1953 Mercury Woodie Wagon
1957 Mercury Monterey Convertible
Mercury Monterey Hardtop
1970 Mercury Cougar
1956 Mercury Montclair
1970 Mercury Cyclone Spoiler II
In the early sixties, the rather pedestrian Comet was injected with more potential to take advantage of the performance car market that was exploding with Stock Car Racing. It was renamed the Cylone and became Mercury's circuit racer once it received Ford's big block V8 engine.
Whether it's traditional flames or a mail-slot windshields, the Mercury lead sleds were iconic cars of their day and many of the best were on display at the show.
1964 Mercury Breezeway 2-Door
1954 Mercury Monterey Convertible
Mercury Turnpike Cruiser 1957
The Mercury Turnpike Cruiser was a halo model of the Mercury Division of the Ford Motor Company that was produced from 1957 to 1958.
At introduction of the 1957 line up the Turnpike Cruiser series offered two and a four door hardtop body styles. They are best known for the unique styling cues and wide array of gadgets including a power rear window that could be lowered to improve ventilation, "twin jet" air intakes at upper corners of car's windshield, "seat-o-matic" automatically adjusting seat, and an average speed "computer".
For 1957, the Turnpike Cruiser was the premium model range for Mercury. In addition to its unique features, the car was further differentiated from other Mercury models by a gold anodized trim strip in the car's rear fin. It came standard with an automatic transmission and a 368-c.i.d. engine producing 290 horsepower; this engine was optional on other Mercurys.
Later in the model year an open car named Convertible Cruiser was added to this series. From the beginning it was created only to be used as the official pace car of the 1957 Indianapolis 500. On January 7, 1957 it was announced that the Convertible Cruiser would be available as a production model as well. All Convertible cruisers had a continental tire kit and were painted yellow (Sun Glitter), similar to the original pace cars.
