Tag: 1960’s

A Short History of the Mercury Brand @FordMotorCompany

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NAMED FROM ROMAN MYTHOLOGY AND POPULAR FOR OVER 70 YEARS

In the 1930s, Ford designers began work on a vehicle that would have more features and styling than was offered on any other current Ford product. As the vehicle neared completion in 1938, Edsel Ford and Ford Sales Manager Jack Davis decided to launch an all-new brand for the premium range to set it apart from the mainstream Ford Blue Oval products and Lincoln luxury cars. And, with that, Mercury was born.

The vehicles from Mercury would compete with mid-level offerings from GM, Dodge and Chrysler’s DeSoto, but would slot in just below the Cadillac lineup. Mercury filled a niche between our deluxe Ford V-8 and the Lincoln Zephyr V-12.

Henry Ford’s son, Edsel, chose the name for this new lineup. Mercury, the winged god of commerce in Roman mythology, symbolizes dependability, speed, skill, and eloquence. Ford’s vision for the Mercury brand included improved power, ride, handling, stopping distance, internal noise, and enhanced styling.

The first model, the 1939 Mercury 8, sold for $916 and had a 95-horsepower V-8 engine. More than 65,000 were built the first year. The offerings included a two- and four-door sedan, a sports convertible, and a town sedan. Just two short years after Mercury debuted, America entered World War II and production was halted. When the war ended in 1945, Mercury was coupled with Lincoln, and the Lincoln-Mercury Division was born.

In 1949, Mercury introduced the first of its “new look” integrated bodies, which became a favorite of the hot-rod generation. Movie buffs saw James Dean’s customized version of the ’49 Mercury Series 9CM when he drove a de-chromed version of the car in the 1955 movie classic Rebel Without a Cause.

The 1950s featured even more modern styling and innovations such as the industry first fixed sunroof/moonroof on the 1954 Mercury Sun Valley, with a transparent Plexiglas top. In 1957, Mercurys grew wider, longer, lower, and more powerful with what was called “Dream Car Design.” Mercury had entered its heyday as a premium brand with models like the Montclair, Monterey and Turnpike Cruiser.

During the Ford Division’s 1960s “Total Performance” era, Mercury added performance and speed with vehicles such as the S-55 and Marauder, which found some success in racing. In 1967, the Cougar was introduced, which was Mercury’s version of the Ford Mustang. The 1970s saw the introduction of the Grand Marquis, Mercury’s best-selling nameplate. Mercury sales peaked in 1978 at an all-time high of 580,000.

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Source Ford Motor Company

For Sale: A Rare Ford 427 SOHC Cammer V8 Crate Engine @Silodrome

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EXTRAORDINARY ENGINES FOR SALE

*This is an unused ex-Holman-Moody Cammer V8 in original zero hour condition.*

The Ford 427 SOHC Cammer V8 is one of the rarest and most desirable big block V8 engines ever made. Unusually for an American V8 it has overhead cams rather than pushrods as it was built specifically for racing.

It’s been called the “90 Day Wonder” thanks to its compressed development schedule, some have gone so far as to call it “Ford’s Greatest Engine” however there’ll be plenty of people who argue that statement, and point to the highly influential Flathead V8 released in 1932 and engines like the more recent Coyote V8.

A Hemi Dilemma

In the mid-1960s Ford was faced with a dilemma, a dilemma in the shape of Chrysler’s 426 Hemi V8 which was an exceptionally capable engine no matter your brand loyalties. In order to effectively race against the 426 Hemi and win Ford needed a new engine, and it needed to be a doozy.

Rather than stick with the tried and tested pushrod V8 architecture so beloved of American automakers Ford decided to develop an engine with single overhead cams per bank allowing higher RPM operation, and hopefully more power

The Development Of The Ford Cammer 427 V8

Ford engineers had developed the Cammer on the 427 FE V8 platform. The FE is a pushrod engine of course so it needed new heads, a timing chain set up, and they designed an idler gear shaft in the traditional cam location in the block that operated the distributor and oil pump.

