1966 Mercury Cyclone GT
A POWERFUL & RARE MERCURY FOR UNDER $ 10K
Ford’ s Mercury division has been synonymous with midprice luxury transportation. But few know that the division that gave us the“ Breezeway” retracting rear window also built one of America’ s first factory muscle cars. In 1958, Mercury released a dealer-installed Super Marauder tri-power option for its 430 cubic-inch big-block engine. Adding tri-power bumped up advertised horsepower to an incredible 400, and helped contribute to making Mercury a performance powerhouse. The option was short lived and by the early-1960s Mercury took a
Text by Joe Babiasz, photos by Brendan Moran
back seat to Ford, their lower priced cousin, in the manufacturing of tiremelting performance cars.
By 1966, Mercury was once again anxious to get back into the muscle car arena. Using the midsize Comet platform, engineers put their collective heads together to develop the Comet Cyclone and Cyclone GT. The standard Cyclone included all the visuals necessary to identify it as a muscle car, but powertrains were limited to a 289 cubic-inch small-block and a 265 or 275-horsepower, 390 cubic-inch engine, depending on the transmission ordered. A two-barrel carburetor topped the base Cyclone 390. While providing adequate performance, it simply wasn’ t enough to keep up with other factory muscle cars of the time. For enthusiasts who wanted neck-snapping performance, ordering a Cyclone GT was a necessity.
Under the Cyclone GT’ s hood rested Ford’ s 335-horsepower, 390 FE engine. This powerhouse included a Holley four-barrel carburetor mounted on a cast iron intake manifold. Its 10.5:1 compression ratio required premium fuel, and dual exhausts were standard equipment. An engine
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