Mercury was having its clock cleaned on several fronts in the late 1950s and early 1960s. Sales had eroded to dangerously low levels, thanks to an economy that could only be described as “sluggish” in the kindest of terms. The road irons and land barges of the late 1950s had almost universally lost their appeal as job prospects dwindled and inflation set in.
Aggravating the situation was the relatively new competition from Europe. Volkswagen sold upwards of 55,000 Beetles in 1958, and the American public was clamoring for more. Smaller, lighter, more fuel efficient and responsive cars were high on the want list of many American consumers, especially those who were looking for a second car to fill the other half of their two-car garage.
The original idea for a small Mercury was hatched in 1956 by Lewis Crusoe, who was recently installed as the Vice President for car and truck production of the entire Ford Motor Company. Crusoe had been working with the newly anointed Mercury pre-production studio head Arnott “Buzz” Grisinger, and asked Grisinger to begin work on a new small car for Mercury.
The concept car came to be known as L’Avion, French for “the airplane.” Early prototypes show the wing-shaped design of the car that obviously inspired the name. Its reverse-canted rear window was a hint at what was to come for the Mercury Marauder. Jet-age styling was everywhere in the L’Avion, from its sharply creased wings, to its rocket-style taillamps.
But instead of becoming its own bespoke model for Mercury, the Comet instead became a fussier version of the Falcon, penned by Don DeLaRossa and Gene Halderman. When Mercury introduced the Comet on St. Patrick’s Day, 1960, it leached conservatism from ever’~ pore. With the arguable exception of lozenge-shaped taillamps, the car made Pat Nixon’s respectable, Republican cloth coat look like a smashing mink number from Dolce & Gabbana. In its original form, it took none of the design cues from L’Avion.
In a concession to the larger cars Mercury buyers were accustomed to, the Comet got a longer wheelbase than the Falcon, stretched almost half a foot, to 114 inches. The entire car elongated by 14 inches, most of which was evident behind the rear wheels in a long overhang.
On the one hand, Mercury needed to make a break trom the projectile-festooned cars that had sold so well just a few years before. But it didn’t want to completely forsake the customers that buttered its bread. Why not, then, take what was good from the large-car segment and apply it to an entry-level compact car?
In Mercury terms, the Comet was a success. In 1960, they sold 116,331 Comets. Not such a big number compared to what was going on with the Falcon at Ford. But considering that, in 1960, Mercury sold only 1 55,000 cars in total, the Comet represented a huge leap forward in sales.
For 1961, the Comet was essentially unchanged from its inaugural year, but 1962 brought an interesting styling revamp that resurrected some of the future-forward styling evident in the L’Avion concept car. In 1961, “Buzz” Grisinger was promoted to chief designer in the Lincoln-Mercury studio after Flwood P. Engel left for Chrysler. He dusted off some of the original ideas for the Comet, and incorporated some of the designs on the restyled car.
Most evident were the subtle tailfins that jut from the Comet’s sides at a jaunty angle. Along the side of the body, the Comet features an elongated “C” molding that stretches from the tip of the front fender, back almost to the rear bumper and then forward again to just behind the front wheel arch.
It’s a bold trimline, and it gives the car a strange sense of almost having two bodies, one that favors the subtly finned style of the early 1960s, and a second that predicts the shape of cars to come in the mid to late 1 960s. Hold your finger along the curve of the rear fender trim and you can almost see what the rear styling of later Thunderbirds and Galaxies would look like.
The year 1962 was also the first year for the S-22 trim level, which shouted to the world, “I’m 2/5s of the S-55 Marauder!” With its Wheeze-O-Matic 1 01 hp straight-six, the S-22 was far from a performance car. What it did offer was a higher level of luxury to a compact car buyer. Apparently, in 1962, “luxury” meant “carpet,” because that and two extra taillamps were all that distinguished the S-22 from the bare-bones Comet Custom line.
With the exception of that notable crescent of chrome, brightwork is dialed back to a tasteful level on the 1962-1963-1/2 Comet. The grille is composed of nine bright horizontal bars, with three vertical bars for contrast. Two rocket ornaments adorn the tops of the fenders. Three horizontal hash marks on the rear fenders look sketched on by a cartoonist to give the illusion of motion. The valance around the tailamps rounds out the bright trim.