The FE block was modified with cross-bolted main bearing caps and a revised oiling system to better suit overhead cam and roller rocker operation. Originally the Cammer had an iron block and iron heads, though later engines were fitted with alloy heads to help reduce the engine’s prodigious weight.

Above Video: This episode of Unity MotorSports Garage covers the history of the Cammer, including a range of interesting historic images and video footage.
Though the engine had its issues it likely would have proven competitive in NASCAR thanks to its high-RPM capability that was well-suited to the high speed banked circuits typically used in the racing series.

Though the engine had its issues it likely would have proven competitive in NASCAR thanks to its high-RPM capability that was well-suited to the high speed banked circuits typically used in the racing series.

On its release the Ford 427 SOHC Cammer V8 was rated at 616 bhp at 7,000 rpm and 515 lb ft of torque at 3,800 rpm – excellent figures by the standards of the mid-1960s.

The Cammer’s Achilles’ Heel

They say every engine has an Achilles’ heel, some element of the design that wasn’t particularly well engineered. Some engines seem to be made up almost entirely of them as a matter of fact.

Here with the covers removed you can see the timing chain in all its glory, it’s almost 7 feet long and it would stretch so much that engines needed to have as much as 8º of timing difference between the two heads to compensate. Image courtesy of Ford.

The Achilles’ heel of the Ford Cammer engine was its timing chain – at almost 7 feet long it’s one of the longest timing chains ever used in an automotive application, and as any mechanic will tell you, timing chains take on the characteristics of bungee cords given enough time and use.

The timing chain issues were a result of the compressed development timeline, they necessitated different valve timing for the left and right banks to account for chain stretching, and the camshafts themselves needed to a be a mirror image of one another in order to function.

Sadly the Cammer would never get to turn a wheel in NASCAR as the rules were changed to ban special racing engines, the series was supposed to be for stock cars not prototype specials.

The Cammer Goes Drag Racing

Rather than dump the Cammer project Ford continued to develop the engine in the hopes of changing the minds of those making decisions at NASCAR, in the meantime they sent the engine off into the world of drag racing – where it proved wildly successful.

Many of the big names in 1960s drag racing were putting the Cammer to good use, including Bill Lawton who won the AHRA and NHRA Winternationals in 1966. Other Cammer pilots included Mickey Thompson, Gerry Schwartz, Tommy Grove, Tom Hoover, Pete Robinson, Connie Kallita, and many others.

1967 would see Connie Kalitta’s Cammer-powered “Bounty Hunter” slingshot dragster win the Top Fuel events at the AHRA, NHRA, and NASCAR winter meets – becoming the only “triple crown” winner in the history of American drag racing.

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Here’s What Makes The Ford Fairlane Thunderbolt Such A Big Deal – Alvin Reyes @SlashGear

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American automaker Ford was lording over Chevy and fellow automakers with its magnificent Y-block flathead V8 engine during the mid-50s. In response, General Motors and Chevrolet introduced its small-block V8 engine in 1955 — the precursor to the brand’s lineup of LS V8 engines that we know today. Ford debuted its Fairlane lineup of full-size coupes and sedans that same year, equipped with an inline-six or Y-Block V8.

But as the muscle car scene grew traction in the 1960s, Ford experimented with a two-door Fairlane hardtop explicitly built for drag racing. According to Motor Authority, Ford wanted a Fairlane equipped with its next-gen FE series V8 engine that could win professional drag races and take home an NHRA title.

Based on a fourth-generation Ford Fairlane coupe, the Fairlane Thunderbolt was born to conquer the drag strips, which it did. It won the 1964 NHRA Top Stock award in its first year of production, further cementing its reputation as the baddest of track-only 60s muscle cars.

Ford’s ready to race

The 1964 Ford Fairlane Thunderbolt is a bare-bones machine typical of race-prepped production cars. It may resemble a standard Fairlane from the outside, but the Thunderbolt is a different car underneath its body shell. It had a reworked front and rear suspension with modified traction bars and asymmetrical leaf springs. It had no radio, heater, back seats, or sound insulation, and Ford engineers utilized fiberglass for the doors, hood, and bumpers to save more weight. Moreover, the initial batch of Fairlane Thunderbolts had Plexiglass windows to reduce heft (per Motor Authority).

