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 Continental
The 1959–1960 Town Car and Limousine are among the rarest Lincoln vehicles ever sold; only 214 examples of the $9,200 Town Car were produced and only 83 examples of the $10,200 Limousine were produced.
Nearly 40% lower in price than the Continental Mark II, the Mark III would go on to sell better than the Mark II predecessor. From 1958 to 1960, the Lincoln Division would lose over $60 million; along with the launch of newly developed vehicles in a recession economy (a factor that contributed to the downfall of the Edsel line), Lincoln and Continental was faced with overcoming the expense of developing a vehicle that was shared with neither Ford nor Mercury.