Lincoln Motor Company
The Lincoln Motor Company was founded in August 1917 by Henry Leland and his son Wilfred. Among the founders of Cadillac, Leland had sold the company to General Motors in 1909, remaining on as an executive until 1917, when he left over a dispute with GM President William Durant. Naming Lincoln Motor Company after Abraham Lincoln, the first President for whom he ever voted (1864), Leland financed the company by securing a $10 million contract to build Liberty V12 aircraft engines, breaking ground on the Lincoln Motor Company Plant. To build the Liberty engines, Lincoln sourced parts from other manufacturers; along with cylinders produced by Ford, other parts were sourced from Buick, Cadillac, Marmon, and Packard. In total, 6,500 Liberty V12 engines were produced by Lincoln before the end of World War I ceased wartime production.
Lincoln Motor Company
In 2007, as another part of The Way Forward, Lincoln began a rebranding of its model line. As Ford considered the Lincoln Mark series to have high nameplate recognition, Lincoln began to introduce similar "MK" branding across the model lineup. For 2007, the Lincoln Zephyr was rebranded as the Lincoln MKZ ("em-kay-zee"), with the 2007 Lincoln MKX ("em-kay-ex") crossover SUV introduced. Originally slated to become the second-generation Lincoln Aviator, the MKX was the Lincoln counterpart of the Ford Edge. Alongside the Lincoln Town Car, the Lincoln Navigator was not included with the MK rebranding; for 2007, it was redesigned alongside the Ford Expedition, marking the debut of the extended-length Navigator L. For the last time, a Designer Series Lincoln was produced, as Lincoln discontinued the trim on the Town Car after 2007. Produced only as a concept car, the 2007 Lincoln MKR marked the debut of the Ford EcoBoost V6.