1970 Mercury Cyclone Spoiler II 1 of 1 & 429 Engine Sound

This 1970 Mercury Cyclone Spoiler II was built to race the Dodge Daytona and Plymouth Superbird on NASCAR’s fastest tracks, using the same aerodynamic-war engineering, before a rule change ended the entire aero era before it ever competed. Owner Steve Honnell preserves the genuine 1-of-1 car alongside its period jacket and factory stereo, complete with the 429’s unmistakable 12.5:1-compression growl. Watch to hear a NASCAR weapon that never got to fight.

Some race cars lose. This one never even got the chance to. Built with the aerodynamic bodywork Mercury needed to compete directly against the Dodge Daytona and Plymouth Superbird on NASCAR’s high-speed ovals, this 1970 Cyclone Spoiler II never turned a single competitive lap before the rules that would have let it race changed underneath it. What is left is a genuine one-of-one piece of aero-war history, parked at a car show instead of a superspeedway. Its owner has more than just the car to prove how rare it really is.

A NASCAR Weapon That Never Got to Fight

This Cyclone Spoiler II was built during the height of NASCAR’s aerodynamic arms race, when Ford, Mercury, Dodge, and Plymouth were all racing to build the slipperiest possible body shape for high-speed superspeedway competition. The car’s owner explains that this specific example was intended to take on the Dodge Daytona and Plymouth Superbird directly, using aerodynamic engineering built for exactly that fight. Then NASCAR changed its rules, effectively ending the aero wars before this Cyclone got a chance to prove what it could do on track. What survives today is a genuine competition-intent car that never competed, frozen at the exact moment its purpose disappeared.

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Why the Aero Wars Mattered

NASCAR’s aero war era produced some of the strangest, most purpose-built shapes in American racing history, cars with pointed noses and towering rear wings designed purely to cut through air at over 200 miles per hour on superspeedways like Talladega and Daytona. The Dodge Daytona and Plymouth Superbird are the most famous survivors of that period, but Mercury and Ford were racing to build competitive answers of their own. NASCAR ultimately regulated the aero cars out of existence, restricting engine displacement for any car using the aerodynamic bodywork specifically to make the approach unprofitable. That rule change is exactly what stopped this Cyclone before it ever got to race.

One of One: What That Actually Means Here

The 1-of-1 designation on a car like this is not marketing language; it reflects how few Cyclone Spoiler IIs were built for this specific purpose before the program ended. Regular production Cyclones existed in reasonable numbers, but a car built specifically with the aero-war intent this one carries, finished in Competition Orange with the 429 engine, represents a genuinely singular survivor rather than one of a small numbered run. Even among aero-war enthusiasts who know the Daytona and Superbird stories well, a genuine one-of-one Cyclone with documented racing intent is the kind of car most have only read about rather than seen in person. That kind of rarity puts this car in a different category from most muscle car show fields, where even genuinely rare options usually still have a handful of siblings somewhere in the world.

429 Cubic Inches and 12.5:1 Compression

Under the hood sits a 429-cubic-inch V8, and one commenter who clearly knows the engine family in detail identified it specifically as a Boss 9 variant running roughly 12.5:1 compression, numbers that mark it as a genuinely high-strung, race-oriented build rather than a mild street engine wearing a big displacement number for show. That kind of compression ratio demands premium fuel and careful tuning, and it is exactly the sort of specification a car built to actually race, rather than simply look fast, would need. Startup on the video takes a beat longer than viewers expect, prompting a joking comment about whether the engine was running at all before it finally catches and settles into an unmistakably aggressive idle.

The Jacket and the Stereo: Collecting the Whole Story

What impressed several commenters as much as the car itself was owner Steve Honnell’s supporting collection: a period-correct jacket and a factory stereo, both preserved alongside the car itself. Collecting a rare car’s period ephemera alongside the vehicle is a different, more complete kind of preservation than simply restoring the sheet metal and mechanicals. It suggests an owner interested in documenting an entire moment in automotive history, not just displaying a fast car, and it is exactly the kind of detail that turns a car show conversation into the kind viewers still bring up in the comments years after the video was posted.

A Barn Find With Two of the Rarest Fords Ever Built

One commenter added a detail that raises the car’s story even further: according to their account, this Cyclone was itself a barn find, and its owner holds two of the rarest FoMoCo cars in existence, not just this one. That claim, offered by a viewer rather than confirmed on camera, is unverifiable from the video alone, but it fits the broader picture of an owner drawn specifically to overlooked Ford performance history. If accurate, that means Steve Honnell’s collection extends well beyond this single Cyclone Spoiler II, built around a genuine eye for exactly the kind of forgotten aero-war rarities that most collectors overlook in favor of better-known Mopar and Chevrolet muscle cars from the same era.

A Car Built to Beat the Superbird It Never Raced

In the end, this Cyclone Spoiler II’s entire identity is built around a fight that never happened. It was engineered specifically to run down the Dodge Daytona and Plymouth Superbird on NASCAR’s fastest tracks, and then NASCAR’s own rule change made sure that matchup never took place on any track that counted. What is left is not a race car with a losing record. It is a race car with no record at all, preserved instead as a rolling piece of what almost was, still capable of making the exact 429 sound its designers intended it to make on a track it was never allowed to run.

A Sound Preserved Even Without a Track to Prove It On

There is something fitting about a car this specifically engineered for speed spending its retirement making noise at a car show parking lot instead of a superspeedway. The 429’s idle, rough and aggressive enough to prompt jokes in the comments about whether it had actually started, is the closest thing this Cyclone will ever get to proving what it was built to do. It cannot run down a Daytona or a Superbird on a banked oval anymore, but it can still make every bystander in earshot understand exactly what kind of fight it was designed for. That is the only race this Cyclone has left to win, and by every account, it still wins it easily.

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