For the luxury automobile built by the Lincoln-Mercury Division of Ford Motor Company, see Lincoln Town Car.
1934 Rolls-Royce with Sedanca de Ville coachwork
1934 Hispano-Suiza J12 Sedanca de Ville, coachwork by Carrosserie Kellner
A town car is a historical automobile body style in which the front seats were open and the rear compartment closed, normally with a removable top to cover the front chauffeur's compartment. The modern Lincoln Town Car derives its name, but nothing else, from this style, although a special Lincoln built in 1922 for Henry Ford's personal use was called a Town Car. 1
In Europe the style is known as Sedanca de Ville, often shortened to Sedanca or de Ville. The name Sedanca was introduced by the Spanish Count Salamanca in the 1920s.2.
In 1940 and 1941, a limited edition model of the Cadillac Sixty Special was named Town Car - reintroduced as a hardtop in 1949 but translated into French as Coupe DeVille and in 1956 as a four-door hardtop as Sedan DeVille.
