My mistake for confusing a Lincoln with the Panther platforms. Lump them all together because of the shared 4.6L engines. That's really the main thing. The transverse engine on the Continental is a pain. I agree that the Town Car is simpler.
From your ownership history, you're no doubt aware of this but the Continental engine is a bit of a different beast in that it's the DOHC 32V version of the 4.6L modular. I've never seen their claimed unreliability first hand, but a lot of people consider this the most unreliable of the 4.6L engines, or at least much less so than the basically bullet proof(as long as the plugs don't seize in the heads...) SOHC 16V version.
The only Panther I'm aware of that got the 32V was the short lived, low production Marauder. It showed up in a few other Lincolns-I know the Mark VIII for sure and I think the Aviator? but it was a lot less common than the 16V or even 24V version. The 98-02(or was it 97?) Continental was the only one to get the transverse version of the engine.