10k: What A Face: 1970 Mercury Cyclone GT
Mercury’s Cyclone badge started life as a performance 2-door option on the original Comet, back when the Comet was a compact Falcon-based sedan. As the Comet grew in size, so did the Cyclone, and by 1968 the Cyclone was its own thing — based on the Ford Fairlane. In 1970, when the Torino name superseded the Fairlane, the Cyclone was a sporty two-door version of Mercury’s Montego, which was based on the intermediated size Torino, but used most of its own sheet metal. Confused…don’t be…just take a look at that front grill and embrace the madness. Find this 1970 Mercury Cyclone GT
currently bidding for$11,500 reserve-not-met with 3 days to go, located in Neptune, NJ via eBay.
To say that the Cyclone has a beak is an extreme understatement. It is like saying that Barbara Streisand has a big nose, Weird Al has curly hair, or that Hitler had a mustache. The Cyclone’s rostrum is more than just a design feature, it defines the car. It is the bomp in the bomp bah bomp bah bomp, the ram in the ram-a-lamb a ding dong..et cetera. Let’s get a better look.
Huzzah!! 5 mph impact safety? Ha! A 1 mph impact with a bicyclist will cause $1k of damage to the cyclopstril thing in the middle. Pedestrian safety? Ha! If you are lucky enough to avoid the pointy center, you’ll be pulling your teeth out of the flip-up headlamp covers for weeks. This car will kill, maim, and bedazzle all others into submission. Even Zod bows down before this thing!
Pop up the faux-scoop adorned hood (good grief, those hood springs must be surplus from a suspension bridge) and check out the 351 cubic inch V8 inside. This 4-barrel fed beast is good for 260 SAE net (300 gross) horsepower and before you start bitching about how the Windsor isn’t as cool as the 429 — take a look on the inside….
An intermediate sized Mercury equipped with a 4 on the floor…now I’ve seen everything!! Forget the CobraJet, that little 4 speed is going to up the fun factor on this boat from the Queen Mary to the Bismarck. If you still want the 429 — JUST LOOK AT THE NOSE!!
Don’t get blown away by this twister. tips@dailyturismo.com
Personally, I'm in favor of the Mad Max approach to pedestrian safety. Now where did I put those Sawzall blades?
Kind of an example of where Detroit started to go wrong in the late '60s: compare and contrast, open the hood on this thing, then open the hood on, say, any BMW 530i (E12 on up).
Measure the distance from the front of the engine block to the front bumper.
Despite the fact that the Bimmer has the longer engine (not including the accessories) there's a whole Mini, or at least a Smart, more car in the Mercury than in the Bimmer.
Wow, love the blue vinyl interior AND it has 3 pedals!
I would love to see the exaggerated 1970s style design rendering of this car
This is crazy styling. Never to be repeated. Buy me one now!