1963 was a whole different ballgame, though. In those days of fast and furious model changes, the Comet was two years into its current styling run, and a freshening was just around the corner. Midway through the 1963 model year, Mercury had an ace up its sleeve that made the 1963-1/2 Comet a launching pad for the Comet Cyclone era to come.
It trumped what the magazines were asking for. Instead of the 221-cu.in. V-8 from the Meteor, the folks at Mercury went above and beyond and issued the new Comet S-22 with an optional Challenger 260-cu.in. V-8. With a modest 8.70:1 compression ratio, the 260 delivered 164hp at 4,400 rpm. Torque was even more impressive for the little V-8, with 258 lbs-ft. at an ultra-low 2,200 rpm. Those numbers were achieved with just a Ford two-barrel carb atop the cast-iron intake.
And that’s where our feature car’s owner, Rob Brainard, comes in. He was in the market for a small-block 4-speed Ford, but wanted something outside the traditional Mustang realm. He already owned a Cobra Jet Cougar, so big power was already at his fingertips. He was looking for a driver who could leg out some mileage and hit the car shows in the far-flung regions of the Northeast.
“I bought the car out of Hemmings in 1987. It had been hit and painted a purplish color, but it was completely rust free. It was also pretty close to me, in Tolland, Connecticut. I bought it and had it on the road in the spring of 1991,” says Brainard. “The car’s been to shows in Columbus, Ohio; Carlisle, Pennsylvania; Lake George, New York, and as far away as Charlotte, North Carolina.”
Rob was looking to build a bit more power out of the 260, but found that doing so presented some serious roadblocks, especially under the hood of a Comet. “The original engine was tired, so I asked my machine shop buddy Norm Case at Precision Automotive in Sims-bury, Connecticut, what I could do to put some life into a 260. His immediate reply was to go to a 351.”
He wasn’t enthusiastic about that at all, so he went with a 289 instead. “I found a 1963-vintage 289-cu.in. V-8 to rebuild and then found out I could put 302 crank, rods and pistons in it. Precision did the machining, and I originally assembled it with a Ford 4100 4V carb and a~miId Comp Cams hydraulic cam.”
Then Brainard got enthusiastic about a magazine article he read. “I came across an old FoMoCo advertisem*nt with a triple carb induction kit,” says Brainard. One route for a 289 owner is to purchase an original tri-carb setup from a vintage parts supplier like Belmont’s Rod and Customs in Dedham, Massachusetts. But such a prospect can be expensive. Bill Belmont notes that he just sold an original Holley tri-carb system for better than $2,000.
The alternative is to go to the experts. Jon Enyeart at Pony Carburetors explains that their modification is superior to the original Holley system by utilizing Autolite 2100 carbs. “The 2100 carburetors use an annular fuel discharge design,” says Enyeart. “Holley, Carter and Rochester carbs are analogous to watering your lawn with water pouring out of the end of a hose. The design of the Autolite 2100–which was patented by FoMoCo in 1957–atomizes fuel more effectively than any other carburetor in history.”
The system uses a reproduction triple-carburetor aluminum intake manifold from Blue Thunder. In order to use the Autolite carbs, Pony Carburetors does some proprietary machine work, and cuts the air horn into a “D” shape, then machines the accelerator pump arm and rear housings on the individual two-barrels. “Unique to the 289s, we use a smaller center carburetor than the outboard carbs,” comments Enyeart. “The center carb has either a 1.01 or 1.02 venturi, while the outboard carbs are 1 .08s. The Autolites blow away anything Holley ever made.”
The tri-carb’s staged linkage allows drivers to run on one two-barrel for around-town driving, yet have the benefit of the remaining four barrels for more– shall we say–spirited driving. “We’ve got customers in the low 20-mpg range,” says Enyeart, “until they get in a hurry. Then they can watch the gas gauge move.”
Brainard cooked up his own triplecarb system based on some advice he got from Belmont’s, which included a triple carb manifold from Blue Thunder products. “I deviated from Pony by putting the fuel rail on the passenger side like Ford did originally, and was able to find a carb that allowed me to keep the PCV system as it was stock from the factory. The carbs were found wherever I could find them, with the PCV carb being found in the woods from a truck that had been sitting with no hood for about three years.”
