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At an RT66 Test N Tune event in 2015, Rich Kent’s E85-fueled 1962 Mercury Comet did something a brand-new 707-horsepower Dodge Challenger Hellcat never expected: it beat it clean off the line. The video’s own description reveals the Hellcat had run nearly three seconds quicker just a week earlier, turning a simple grudge race into a years-long argument about driving versus horsepower. Watch to see the run that started the controversy.
This 1963 Mercury Comet has covered just 45,000 miles since a Tyler, Texas dealership sold it new – driven by one owner well into her 90s. It carries the optional 260-cubic-inch V8, a Ford Fairlane-derived engine good for 0-60 in under ten seconds, paired with air conditioning few base-sedan buyers ordered together. Six decades of careful ownership turned an uncommon factory combination into a genuinely rare survivor.
Only 21 examples of the 1964 Mercury Comet A/FX 427 were ever built, yet this NASCAR-engine-powered drag car dominated its class almost immediately. Built by the same shop responsible for Ford’s legendary Thunderbolt, it shed every unnecessary pound in pursuit of quarter-mile supremacy. Driven by legends like “Dyno” Don Nicholson, the car reportedly racked up dozens of wins in a single season. What does it take for a car this rare to still command six-figure prices at auction six decades later?
Ken ‘Big Stick’ Godsey’s 1964 Mercury Comet tribute to drag racing legend Ronnie Sox made its first nine-second pass at the NHRA Holley Hot Rod Reunion — a wheels-up, bouncing four-speed launch that still gets commenters talking about clutch adjustment and crash-box durability years later. Barely a minute long and almost entirely without narration, the clip lets the launch speak for itself. Watch to see the pass that earned it.
The Mercury Cyclone rarely gets mentioned alongside its more famous muscle car rivals, but its resume says otherwise, a Mustang sourced 289 V8, a 428 Cobra Jet option, and a genuine NASCAR winning pedigree that included a 1-2 finish at the 1968 Daytona 500. Only around 74,000 were built across nine years, making surviving examples like this one a rare sight anywhere, let alone on a scenic backroad drive.