Other mods include a trunk-mounted battery, a set of drag radials by Goodyear and Mickey Thompson, an electric fuel pump, tubular exhaust headers, a locking differential, and an aluminum scatter shield. According to Modern Driveline, an automatic-equipped four-speed Fairlane Thunderbolt ran the quarter-mile at Lions Drag Strip in November 1963 and posted 11.61 seconds at 128 mph, tremendous numbers for a factory-prepped drag car.

[Image by PMDrive1061 via Wikimedia Commons | CC BY-SA 3.0]

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GM envisioned an expansion of the Corvette long before announcing the Corvette SUV – Daniel Strohl @Hemmings

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A four-seater ‘Vette would have taken on the bigger Thunderbird

News broke this week that GM’s considering turning the Corvette into a sub-brand rather than just another model in the Chevrolet lineup, with an electric four-door and an SUV. Details are scant at the time, but apparently GM plans to forge ahead with this for the 2025 model year and has been benchmarking Porsche’s Taycan and Cayenne. But, just as the suggestion of the mid-engine Corvette took decades to come to fruition, the idea of expanding the Corvette beyond its two-seater sports car format to keep up with the competition has been around at least since the early Sixties.

Not counting the Waldorf Nomad show car, an early take by Chevrolet on what the Corvette would have looked like as a station wagon, the earliest proposal for something other than a two-seater Corvette came in 1961, when Ed Cole asked Bill Mitchell to design a four-seat version of the pending 1963 Corvette. Mitchell, according to an article that Michael Lamm wrote for the December 1980 issue of Special Interest Autos, then turned to Larry Shinoda to make it work.

“Buick had already designed the 1963 Riviera but was still 18 months away from production,” Lamm wrote. “Design of the standard two-place Corvette for ’63 had also been completed and was being released for tooling.”

Shinoda and the special projects studio thus added six inches to the Corvette’s wheelbase, trying not to alter the car’s shape too much. The doors soaked up much of that length, which makes sense, given the need for rear-seat passengers to get in and out, but Lamm also noted an apparent stretch to the split-window glass and an increase in roof height.

It wasn’t just a clay styling study, either, getting a designation of XP-796. The special projects studio added actual rear seats that folded down as well as lengthened door panels, longer door glass, and stretched internal door hardware, judging by the fact that the doors could still be opened. The longer doors even necessitated slight reworking of the door cuts into the roof. In addition, as Lamm noted, the engineers got involved in the project, strengthening “the pickup area of the 1963 Corvette frame to accept the extra weight of a four-passenger version.”

In hindsight, perhaps Shinoda and the engineers shouldn’t have taken the concept beyond the styling study stage, however. “GM design director Charles M. (Chuck) Jordan reflects that no one at GM Styling, as it was then called, really cared for the four-seater,” Lamm wrote. “Most thought it was ungainly at best.”

Shinoda offered another reason why the four-seater Corvette never went anywhere, according to CorvetteBlogger:

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Biggest Automotive Flops of All Time: 1969 GM/Chevrolet Liquid Tire Chain & 1971-3 Buick MaxTrac

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Tire chains can be a driver’s best friend when it comes to handling snowy and icy conditions, but decades ago, General Motors offered something quite novel—even if we don’t know if it actually worked as intended.

What GM called “liquid tire chains” was an option across the entire 1969 Chevrolet lineup of cars, save for the El Camino and station wagons.

Hagerty discovered the unique option of yore and published the corresponding video, which details many other creature comforts available with the 1969 Chevrolet Caprice. As the ad told consumers, the Caprice could apply liquid tire chains to the rear wheels “so it won’t keep sitting there” in snowy weather. Drivers simply pressed a button on the instrument panel and a space-age polymer coated the rear wheels to provide traction.

It’s unclear just how effective this was, but probably not well, judging by the take rate. Chevrolet only sold about 2,600 cars equipped with the option and it was quickly discontinued after the 1969 model year. Still, it’s a pretty neat idea. It also goes to show how awful tire technology was almost 50 years ago.

