Lincoln Town Car

The Lincoln Town Car is a model line of full-size luxury sedans that was marketed and produced by the Lincoln division of the American automaker Ford Motor Company. Deriving its name from a limousine body style, Lincoln marketed the Town Car from 1981 to 2011, with the nameplate previously serving as the flagship trim of the Lincoln Continental. Produced across three generations for thirty model years, the Town Car was marketed directly against luxury sedans from Cadillac and Chrysler.
Marketed nearly exclusively as a four-door sedan, many examples of the Town Car were used for fleet and livery service. From 1983 to its 2011 discontinuation, the Town Car was the longest car produced by Ford worldwide, becoming the longest mass-production car sold in North America from 1997 to 2011. While not a direct successor of the Town Car, the Lincoln MKS would become the longest American sedan until 2016.
From 1980 until 2007, the Lincoln Town Car was assembled in Wixom, Michigan alongside the Lincoln Continental, LS, and Mark VI, VII, and VIII. After Wixom's closure, Town Car production moved to Southwold, Ontario alongside the similar Ford Crown Victoria and the Mercury Grand Marquis. The final Lincoln Town Car was produced on August 29, 2011.
Within the Lincoln model line, the Town Car was not directly replaced; the nameplate was used from 2012 to 2019 to denote livery/limousine/hearse variants of the Lincoln MKT. For 2017, the revived Continental replaced the MKS, closely matching the Town Car in wheelbase and width.

Background

Etymology

In the 1900s-1920s, a town car was a vehicle design that transitioned from horse-drawn carriages to limousines. The design featured an open chauffeur's compartment with an enclosed rear cabin for the passengers. In French, the term "de Ville" described the design as "for town ", as such automobiles had few provisions for carrying luggage; the design was Anglicized as "town car" or "town brougham".
In 1922, Edsel Ford purchased a custom-built Lincoln L-Series town car as a personal vehicle for his father, Henry Ford.
In 1949, Cadillac introduced the Coupe de Ville, followed by the Sedan de Ville in 1956. Though not adopting the namesake design, the Cadillac de Ville series became the primary rival of Lincoln for the second half of the 20th century.

Continental Town Car

Prior to becoming a stand-alone model line for 1981, the Town Car nameplate saw use for two different generations of Lincoln Continental sedans.

1959–1960

For 1959, Lincoln augmented its flagship Continental line, adding the Town Car and Limousine formal sedans above the Mark IV; the vehicles were jointly manufactured by Lincoln and coachbuilder Hess and Eisenhardt. In contrast to the standard Mark IV, the Town Car/Limousine underwent several major design changes. For 1960, the two vehicles adopted the Lincoln Continental nameplate.
While the doors were retained, the Mark-series reverse-slant roofline was replaced by a formal-styled C-pillar, covered by a fully padded vinyl top and inset rear window ; the hardtop roofline gave way to a fixed B-pillar. In addition to adding more conservative styling, the redesigned roofline was a functional change, as it allowed the rear seat to be repositioned to increase legroom without any modification to the wheelbase.
The Town Car was developed for use as an owner-driven vehicle; the Limousine was to be chauffeur-driven, adding a retractable glass partition behind the front seat. The variants were offered with every Continental option included as standard equipment. Town Cars were fitted with broadcloth upholstery for both seats; Limousines were fitted with leather-upholstered front seats. In addition to being specified with identical features, all Town Cars and Limousines were painted Presidential Black.
Production of the Town Car and Limousine was limited by Ford to two vehicles daily, leading the models to become among the rarest vehicles ever built by Ford Motor Company. In total, 214 Town Cars and 83 Limousines were built during 1959 and 1960.

1970–1979

For 1970, Lincoln revived the Town Car name, reintroducing it as a trim package option for the Lincoln Continental, featuring leather seating surfaces and deeper cut-pile carpeting. For 1971, the brand commemorated its fiftieth anniversary by marketing a limited-edition Golden Anniversary Lincoln Continental Town Car; 1500 were produced.
For 1972, the Town Car name returned permanently, becoming a flagship sub-model of the Continental line. Taking from its name heritage, nearly all examples of the Continental Town Car were specified with a vinyl top that covered the rear half of the roof ; to incorporate coach lamps on the B-pillars, a raised molding was included, also marking the transition between the metal and vinyl roof. A two-door variant of the Town Car, named the Town Coupe, was introduced for 1973, featuring nearly the same roof design. When Lincoln redesigned the roofline of the Continental for 1975, the Town Car was fitted with the oval opera windows from the Mark IV coupe; the Town Coupe received a large rectangular opera window.
The Continental Town Car proved to be a success for the division, becoming the most popular Lincoln vehicle of the 1970s.

