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Continuing the history of the fastest four-leaves in the field.
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Films:
1969 Mercury Cyclone CJ: An American Pastime
When first seeing the car featured on this weeks video I admit to being underwhelmed. Muscle cars rule in the area of the country I live and having been raised in England I tend to get excited over European machinery. I was wrong to think this. Cy’s soft spoken but articulate words and the sound of this brute sold me. Mean car, nice guy.
The muscle car era was not an era of special interest for me either, but I found myself reading the supporting literature on this one. And if you are a muscle car guy this 1969 Mercury Cyclone sounds like one of the ones that you would want to know about. According to reviews in Hot Rot and related journals this Cyclone was more agile than its predecessors.
This specific Cyclone emerges at the end of a development cycle in what was becoming a increasingly influential market sector. Therefore you would think that by the time the design team got to the 1969 Cyclone that they would have taken considerable care to incorporate lessons learned, and get factors like chassis stiffness, and rear axle kinematics right. Sweet car, and lovely photos of it in the surrounding country.
I grew up in that landscape, a few hours north of where this video was shot. The country there much like this. Beautiful place with broadleaf trees and rivers. There are a lot of people like me who came to the other end of Route 66 and stayed here in LA. We came not so much for the weather, which was in fact a step up, but for the jobs. And the cars that you might see on the drive down here looked a lot like that Cyclone.
Myself, I drove out in a base-model Japanese pick-up with a tool chest and a mattress in the back.
That’s another nice video and why I like Petrolicious and its community: drive your car, don’t leave it just in a museum. Drive tastefully. And yeah: with an old car you must pay attention to the road and not to your smart / cell phone. And by the way: you don’t need to switch on music. The engine and exhaust are just the music
First off, I always applaud the cars on the fringes, the ones nearly forgotten that show off a wider view of design diversity in the automotive kingdom. I love to celebrate the merits of the obscure. Secondly, I really appreciate the nuance shown toward this fellow. He seems like a level-headed, soft-spoken car guy that [major bonus!] has a gal that enjoys car rides with him. I probably won’t have a Cyclone in my garage, and he’s not of my era, but a lady with that quality never goes out of style. Well done.
I had the unique opportunity, living in Indianapolis and being a ‘car guy’ during the muscle car period. I knew several folks that are now ‘names’ in the car business. Ed Martin was one of ’em. Ed had a Cyclone in his personal collection, and campaigned a Thunderbolt (Ford’s version of the Mercury) at the drag strip. The Thunderbolt was quite a car being made for the drag strip only. The Cyclone was a driver…and Ed DID drive it. I sorta sided with GM cars, so my choice was a Chevy. Chevelle Malibu….big block…4 speed, etc. Blue with a black interior. I noticed that Chevelle would stop a bit better, and go around corners a bit easier…but when it came to just raw horsepower and going straight, that Cyclone was untouchable. Nice film….being done in the late fall in the Cincinnati area brings back a LOT of positive memories. Good job on the filming you all!
I had a 1971 Mercury Cyclone GT which my mother bought new and gave to me. I drove the car all through high-school and college. When I graduated, I bought a Trans Am and parked the Cyclone. I always thought I’d restore it one day, but research showed me only the Mercury Cyclone Spoiler models were worth restoring as they had the 428 Super Cobra Jet motors and the spoiler package. Mine had a 351 Cleveland engine and an automatic transmission. It was also painted in Golden Rod Yellow (Baby Poop Yellow would have been a better name). As I become more interested in Italian exotic cars, I actually gave the car back to my mom who sold it to someone who expressed interest in restoring the car.
When I see this video and hear Cy talk, I do miss the car as I had a million memories in that car… but unless you’re Jay Leno, you can’t keep them all.
I will get another muscle car, but I won’t car about matching numbers or correctness because, again as Cy says, I want to drive the snot out of it.
Thanks Petrolicious for bringing back some great memories with this piece.
Frank