Although the liquid tire chains weren’t long for this world, plenty of other options found on the 1969 Caprice still exist today. A rear-window defogger, engine block heater, and headlight washers are still common—if not standard—among today’s modern cars.

Max Trac

MAX-TRAC was a traction control system that was way ahead of its time. It measured the speed of the left front wheel and compared it with the output on the transmission. If there was a difference, the ignition would short-circuit so the power on the rear wheels went down.
Because the system had lots of maintenance-problems and emission-control regulations would not allow to keep the system as unsophisticated as it was, it was dropped at all for 73.

Below you find a description from the 71 Buick brochure and from a 72 manual. The text in the brochure is nice: “…..a miniature transistorized computer actually compares the speed of the front and rear wheels…”

Sources – Motor Authority
Rare Classic Cars & Automotive History

Buick Riviera.com

Extra Rare American Cars Of The 1960s and 70s @CarNewsTV

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Text information in the video, really interesting stuff

Lowrider Hydraulics Pioneer X-Sonic Corvette to be Restored – David Conwill @Hemmings

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Back in November, we were excited to learn that Dave Shuten, of Galpin Speed Shop, will be restoring the X-Sonic Corvette to its 1960s appearance. The X-Sonic was a groundbreaking custom car in the late-1950s that not only inspired Ed Roth to begin crafting his famous bubble tops, but also helped introduce the custom-car world to hydraulics.

*The circa 1960 version of the X-Sonic, demonstrating its hydraulics and sporting tunneled 1958 Dodge headlamps, but pre-bubbletop. Photos courtesy Kustomrama.*

Hydraulic suspension (and its spiritual descendent, airbags) on custom and lowrider cars is commonly known today. But where and when did hydraulics make the leap from being aircraft parts to automotive suspension pieces? The answer, of course, is in post-World War II California, where two enthusiasts—seemingly separately and unbeknownst to one another—used parts found in military surplus stores to create the first suspension systems that could be impracticably low for car shows but raised for driving

One of those men was Jim Logue, a North American Aviation employee who lived in Long Beach in 1957 and took inspiration from Citroen’s factory hydropneumatic suspension to modify his 1954 Ford. The other was Ron Aguirre, a resident of Rialto, who around the same time saw a hydraulic ram being used for dent removal and thought he might use something similar to avoid future violations for the lowness of his 1956 Corvette. Today, Logue and his Fabulous X54 have faded from popular memory, but Aguirre’s bubble-topped X-Sonic persists as the poster child for “the first” hydraulics-equipped custom car.

*The X-Sonic as it appeared in 1963 with bubbletop and no headlamps.*

As a successful contender on the indoor-car-show circuit of the 1960s, the X-Sonic went through a few iterations and wound up heavily modified, including the aforementioned bubble top, substitution of a Turboglide transmission for the original three-speed, and even the elimination of a conventional steering wheel in favor of an electric motor controlled by toggle switches! The bubbletop and unconventional steering marked the transition of the car from street custom to all-out show car.

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Rare Gene Winfield–Built Corvair-Powered AMT Piranha Goes Up for Sale – Daniel Strohl @Hemmings

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If it weren’t for automotive fabricator Gene Winfield, the Marbon-Centaur CRV might have remained a footnote in automotive history, warranting a random article every five years or so before everybody forgets it again. But Winfield—known for designing vehicles in Blade Runner and Robocop—renamed it the Piranha for model car company AMT and put one on tabletops across America in the late 1960s at the same time he tried to convince adults to get into the full-size Corvair-powered version. More than 50 years later, at 94, Winfield has lent his talents and his name to the sale of one more Piranha

.”Gene’s personally working on this car,” says Dan Melson, who will offer it (and two other Winfield cars) for sale this weekend. “I have left all artistic control to Gene

.”Marbon Chemical’s development of Cycolac, a type of ABS, in the early 1950s opened up doors for manufacturers to start introducing plastics into consumer goods. Given that Marbon existed as a division of Borg-Warner, it was only matter of time before company executives decided automobiles could benefit from a heaping helping of Cycolac.

