RFI: Old American Car

Drive Time

Here’s one for you Murkin Car Guys. As any fule kno, I am fairly knowledgeable about Brit and Euro cars, much less so when it comes to Murkin ones because  I’m an iggerant furriner  my heritage, car-wise, is not American.  Sure, I’m reasonably familiar with some brands and types, but those are mostly the “exotic” ones like the AC Cobra and some Corvettes.

But when it comes to “mass market” American cars, I have to plead the Fifth, not for fear of self-incrimination but because I don’t want to show my  ass  ignorance.

Here’s a good example.  I get updates from Hemmings.com each day, and mostly I’m only interested if there’s a “new” Ferrari or similar.  But yesterday’s update featured a car of whose brand I know next to nothing, and hardly anything at all about its place in time.

So, Gentle Readers, talk to me about this convertible:

1966 Mercury Comet Convertible – 1 of 2,158 Ever Made, Numbers Matching and Professionally Restored

From the blurb:  This Mercury muscle car is powered by a numbers-matching 390 S-Code four-barrel engine producing 335 horsepower mated to a Sport shift Merc-O-Matic transmission and a 3.25 locker rear differential upgrade.

All I got from the above is “335 horsepower”.  I don’t know what the relationship between Ford and Mercury was back then — I know that now, Mercury is Ford’s “upscale” sub-brand — or that Mercury even made muscle cars (thinking that was mostly Pontiac or Dodge’s domain).

I have no idea how the “Merc-O-Matic” tranny was regarded back then;  was it a monster, better than others, or just a label slapped on an ordinary tranny?

And don’t even ask me to decipher “390 S-Code four-barrel engine” without resorting to WikiPedia…

Finally:  in its apparently-restored condition, is the asking price of ~$70 grand good, laughable or a bargain?

Of course, I’m not going to try and buy it — hell, I wouldn’t accept the thing as a gift* because it’s hideously ugly to my non-Murkin automotive sensibility, and I have no idea how the thing handles, either.  My experience with 1960s American cars is that they handled like barges and cornered like they were on a skid pan — but was this particular model better than its contemporaries?

My interest is academic only.

All responses gratefully received.

*although had they offered TV spokesmodel Jill Wagner as an optional extra, I might have been sorely tempted, back in the day.

 

18 comments

  1. Nice car. The Mercury brand is gone now. Ford these days is junk.

    Jill Wagner is attractive, however, why is her finger on the trigger of that Glock (looks to be a generation 2 Glock, no rail, and the grips are of Gen 2 form with no Finger Grooves but the texture on the sides of grip, pebble all around texture would be a gen 1).
    Anyways, she needs to learn to keep her booger hook off of the bang switch until ready to discharge a load.

  2. That Comet is from MY era and is an exquisite example of American design and engineering which was at it’s pinnacle during that period.

    I would feel perfectly comfortable, with the tools I have on hand, mounting ANY sort of repair and maintenance on that vehicle. Know why?

    Because I earned the know how and experience from my dad and others starting when I was about 8-10 years old. A 1/2″-9/16″ box wrench will be used in about 50% of any work on that machine. With a standard hand-carry tool box full of the common tools of the time a common Joe like me could climb under or on top of that thing and after a trip or 3 to the parts place have that thing back up and running pronto.

    Try to do that with ANY vehicle made in the past 20 years.
    In my wifes Equinox it took me 2 years to figure out where the battery was and her 1994 Beretta had the brake master cylinder mounted under the drivers side floor board.

    I’d take that Comet over 90% of all the other vehicles on the road today and enjoy every minute of my use of it.

    FWIW, though I owned a couple Ford vehicles back then my preference was always Chevy’s.

  3. The U.S. Ford hierarchy in the era was:
    Ford brand – entry level basic cars with “you pay extra for any options added”
    Mercury brand – next step up from Ford badge with fair amount of luxury out the gate and some added option menu
    Lincoln brand – top of the line high luxury to compete with Cadillac and fewer optionals

    As a bottom feeder, had a 62 Ford Falcon – acquired for zero dollars at the cost of wrenching new brake lines and adding a battery (absolutely nothing even remotely like what was made in Argentina or OZ at the time)
    Then mid 80’s bought a series of Mercury rides for wife, they were OK but then again Ford was really retarded in the 80’s as to design/features (remember carburetor converted to throttle body point single injection?. Last Ford product owned was an Aerostar van to haul the (then) 3 rug rats.

    The model you show is a rare vehicle, hence the likely nosebleed price, but I would not want to own it even if I had the cash. It is a museum piece as anyone that wants early muscle to drive about (and be able to support with spare parts) will be looking at GM/Pontiac or even Chrysler of the era.

  4. The Comet is a smaller car, with that engine it would have great, maybe scary, acceleration. Your experience with 1960s American car handling is accurate, and this would be no different. The weight of the big engine would only make handling worse. Still, would be fun for an afternoon cruise with the top down.

  5. As Terrapod mentioned, all the big three had their budget, intermediate, and top-o-the-line branded cars which were all basically the same model with different trim packages. (Ford-Merc-Lincoln, Plymouth-Dodge-Chrysler, etc.) This Comet Cyclone is just a high performance trim package on a basic Ford Fairlane. And to those who say these are easy to repair – well, the basic Ford Fairlane is easy to repair – to keep this “numbers matching” car truly “numbers matching”, you got an entirely new set of headaches as you’ll never be able to find the correct hi-po parts.

