Jive-Bomber submitted a new blog post: The Hirohata Mercury is For Sale... (Next Year) Continue reading the Original Blog Post
Always a favorite and the R&C articles were great to my teenage me. But, I am one of the few that prefers the lime gold version.
I can see myself with this merc in my garage , going out to the garage with a coffee in the morning and just looking at it for hours.
The most well-known and accurate clone is the Jack Walker version built by Doug Thompson in the mid 1980s. This version is a near perfect copy of Hirohata's car, and it's now owned by John D'Agostino. (You've probably seen other '51 Mercs with a few custom elements of the car, but not a 100% copy)
One of these was on display a few years back at the St Paul World of Wheeels? I think I was told it was the clone. @Tuck would know for sure
Super big thanks to @pgan for documenting the resurrection of it in R&C back then. I loved following along as it happened. So glad this car is around for people to enjoy, hope whoever buys it keeps it on display for the general public.
Really surprised the Petersen didn't already scoop this one up. Hope it gets the amount the family is looking for but not to sit in a private collection never to be seen again.
It's mine, all mine! Back off suckers, you know it's mine and it has been destined to be! If only.....LOL Guess I'll have to be content with my own near clone version I've been collecting parts for 20+ years for....long before I ever had a Merc. Ha. I can still my excitement when Pat announced it in R&C that it was going to be restored. He wrote that Jim struggled with which version to restore it to, in that he appreciated that most people knew it in the original sea foam, but that he preferred the green and gold since that was the color when he got it. I wrote in (and Pat published it in the letters column) that if Jim likes that version better, he should do it that way, since by then we already had Jack's clone and by that point it had been the "McNiel Merc" much longer than it had been the Hirohata Merc. I am glad Jim decided to go with the original version, but it would be fun to have a clone in the gold and have them side by side....kinda like the different versions of Watson's Heartless/Grapevine.
A-Chop -- None of my business (as if that ever stopped me), have you ever considered painting the shirt and the partial rear fender gold? Or is that a exhaust pipe cleverly routed there?
In a perfect world I would have the money to buy both the original and then the Walker Clone. I would turn the Walker clone into the "Running wild"version and then take them both to all the custom car shows. Got to have a dream...... Torchie
What is everyone's guess on what this car will bring? to me it is "the" car to have but will people today caring less and less about custom cars will it bring more than lets say a 1969 camaro that has been resto modded at a auction? To me it is priceless and a piece of American history, however like stated before todays society doesn't care.
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