To help sell the idea, according to auto historian Nick Whitlow, Marbon partnered with Dann Deaver, a designer and co-founder of Centaur Engineering, another division of Borg-Warner. Deaver had built some race cars in his time, so Marbon’s execs asked him to fabricate an entire car out of Cycolac, one that Marbon could demonstrate for automotive engineers around the world. The resulting Cycolac Research Vehicle (known as CRV long before Honda started using the name) debuted at the Society of Automotive Engineers convention in January 1965 and led to a series of four more prototypes—two convertibles and two gulping coupes—all powered by Corvair flat-six engines.

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1960-’61 Chrysler 300F & 300G Buyer’s Guide – Matt Litwin @Hemmings

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The original “businessman’s hot rod” combined a racing pedigree with luxury trimmings

When people boasted of the performance of Chrysler-branded automobiles during the postwar years, it was usually in reference to the cars’ mechanical prowess: smooth and reliable, just like a luxury vehicle should be. Naturally, powerful acceleration was a key element, but it was intended to make premium models more capable on the road, and not meant for speed contests. The corporation’s other divisions were better equipped to manage a young buyer’s stoplight-sprint antics.

Part of that perspective changed when the division released the C-300 in 1955. Fitted with the 300-hp, 331-cu.in. “FirePower” V-8 capable of pushing it to a top speed of 130 mph, the specially trimmed hardtop coupe broke the mold while redefining the parameters of a luxury coupe. Adventurous CEOs could feel the excitement of raw power while seated in a luxurious cabin, surrounded by coachwork that spoke of edgy—yet not audacious — exclusivity. And it was exclusive: Just 1,725 were built in the first year, each costing $4,110 (or $40,095 today) without options.

More compelling was how the C-300 began to cement its legacy beyond the boulevard. Trimmed for racing, it utterly dominated the NASCAR and AAA stock car ranks, which continued a year later with the updated 300B. For 1957, the 300C set a notable production car speed record at Daytona Beach before the Chrysler division took a bow and left the business of racing to Dodge and Plymouth, prior to the AMA embargo.

Although the on-track exploits may have been put to rest, the exclusive “Letter Cars” remained in production, continuously improved both visually and mechanically. The model’s evolution took a significant leap forward when the 300F was introduced in 1960, the basic elements of which carried through to the 300G of ’61, with attributes that not only set these cars apart from their predecessors but have attracted both collectors and vintage-car driving enthusiasts alike since. If you’ve been considering the purchase of one, here are some things you should be aware of

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Even an expert Mustang restorer had the challenge of his career with Bill Goldberg’s “Lawman” Mustang – David Conwill @Hemmings

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Dreams seem to have their own mass, derived from the devotion of the dreamer. Cherish one long enough and hard enough and its gravity will draw you in. Sometimes it’s a lot of work and a long time before that trajectory becomes apparent.

Take the Lawman Mustang on these pages. You saw it last month and learned its story. How Ford used it as a morale booster for troops serving in Southeast Asia, improved road safety among returning vets, and sold a few new cars in the bargain. The way it wound up restored is a testament to how dreams can work out in unlikely ways.

Marcus Anghel, owner of Anghel Restorations in Scottsdale, Arizona, has long been a fan of the Lawman.“I followed this car for years.

I never thought I’d have the opportunity to restore it.”

As delivered to Anghel Restoration, the Lawman showed only 829 miles on the odometer, but they’d been hard miles. Not only was the engine blown and out of the car, but the wiring harness was a mess, and the car was just generally worn out.

Nor is Marcus the natural choice for such a restoration. He’s a Mustang guru, yes: A Mustang Club of America National Gold Card Judge and National Head Judge for the Shelby American Automobile Club. He’s renowned for his knowledge of 1969-’71 Boss Mustangs. Thanks to that, he has his choice of projects to take on. Typically, he restores these Mustangs back to stock—which is how his clients generally like them. People, as Marcus says, who “want them Day One, the way they were in the showroom.

”Admittedly, 21st-century circumstances being what they are, he’s had to embrace certain departures from showroom-stock for cars meant to be driven extensively. These are always hidden things, though, like a five-speed where a four-speed once resided, or a vintage radio rehabilitated with a Bluetooth receiver concealed inside.

A heavily worn drag car was a pony of a different color, as it were.

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