History ONE OFF FACTORY FASTBACKS

Created for the ’60s custom car show circuit, Mercury’s 1964 Comet Super Cyclone was one of a kind. Here’s some backstory to the wild factory custom.



It doesn’t appear there was ever any production intent for the Comet Super Cyclone, Mercury’s far-out fastback show car of 1964, but it’s still fun to wonder what if. Designed by Ford advanced stylist David L. Ash and his staff, the Super Cyclone was constructed by Dearborn Steel Tubing, a local Ford contractor that was also responsible for the Fairlane Thunderbolts, the Thunderbird Itelien concept, and other exotic skunkworks-type projects.



To create the Super Cyclone, famed designer-fabricator Vince Gardner and his associate Paul Shedlik, then in the employ of DST, started with a stock ’64 Comet Cyclone hardtop equipped with a 289 CID V8 and a Borg-Warner four-speed. After removing much of the factory sheet metal aft of the A-pillars, they modeled and constructed a new outer skin in fiberglass. The revised look sported radiused rear wheel openings to match the front and a radically sloped roofline to support a large, wraparound rear glass.

As we can see, the backlite bears a powerful resemblance to the one on the original 1964 Plymouth Barracuda, just then going into production. Though we have no reason to presume it’s anything more than coincidence, the similarity is striking. Other custom features included a complete interior in white Naugahyde, Astro custom wheels with bolt-on knockoffs, and teardrop racing mirrors. The revised front end treatment featured a custom grille with fine vertical teeth and French Cibie headlights. The rectangular lamps were popular on the custom car scene in the ’60s but technically, they weren’t legal for street use in the U.S.



The Super Cyclone made its first public appearance at the Chicago Auto Show (above) on February 8-15, 1964. (We can’t help wondering what the Plymouth people thought when they saw it.) The fastback was also a regular feature of the Lincoln-Mercury Caravan of Stars, a traveling exhibition on the hot rod show circuit, and in the April 1964 issue of Rod & Custom magazine (below) it shared the cover with Ed Roth’s latest show rod, The Road Agent. We don’t know this, but since the Super Cyclone hasn’t been sighted in decades, we assume it was destroyed once its show career was over—the usual fate of show cars and concepts.



Thanks to Motor City Garage. HRP

 

Thanks for the post. I am sure the members of Comet Central would be interested in reading it also. I hope you don’t mind if I share it with them.
https://www.cometcentral.com/forum/index.php

 

Feel free, I found it on the web a while back and had saved it. HRP

 

My frind has a comet that was a four door and someone prior had filled in the rear doors. Looked goofy as all hell with short doors and four door roof line. It was actually quite funny going to a show or cruise because guys would stand back and shake their heads trying to figure out what was going on. Anyway long story longer I told him a 67-8 mustang fastback roof and a set of comet hardtop doors would look really kool and it would really make guys scratch there heads.

 

Funny looks like the back glass came out of a Plymouth Baccaruda....

 

I would be out past the end of the limb on this one but knowing the cost of having a one off piece of glass would cost I do not doubt that they used plymouth glass. Not likely anyone will ever know though.

edit damnit: I meant to say, neat car. I would like to see it in person.

 

Except for the goofy exhausts on the rear quarter panels, I think it looks cool. I agree that the rear glass looks like it came from a Barracuda.

 

I've loved that car from the first moment I saw it on the R&C cover in '64. I always thought that someone should clone this, only as a fully functional car. The rear 'glass' was plexiglass and it had no side windows or opening trunk unfortunately, so practicality wasn't quite there. They constructed it by cutting off the roof first then mocking up the new roof and other body mods in clay. They pulled a mold off the clay, then cut the rest of the rear sheetmetal away. The roof and everything behind the doors is one piece. Not usually noticed was the modified front wheel openings, possibly also fiberglass?

A Barracuda rear glass would be a near-perfect donor for a clone....

Ford was aware of the soon-to-be-introduced Barracuda, this was to steal some of their thunder as this appeared two weeks before the 'Cuda was unveiled.

 

I cringe every time I see those rectangle headlight treatments.
Nice to see a Ford with Plymouth rear glass. Adds a bit of class.

 

I like those European rectangular headlights. I don't like the rectangular headlights of the 70's and 80's though.

 

Barracomet
Cometcuda

 

Comet,comet,comet,comet,comet,chameleon

 

Pretty sure those are Citroen Ami headlights. That was quite the departure from round headlights. Ford Europe had that year outfitted the Taunus with oval glass lenses so you know the American design teams were bound to get jealous...

I think it's a good look. The rear glasshouse is a touch overkill but it's still a pretty car.

 

Would have looked better with a Marlin rear. a smoother sail panel.

 

IMO it would look better if the back glass wasn't the wrap around style.

Look at the Bill Thomas Chevy II fastbacks or any of the later fastbacks from Ford or the '67-69 Cuda

 

I have always liked fastbacks, I don't know how well the car was received when it was on the show circuit but I would think someone would have cloned the car since the original one was probably destroyed.