    I may be wrong, but I think the 390 started as a truck engine and got stuffed into the intermediate sized cars after Mr. DeLorean gifted us with the GTO and started the Musclecar Era. It never really achieved the fame that Dodge had with their Hemi and 440 Magnum, or Chevy with the magnificent 350 V8. But bottom line they all had more engine than tires and could easily scorch the rubber off the rear end if using period correct tires. Stopping was still accomplished by good old fashioned drum brakes. And occasionally they could stop you twice before over-heating. Handling is exactly what you’d expect.

    Also, the 1 of only xxx is just a sales ploy and should not affect price. As an example, imagine if Ford made 500,000 identical cars but painted only one of them burnt orange. Well, that would be 1 of only 1, right? Never mind that you have 499,999 other identical cars that could easily be repainted if you just had to have an orange car. Ignore that.

    $70k is outrageous. You can get many many other much cooler cars for half that price (driver quality, not necessarily show quality). And that’s what you want, driver quality and good mechanicals. Otherwise it’s just garage art that you occasionally trailer to a show. For example,

    https://www.pcclassiccars.com/car-inventory/survivor-1971-pontiac-lemans-sport-convertible-%2F-numbers-matching-350-%2F-cold-ac

    Put that in your browser and take a gander. Only $32,500 and a much better car. And yes, I’m a musclecar fanatic and having withdrawal pains after selling my ’67 almost a decade back. Getting close to retirement and would love another toy.

    1. How are you all able to post web links? When I do, it won’t actually post my post. I can see it logged in to the blog site, but it doesn’t show to others.

      1. No clue, I just cut-n-paste and there it is. With all my comments here, when I hit “post comment” the page doesn’t update. I have to hit the X and then reload the page to see my comment (regardless of whether it has a link or not). I’m not web savvy enough to understand it.

      1. I will add that if you took a junker and restored it to that level, you’d likely spend well over $70k, even if you did most of the work in your own garage. However, that doesn’t make it worth $70k nor does it guarantee that it’ll sell for $70k. There’s lots of stories in the car collector community of someone spending $50k or more on a resto then selling it for ~$20k or less. Remember, it’s only worth what someone else is willing to pay for it.

  6. The 390 engine in the 60’s had the power. We had a 68 F-100 with a 390 where it was too much engine for the truck unless there was 800 to a 1000 pounds in the bed.

  7. An older friend from those years had beautiful red 2 door Fairlane, 289 2bbl. It was tuned to perfection,
    spotlessly sleek, clean and had no useless chrome. I don’t know what gears he had in it, but it was very quick and responsive.
    Before he marched off to war, he wanted MORE POWER, and so he traded that beautiful car for a Mercury Cyclone w/ 390 4bbl. It had a huge iridescent eyesore called a decal running down both sides, which didn’t make any quicker. It might have been faster, flat out on a long straight road, but it was a garbage scow from stoplight to stoplight.

  8. In high school in the ’70s, I had a 1963 Chevy Impala (4 door, no post, 409/400hp). Nice, safe family car that I could take the rest of the kids to school in. Plenty of power and a tight 4-speed. My older brother had a ’67 Mercury Comet Cyclone GT with a souped up 390. He spent all of his junior and half of his senior year grounded for getting caught doing 130mph. He could outrun the Highway Patrol, but he couldn’t out run their radio. That ruined any chance of me upgrading my car until I joined the Navy at 17. I then promptly bought a ’67 Nova SS with a 327/325hp Turbofire engine. I held onto that until early 2010’s and sold it for just under $55K. I see them occasionally bring in excess of $100-150K, which is stupid money. My current, and likely last, project car is a 1964 Buick Riviera Gran Sport, which I’ve been tinkering with long distance for about 16 years. It a non-numbers matching car, but it’s period correct with a rebuilt Super Wildcat (360hp) engine. My interest is waning, but it’s in my brother’s shop and he does 95% of the work on it, so I tend to forget about it. I’ve sold it once, then bought it back. I wish I had more sense that way.

  9. Can’t add much except my personal experience at the bottom end. My first car (1970) was a used ’64 Comet, surplussed out by the state of California. It was still in the fleet colors of it’s time, battleship grey. Four door, bench front seat, 289 2bbl, three-speed auto trans, AM radio, no A/C. It served me well through high school and into college. Girl friend at the time and I appreciated the bench seat. I drove it stock, only doing necessary maintenance. I did not have the knowledge, $$, or interest to do more.

    My next car was a used ’69 BMW 2002 that I bought from an estate. My first test drive was solo in a brand new BART parking lot. It was my first introduction to “European Handling”. Oh my. It wasn’t until after my Army hitch in West Germany that I got to wrenching on that little go-kart. Weber carb, header, springs, shocks, 320i take-off rims and rubber to match. Banzai.

  11. I can’t add to much to what has already been said, but I will say this, it is a jewel of a now long lost brand.
    Truck engine, yeah, a bit of a boat anchor, but if I had it I would enjoy it. But I’d prefer a ’67 big block 427/428 or ’68 Mercury Cougar XR-7 GT-E if sticking to the brand. I’ve ALWAYS preferred those to the Mustang.

    Price is on the high-side, but it’s listed in Hemmings, so no surprise.

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