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 1986, to eliminate the long-running nameplate confusion, the Continental Mark VII (marketed, sold and serviced by Lincoln) was renamed the Lincoln Mark VII, dropping the Continental nameplate. The Mark VII would be the final generation of the Mark series sold with a Designer Series name, with a Bill Blass Edition being sold through its production (a Gianni Versace edition was sold from 1984 to 1985), eventually becoming the standard model. As a sport-oriented model, Lincoln sold the Mark VII LSC (Luxury Sports Coupe) from 1984 to 1992.
While Lincoln exited the struggles of the Malaise era by 1990, the division found itself in a different struggle. While largely catching up to rival Cadillac in sales, the brand did so with only three model lines (in place of the seven of Cadillac and four of Mercedes-Benz). After following the traditional Lincoln model cycle, the Town Car underwent a full redesign. While mandated by both passive-restraint requirements and fuel-economy improvements, a redesign to the Town Car proved risky, as the model line itself accounted for over half of all Lincoln sales.