Lincoln can come back and beat the BMW.  Honestly, I believe that if Lincoln equipped the MKZ  AWD with an EcoBoost engine and used such a vehicle in this competition, BMW would have finished a distant second.

A great day for Lincoln NOW is the time to bring back a Lincoln coupe ( shades of the Mark 7 & 8 with ecoboost WOW. The mustang could use it too better power to weight will give it an advantage over the the big diplacement GM stuff.
rock on ford.

Testing turbo and non-turbo at that heigh is bias, but it still can't beat the V8 means the lincoln is FAIL.  Sorry ford fanatics.