Concept car driving is like having grandma control the throttle and grandpa breathe down your back. At least it was this past week, at Ford's Dearborn Development Center. Speeds were limited to 10 miles per hour, not that the gauges on these handmade vehicles indicated anything at all. In fact, a good reason to keep the velocity down was the driver door's inability to latch. A little tape wound round and round on the locking mechanism, and we were cleared for a snail's take-off.

The big airy Lincoln of the future drove like a bag of sand, with a steering setup that made us feel connected to the wheels in the same way that a John Deere from the late Seventies might. Visibility through the windshield smacked of funhouses, little imperfections in the glass bringing on fears of Ford having spiked the water at lunch, or at least the day's 94 degree weather having made its sunstroke mark on us drivers. Of course, this car was never really meant to be a proper driver, but rather more along the lines of a styling exercise that didn't have to be pushed from studio to studio. Fair enough.

The MKR's airy roof really freed up the car's interior, leaving us with the feeling of driving an Imax theater...

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This was a nice touch, really, coupled with the Jetsons-esque lines of the center console and stack. It would've been nice to use the push-button gear selectors located there, but unfortunately, they were non-operational, as were the windows.

Of course, drive time in a concept is rarely really rewarding in terms of what we love about driving, but it certainly was intriguing to feel what the future may well hold in store for Ford's troubled luxury marque. The goal behind the MKR, as explained by designers Gordon Platto and Xitij Mistry, is to give Lincoln a clear direction in terms of design language.

We shouldn't bet that the mostly glass roof will soon be found on all Lincolns, but look for cues from this concept in the years ahead on Lincolns of any color, particularly the new split "bow wave" grille scheme and chamfered fenders.

Driving the big Lincoln even at parking lot speeds may not have ignited our nerve endings (though the MKR was said to have a twin-turbo direct-injection V-6, the concept ambles about with a Mustang-sourced 4.0-liter V-6). but it did make us long for more gloriously big American cars, no matter how politically incorrect a yearning that may be.

+ WINDING ROAD: Embargone: Lincoln Officially Reveals MKR Concept Ahead Of Detroit