Lincoln

Lincoln

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Headquarters	Dearborn, Michigan
Founded	August 1917
Series	World Stock Car Championship North American Stock Car Tour

Lincoln, formerly known as Lincoln Motor Car Company, is an American automaker that produces luxury cars as part of the Ford Motor Company. Lincoln was founded in 1917, and has competed with Cadillac for the majority of its history. The company is notable for its development of the personal luxury car in 1940.

Lincoln is Ford's sole luxury brand following the sale or divestiture of Aston Martin, Jaguar, Land Rover, and Volvo, as well as the closure of Mercury.

The brand current supplies bodies for Independent's Trophy competitors in the World Stock Car Championship, as well as supporting the North American Stock Car Tour.

History

Lincoln Motor Car company was founded in 1917 by former General Motors executives following a dispute with GM President William Durant. The company was first contracted to build V12 aircraft engines in support of World War I production; in addition to Ford, Lincoln sourced parts from Buick, Cadillac, Marmon, and Packard. The Lincoln Model L, the brand's first automobile, was developed after wartime production ceased.

In 1922, Lincoln was purchased by Ford Motor Company for $8 million after years of financial difficulty. Ford's purchase of Lincoln allowed the company to position the marque as a stand-alone luxury brand to rival Cadillac and Packard. By 1923, the Lincoln brand produced nearly 8,000 cars and was profitable by the end of the year.

In 1936, Lincoln introduced the Zephyr as a lower-priced model to compete with Chrysler; by 1940, owing in large part to the Great Depression, the American luxury car market had dwindled to four brands: Lincoln, Cadillac, Chrysler, and Packard. Where it had previously been an autonomous entity, Lincoln was reorganized into a division within Ford Motor Company to ensure its future.

Lincoln and Mercury would be paired following the conclusion of World War II, creating the Lincoln-Mercury division that would last until the Mercury brand closed in 2010. Lincoln would share its first post-war design with Mercury, and the Cosmopolitan was debuted as its new flagship model (though this name would not be officially adopted until 1952).

By the 1950's, the Lincolns were given a separate engine to differentiate the brand's vehicles from the Mercury counterparts, with whom they shared the majority of their bodywork. While Ford would attempt to create a third luxury brand in Edsel, Lincoln and Mercury would end the decade as the company's two upmarket brands.

Lincoln would consolidate to a single model, the Continental, in 1961, following restructuring at Ford. Model cycles were also extended to nine years to ensure the designs remained consistent. By the 1970's, the brand's sole competitor in the luxury market became Cadillac, as Chrysler withdrew its Imperial model. The brand would have one of its most successful redesigns of the Continental in 1977, with the Mark V selling over 228,000 vehicles in three years.

The 1980's marked some highs for the brand, as a shift to the Ford Panther platform and new engine helped drastically improve the brand's weight and fuel economy. As the design of the Town Car (introduced in 1980) began to age, sales began to improve due to the poor reception of Cadillac's vehicle lineup. The brand maintained just three model lines throughout this era, and a series of full redesigns and platform changes presented massive challenges throughout the 1990s.

The brand would debut the brand's first full-size SUV, the Navigator, in 1998; it immediately became the second-most popular Lincoln by the end of the year. Ford organized Lincoln-Mercury, alongside several of its other luxury brands, into Premier Automotive Group in 1999, but would remove them from PAG by 2002 following management changes.

The PAG uncertainty became a symbol of an era of transition for Lincoln, as the enduring Continental name was discontinued after over 50 years, and the brand abandoned nameplates entirely by 2007 (with the exception of the Navigator and Town Car). Though spared under the original restructuring plan, Mercury was closed at the end of 2010, and the Lincoln Town Car ended production shortly after. The brand would go through a number of changes to distinguish itself from its Ford counterpart, including entirely separate design and marketing teams within Ford.

Lincoln revived the Continental name in 2017, and announced plans to return to full name plates in 2019.

World Stock Car Championship

Lincoln cars - particularly the Cosmopolitan - were a staple in the World Stock Car Championship during its early years, but the brand did not officially support race teams; Ford instead opted to support Ford and Mercury (and, briefly, Edsel) teams. Floyd Logan, an early car owner in the series, explained that although Lincoln would not support teams "officially, the dealers would go through painstaking detail on how to swap the Lincoln engine into the Fords or Mercuries if you asked. Some would even help you out." Lincolns quickly fell out of favor among the more established competitors, though they remained popular among the local drivers who made up the bulk of the entrants. Lincolns disappeared entirely by the 1960's and would remain absent for over 30 years.

By 1989, Ford Motor Company, looking for ways to revitalize the Lincoln brand, began development on a stock car based on the Lincoln Mark VIII, which was scheduled to go into production in 1992 after a number of delays. The stock car made its debut in 1993 and was run alongside the Ford Thunderbird and Mercury Cougar until the model was discontinued following the 1998 season.

The brand would again be absent until 2005, when the Zephyr was announced as a new model alongside the Mercury Milan. The Zephyr was eventually renamed the MKZ, and was offered to Independent's trophy teams beginning in 2007 until 2017, when it was replaced by the revived Continental.

Full-Time Entries
Year(s)	Model	Team(s)	Notes
1950 - 1954	Cosmopolitan
1955 - 1959	Continental
1992 - 1998	Mark VIII
2005 - 2006	Zephyr
Part-Time and Independent Entries
1950 - 1954	Cosmopolitan
1955 - 1959	Continental
1992 - 2001	Mark VIII		Model was available until 2001 per the series' rules on homologation
2005 - 2016	Zephyr/MKZ
2017 - present	Continental