Brainard comments that his system included a lot of trial and error, which can be alleviated by simply ordering it off the shelf from Pony Carburetors. “With the fuel rail on the passenger side, the heater hose fitting in the intake manifold needs to be about three inches high. Trying to find one was fruitless, so I made one from hex stock. Like most things I do, I wanted this to be a tn-power setup that I did.”
Also challenging is finding an exhaust system that fits the Comet’s engine bay. “I used a modified Mustang exhaust man ifold because I couldn’t find anything else that would fit,” says Brainard. “HiPo Fair-lane and Mustang manifolds don’t fit the Classics now has their own cast-iron HiPo headers specifically for these cars.” The rest of the exhaust is a two-inch system from Classic Mustang. “I put it on in 1988, and it’s still on there now. There weren’t many performance mufflers in ’88, he laughs.
On cars with four-speeds like Brainard’s, the bottom lever of the transmission’s bellcrank needs to be repositioned to accommodate the manifolds. Other than that, the Borg-Warner four-speed is box stock, as is the 3.25 open rear differential. Brainard’s next modification is to the rear end. “I’m changing to a 3.50-geared open diff,” he says.
While Brainard did much of the major mechanical work on the car, he also performed all the bodywork and painting in his home garage. The car was first covered in Glasurit filling primer, then sprayed with 3 coats of Glasunit 21-Line single stage urethane, bringing the color back to the car’s original Carnival Red.
While Ford buyers get to pick and choose trim suppliers, Mercury owners have to be a little more resourceful. Brainard’s aim was to find as many NOS components as possible. “I had a real hard time finding decklid trim,” he says which is no surprise since this particular bodystyle was only available for two years, and just six months for the fastback.
The Comet is brilliantly packaged. It is deceptively small, yet the interior provides plenty of headroom for full-sized drivers. In fact, with only two inches more in wheelbase, the larger Meteor didn’t have a headroom advantage on the Comet.
Brainard lives in the wilds of Connecticut, with horse farms and rolling countryside everywhere. Twisting, turning, 1 5-mph roads are churned up by frost heaves and snowplows. Regardless, the Comet floats over rough pavement like a much larger car. The overall feeling is of an intermediate-sized vehicle rather than a compact, with none of the shakes and rattles expected in a 40-year-old car of this size.
That solidity is partly due to the stiffened unibody. Handling, though not what you’d call “European,” was especially surprising. Brainard has overcome one of the biggest pitfalls in preparing a vintage car for proper road use: the absence of proper, modern rubber.
In 1962, Motor Trend wrote favorably about the Comet, but the biggest complaint was the powerplant. “The car would be a much more appealing package if it came with the Meteor’s engine.” The Meteor was fitted with a 221-cu.in., 145hp V-8. Mercury’s response was to offer the 260, but Brainard leapfrogs that addition with the 289. It’s a brilliant choice that points to what could have been, halfway through the model year in 1963.
PROS
+ Falcon Spnnt owners will be green with jealousy
+ Handles like a Mustang for grown ups
+ Drives like a full size car but one that fits in your garage
CONS
– Good luck finding that stainless valance panel
– No chance of stuffing a big-block under that hood
– Fastback roofline in this bodystyle was only available for six months
Club Scene:
International Mercury Owners Association
773-622-6445
www.mercuryclub.com
Dues: $35/year; Membership: 1,000
Canadian Falcon Fairlane Comet Club
1776 Medwin Place
North Vancouver, B.C. V7N-2K4
www.ffcclub.com
Dues: $20/year; Membership: 750
Owner’s View
In 1987, I was looking to do something with a small block Ford Even then Mustangs were too common. A Falcon Sprint seemed right until I came upon an ad for a 1963 Comet V-8 a four speed car My first new car at 19 was a 1966 Comet Cyclone GT so the little Comet caught my eye~and I bought it.
Four years and a lot of sweat resulted in what it is today with the exception of the engine The original engine had 70 000 miles and 200 000 starts This made it a little tired and being a 260 not a good candidate for any performance mods A 5 bolt 289-cu in V 8 with 302 internals ended up in the engine bay and in 1998 the tn power and solid lifter cam were added These two mods were installed more because they had been dealer installed options rather than for the performance they provide The Comet was considered a compact car but with this V 8 it does have some “Muscle.”
My wife and I took the Comet from Fitchburg Massachusetts to Charlotte North Carolina in 1998 Surprisingly enough it is a nice car to drive on a trip We ye also gone to Ohio and been to Ford Carlisle four times.
