I have a OT-car buddy that really likes unusual cars of all eras, but has one in particular that you guys may be able to help with. As the story was told, back in 1963, Mercury delivered 12 brand new Colony Park station wagons to Pomona for the 1963 NHRA event for the crews of teams to use as pit cars and parts chasers. They were uniquely optioned, most were 390/4sp cars, many with other unique options. Enters my buddy. He purchases a 1963 Mercury Colony Park wagon, with 390/4sp and ac, bronze metallic with woodgrain treatment and a gold/beige interior. (see photo). The previous owner had painstakingly restored the car (full frame-off job), believing it to be one of the legendary 12, and it remained his pride and joy for years. Failing health forced him to offer it up for sale, finally landing in my buddy's garage here in NC. All the unique options suggest this could be one of the 12 Pomona cars provided by Mercury in 1963, but neither the previous owner nor my buddy have been able to find documentation to provide provenance of it's suspected lineage. Letters to Ford, NHRA, and others have produced nothing. He is taking it to the Mercury Owners Meet/Show in Tennessee later in the year in hopes that someone can assist with his search. My hope is that someone here might have some knowledge of these cars, whether it be first-hand, documentation, whatever. I'm nearly certain that the hyperlink below is my buddy's new car as "found" by Hemmings... https://www.hemmings.com/stories/2018/06/26/hemmings-find-of-the-day-1963-mercury-colony-park If additional information is needed, please contact me via direct message.
Maybe the place to start would be a roster of the teams that competed at the event. That should be easy enough. Then pick the 12 most likely teams to have received such a perk. Contact members of those suspected teams. Look at Super Stock, Stock, and Top Fuel teams, the most likely candidates.
I followed drag racing pretty close back then and I have not read anything about that. It will be interesting to see if this is fact or urban lore.
White wagons seem logical as they could easily display the NHRA logo. The only way I see one other than white is it might have been used as Wally’s personal car for the year. JMO
Is it plated Trans5 from the factory? This may help (post #12 is interesting). http://www.stationwagonforums.com/forums/threads/1963-colony-park-4-speed-wagon.7597/
Found this pic too, but not even sure it’s the right vehicle between my poor eyes and being on my phone but I think that might be the right wagon in the background of the 63 Pontiac wagon?
There’s a lot of guys on the ford barn more into restoration, tracking limited production, etc. There and the AACA might turn up someone from a different angle than hot rodding and racing.
Thanks everyone! AND the person that authored Post 12 in the stationwagons.com forum purchased this car from the original owner on CA, moved it to TX, and then sold it to the last owner in MA before my buddy purchased it. More photos of how it sits today: Keep the info coming!!!!
Maybe there is some truth to this story? The picture Russco posted above is a clip of the same one I am posting that shows maybe 2 of the same wagons in the background. what are the odds 2 very similar wagons parked so close to each other at an event like this?
Here is a different angle of the track and there is a similar wagon on that side but I cannot tell if it is the same or not. I think it has the wood trim on the fender, not sure.
What month was the event? Can you figure out the production date of the wagon and see if it is even feasable that it could have been there? This wouldn't verify but it certainly could eliminate.
Winternats were on Feb. 17, 1963. I'm checking on the build date... UPDATE: Build date was 1/17/63...my buddy's 10th birthday! Looking very plausible!
DSO? What is this? Would this be another possible indicator that the legend is true? UPDATE: Just got this from my buddy... "The DSO on the door tag specifies the Zone that car is to be shipped to; San Francisco, NY, Denver, Dallas, etc. with a Code. A blank DSO denotes that the car was a "special event" ordered vehicle that was to be shipped directly to the event and not a dealer."
Another thought regarding event date/build date. To me, with that drivetrain combination, this would seem to have been a joint "project" between Mercury and NHRA, a sort of mini fleet build arrangement done at an off-production site similar to the way the Thunderbolt program was done and may even have been released before standard production car assembly. Just me thinking!
The majority of the wagons were Mercury color code M- Sultana White while this one was code Z- Desert Frost. I still think it may have been built for Wally's personal use, he may not have used it as his DD but it was available when he wanted it.
Boy I love the HAMB, for just such topics as this. When I first read this post I thought it was probably a myth. Now after several HAMBers have come forward with corroborating evidence I see it is possible that was one of the fleet cars built. Nice.
It sure looks like it’s one of them to me. I wish My Pop was still alive, We lost him last year but he’d likely have known. He ran the local strip here for a while and also traveled and crewed with his buddy that ran A/Fuel to many of those events and was a huge Ford guy. He special ordered a 64 fastback Galaxy in mid’63 that was 390/4speed/4.11 with bench seat he got it in late ‘63. He was always talking about stuff like this.
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