CarBrandLogos archive · Mercury · 1960

MercuryMercury Comet

Designed for a brand that died before it launched, then sold for seventeen years anyway.

Photo: Sicnag · CC BY 2.0

The story

A defining chapter in Mercury history.

Explore the ideas, engineering and context that shaped the Mercury Comet, then continue into its specifications and place in the marque's lineage.

Origins

The Comet was drawn up as a compact for Edsel, Ford's spectacularly unsuccessful late-1950s marque. Edsel was cancelled in November 1959, weeks before the car was due; Ford launched it in 1960 anyway, simply as the Comet, with no divisional badging at all, and sold it through Lincoln-Mercury dealers. The Mercury name was only formally attached from 1962.

1965 Mercury Comet -- 06-30-2011 · IFCAR · Public domain

Design and engineering

Underneath it was a stretched Ford Falcon with the rear overhang extended and canted tail lights, which gave it a longer and more expensive look than its price justified. That was the point: it was a compact for buyers who did not want to admit to buying one, and it sold strongly from the start.

1963 Mercury Comet Convertible · Sicnag · CC BY 2.0

In production

It then followed Ford's mid-size platforms upward. The 1966 cars moved to Fairlane underpinnings and grew into a genuine intermediate, and the Cyclone versions — with big-block V8s and, briefly, a serious presence in drag racing and NASCAR — gave Mercury a performance identity it had otherwise lacked. Sports car builder Bill Stroppe campaigned Comets in endurance record runs at Daytona.

1964 Mercury Cyclone GT · Crwpitman · CC BY-SA 4.0

Legacy

After a gap the name returned in 1971 on a compact again, this time a rebadged Ford Maverick, running to 1977. The Monarch and the Zephyr took over from there.

At a glance

The facts that define it.

Produced

1960–1961

Technical specification

The Mercury Comet, in detail.

Production: 1960–1961 ("Comet"); 1962–1977 ("Mercury Comet")
Class: compact (1960–1965, 1971–1977); Mid-size (1966–1969)
Layout: FR layout
Assembly: Oakville, Ontario, Canada; Claycomo, Missouri, United States; Lorain, Ohio, United States; Milpitas, California, United States; Wayne, Michigan, United States
Manufacturer: Mercury (Ford)

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