It was Henry M. Leland who transformed the failed Henry Ford Company into Cadillac before it was absorbed into General Motors. In 1917, he started a new company he called The Lincoln Motor Company in honor of President Abraham Lincoln. The company got into financial difficulties and was sold to the Ford Motor Company in 1922.
Edsel Ford’s sense for style led to Lincoln contracting with several coachbuilders to create custom built cars and by the end of 1923 Lincoln was turning a profit. Lincoln Flyers also proved popular with police departments.
In the 1930s Eugene “Bob” Gregorie working from Edsel’s styling studio designed the beautiful streamline Zephyr. Gregorie used the Zephyr to custom build a personal vehicle for Edsel that went into production in 1940 as the Continental.
In 1945, Mercury and Lincoln were merged to form the Lincoln-Mercury Division of Ford. A new division was created in 1956 to produce the Continental Mark II to compete against such luxury cars as the Rolls-Royce. Although the Mark II was America’s most expensive car of that era the company was losing money on each one they produced so Continental was merged into Lincoln and production of the Mark II ceased in 1957. Lincoln cars badged as Continental Marks were produced through 1960.
Starting in 1961 Lincoln cars were marketed as Lincoln Continentals. In 1968, in response to the Cadillac Eldorado, Lincoln introduced the Continental Mark III which had a spare tire hump similar to that used on the Mark II.
In the late 1990s Lincoln-Mercury became part of Ford’s Premier Automotive Group along with Aston-Martin, Jaguar, Land Rover and Volvo. By 2002, the Continental name was dropped.
Lincoln-Mercury ended when the Mercury brand was discontinued and in 2012 the Lincoln division became the Lincoln Motor Company.
1939 LINCOLN ZEPHYR STREET ROD PRINTS AVAILABLE
1963 LINCOLN CONTINENTAL with backdrop PRINTS AVAILABLE
1963 LINCOLN CONTINENTAL PRINTS AVAILABLE
Avenue Art Motorcar Gallery 