1980

For 1980, Lincoln became the final American brand to market downsized full-size cars; in addition to doing so nearly four years after Cadillac, Lincoln trailed Ford and sister division Mercury by a year. However, the redesign shifted the brand from marketing the largest production sedan in North America to giving it a smaller exterior footprint than either Cadillac or Chrysler. The Continental Town Car returned for 1980, again serving as the flagship trim of the Lincoln Continental.
Alongside the downsizing of the Lincoln Continental, Ford replaced the Continental Mark V for 1980 with the smaller Mark VI. The first all-new generation of the Mark Series since 1972, the Mark VI shared its chassis and much of the body with the Continental to reduce development and production costs; a four-door sedan was designed to attract additional customers. In line with preceding generations of the Mark Series, the Mark VI was officially branded as a Continental and marketed and supported through Lincoln-Mercury.
In spite of bringing downsized full-size sedans to production to meet high consumer demand, from a marketing standpoint, the 1980 update of the Lincoln model line would prove catastrophic. In early 1980, the slow-selling Lincoln Versailles mid-size sedan was quietly retired; as before 1977, Lincoln again offered solely full-size cars, with nothing to sell against European-brand luxury vehicles. The deletion of the Versailles also left Lincoln to market three versions of the same model line, as the Continental, Continental Town Car/Town Coupe, and Mark VI differed little in appearance.
For 1981, Lincoln's model line underwent a revision to transition its full-size model range from three nameplates to one, commencing a multi-year transition throughout all three Ford divisions. All full-size Lincolns became Lincoln Town Cars; the Lincoln Continental nameplate went on hiatus for the model year, reappearing on an all-new mid-size sedan for 1982. The Mark VI remained in production, ending its model cycle after the 1983 model year; the mid-size Mark VII that replaced it for 1984 represented a near-complete break from design tradition for the Mark Series.

First generation (1981–1989)

A model year removed from the extensive downsizing of its full-size model range, the Lincoln division underwent a revision of its nameplates. Following the discontinuation of the compact Versailles sedan, Lincoln was left marketing six nearly identical vehicles. For 1981, the Lincoln Town Car was introduced, consolidating the Continental and Continental Town Car into a single model line slotted below the Continental Mark VI.
Identical to the 1980 Lincoln Continental, the Lincoln Town Car was offered as a two-door and four-door sedan. Largely overshadowed by its Continental Mark VI counterpart, the Town Car two-door was discontinued for 1982. As the Continental Mark VII was introduced for 1984, Lincoln pared its full-size line down solely to the Town Car four-door sedan.
At the time of its launch, the Town Car had been slated for replacement by front-wheel drive model lines ; as fuel prices began to stabilize, demand initially rose for the model line, leading Lincoln-Mercury to produce the Town Car through the 1980s with few visible changes. Over 200,000 were sold in 1988, the highest ever for the model line. However, this increase was mostly due to an extended 1988 Town Car model year which ran from March 1987 to October 1988 instead of the usual 12-month period. Conversely, the 1987 Town Car with its shortened model year only had sales of just over 76,000. Although remaining Lincoln's top-selling model, calendar-year sales declined each year for the Town Car between 1986 and 1989. This decline was mostly blamed on its aging design and the increased popularity of the Continental which had been fully redesigned for 1988.

Chassis

The 1980–1989 Lincoln Continental/Town Car utilized the Panther platform shared with Ford and Mercury. Delayed to the 1980 model year due to engineering issues, the Panther platform meant radically different exterior dimensions for the Lincoln models. Although extended three inches in wheelbase over its Ford/Mercury/Mark VI coupe counterparts, the 1980-1989 versions would have the shortest wheelbase ever used for a full-size Lincoln at the time. The 1980 Continental/Town Car was the shortest Lincoln since the Versailles. In the interest of fuel economy and handling, the Panther chassis reduced weight by up to compared to the 1970-1979 full-size Lincolns. As the lightest full-size Lincoln in 40 years, the 1980 Continental/Town Car came within less than 200 pounds of the curb weight of the compact-sized Versailles. The new Panther platform meant reduced overall size, better suspension geometry, and upgraded power steering with a reduced turning diameter by over 8 feet. For 1984, gas-pressurized shocks were added.
To achieve better Corporate Average Fuel Economy results, Ford discontinued the 400 and 460 big-block V8s in its full-size cars. For 1980, a 4.9 L V8 was standard. A V8 was available as an option. Following the introduction of the Lincoln Town Car in 1981, the V8 became the only available engine. In Canada, the 302 V8 remained carbureted until 1985. In 1986, the 302 V8 was revised to, following a redesign of the fuel-injection system with the introduction of sequential multi-port fuel injection. These engines are identifiable by their cast aluminum upper intake manifolds with a horizontal throttle body ; this replaced the traditional throttle body with a carburetor-style top-mounted air cleaner previously used. Introduced in the Lincoln Continental for 1980 and marketed in all Panther-platform vehicles in 1981, the Lincoln Town Car was equipped with the 4-speed AOD automatic overdrive transmission, the sole transmission of 1981–1989 examples.
All Town Cars from 1980 through 1989 were available with an optional trailer towing package that included dual exhausts, a 3.55:1 limited-slip differential and an improved cooling package for the engine and transmission.

Engine	Displacement	Fuel System	Years produced	Horsepower rating	Torque output	Notes	Transmission
Ford 5.0 V8		CFI 2bbl carburetor	1981	at 3400 rpm	at 2,200 rpm		Ford 4-speed AOD automatic
Ford 5.0 V8		CFI 2bbl carburetor	1982	at 3400 rpm	at 2,200 rpm		Ford 4-speed AOD automatic
Ford 5.0 V8		CFI 2bbl carburetor	1983	at 3200 rpm	. at 2,000 rpm		Ford 4-speed AOD automatic
Ford 5.0 V8		CFI 2bbl carburetor	1984–1985	at 3200 rpm	at 1,600 rpm		Ford 4-speed AOD automatic
Ford 5.0 V8		CFI 2bbl carburetor	1984–1985	at 3600 rpm	. at 2,000 rpm	dual exhaust option	Ford 4-speed AOD automatic
Ford 5.0 V8		SEFI	1986–1989		at 2,000 rpm		Ford 4-speed AOD automatic
Ford 5.0 V8		SEFI	1986–1989		at 2,200 rpm	dual exhaust option	Ford 4-speed AOD automatic