1990 Lincoln Continental The First Fifty Years 1940 to 1990 by Automobile Quarterly. The Lincoln company had been in the business of making cars for almost 20 years before the Continental was introduced in October, 1939. Yet that very name would eventually become synonymous with the company and its image. The 1940 Continental was daring and modern, with a distinct international air about it; the precendent it set would challenge the makers of subsequent Continentals for the following 50 years.