 

Maybe....

 

I was thinking the same thing John. HRP

 

Holman Moody tried it with the '63 Falcon.





This is copied from Reference Ford.

During the spring of 1963 the Falcon got its own fastback roofline, as the Falcon Futura became available as a two-door “hardtop-fastback” (actually called a “scatback”), making the 19’63 1/2 Futura the most desired Falcon ever. And finally, Ford added the 260ci two-barrel V-8 with 164 hp to the option list. The lightweight small-block V-8, introduced a year earlier in the Fairlane, was a logical upgrade for Falcon buyers seeking real power. With the V-8 came a new, downsized, removable-carrier 3.25:1 conventional rear end with an 8-inch ring gear. Brake size was also increased to 10 inches, which improved stopping considerably.

Challenger

Another terrific midyear addition was the Falcon Sprint package for fastback-hardtops and convertibles, the result of research and development conducted by Holman-Moody on a ’1962 Falcon two-door sedan test mule, known as the Challenger. The Falcon Challenger was going to be built by Holman-Moody and marketed through Ford dealers, similar to the Shelby Mustang two years later. The Challenger had a stock 164-horse 260ci V-8, four-speed, 3.50:1 gears, handling package, larger tires and–would you believe–four-wheel Airheart disc brakes.

The Holman-Moody Falcon Challenger never saw production, but Ford decided to produce the in-house Falcon Sprint instead. Although it was a watered-down version of the Challenger, the Falcon Sprint turned out to be the sporty Falcon Ford’s product planners envisioned for the company’’s corporate image. Think of the Sprint as a Falcon Futura on steroids, with chassis stiffening, a firmer suspension, a sport steering wheel, a tachometer, a Borg-Warner T10 four-speed, wire-style wheel covers, and a glass-pack muffler to enhance the pulse from the 260 V-8.

The above found March 29, 2006 here: http://www.mustangandfords.com/thehistoryof/25798/index4.html

A notch back version of the Ford Falcon Challenger raced at the Sebring 12 hour race in 1962. The car was built in three weeks and driven by Marvin Panch and Jocko Maggiacomo. Finished 2nd in class and 36th overall. In your wildest dreams, could you ever imagine a Falcon leading a Ferrari GTO at Sebring? The Challenger I surprised many. It was proposed for entry in the 1962 Le Mans 24 hours but the entry was not accepted.

 

I like the Falcon. The rear view reminds me of an early Plymouth valiant

 

Ford's Custom Car Caravan had a 1963 T-bird called the Italien that had an even better looking fast back roof.

 

This.....

 

It looks cobbled together like the Barracuda. Ford got it right with the Mustang.

 

1963 Ford Thunderbird Italien Fastback
At their upcoming Auction Barrett Jackson will offer the only Thunderbird Italien Fastback, below is an excerpt from the auction catalogue.

”Departing from the traditional Thunderbird greenhouse, this special 1963 Thunderbird features a new roof line with aerodynamic styling and a customized leather interior with bucket seats front and rear. The Thunderbird Italien was a styling study from Ford’s own Thunderbird styling department and was designed by Fords own Thunderbird Stylists who actually built the plywood buck over which they sculpted the clay model of the roof in their own studio and then gave the car to DST where Vince Gardner made the one piece plaster cast over the clay from which he made the fiberglass roof and deck lid.



Car designer/builder Vince Gardner constructed the Italien while working for Dearborn Steel Tubing Co., Ford’s outsourcing contractor. DST also built the 100 1964 Ford Thunderbolts as well as other Ford non-assembly line concept vehicles.

The Italien recently received a complete, original, rotisserie restoration by Duluthian Thunderbird restorer Tom Maruska and was just completed in August 2007.

The Italien was a featured in Ford’s 1962-63 ”Custom Car Caravan” and appeared in Autoramas throughout the United States such as Detroit, Los Angeles, Miami and more. The Italien was featured in 14+ magazines in 1963 and 1964”.

 

OT by a few seconds but Lincoln/Mercury shoulda pursued a fastback 1st gen Cougar. The Italien had even better possibility as a 64-6.

 

Could one of you photo shop guys do up a '64- '66 version of the Italien? Never liked the looks of these cars - maybe a fastback roof would fix the ugly off.

 

I vaguely remember the Dixie Twister 1963 fastback Nova campaigned by Huston Pratt, I don't know the origin of the car but it was a oddity at the time. HRP

 

From my understanding Chevrolet built 3 of these and were originally destined to be road race cars. HRP

 

https://bangshift.com/bangshift1320...-of-drag-racings-ultimate-doorslammer-misfit/

 

I believe the fastback Novas were all fiberglass bodies, and ran in Factory Experimental class at a time when GM had backed away from racing. So it was up to individual dealers to sponsor and build them, and Bill Thomas Race Cars built all four bodies, and sold one or two of them to others. CKC campaigned their cars, but Thomas was the builder.

https://selvedgeyard.com/2015/02/05...back-bill-thomas-badass-build-for-ckc-racing/