Mercury Cyclone - The Muscle Car With a Heart

William Jason
SubmitYOURArticle.com
March 18, 2011

William Jason
http://musclecarmonster.com

Just how powerful was the Mercury Cyclone? For starters, this classic car ran in the Indianapolis 500 during its prime, and won more than its fair share of races. However, it struggled to hold a candle to such popular models as the Chevelle, GTO and Mustang. These were brand names that were burned into the psyche of many youths of the 60s and early 70s. Therefore. it was almost an impossible task for Mercury to grab the market share away from these popular models. However, this didn't stop mercury from trying, and in my opinion they did a fantastic job with the Cyclone.

The production for the more famous convertibles garnered 1,305 units but what made the Mercury Cyclone reach its top sales is the production of the hardtops that garnered around 13,812 units. All these vehicles were sold and to those who were lucky to have bought them, they became quite popular.

This muscle car garnered respect because its reached 0-60 miles per hour in just 6.7 seconds. This could be attributed to a 390 V8 335 bhp engine underneath the hood. While there were much bigger engines around at the time, this was still a failry large sized engine.

Curiously enough, Mercury manufactured a few challengers to its own Cyclone to be able to market them in a different way. For instance, the Mercury Comet was launched in the 70s. However, the 1970 Mercury Cyclone is known to be more elegant.

Muscle cars that were produced as early as the 1960s were mainly marketed to the young male demographic because of their speed and power, but the Cyclone had a reputation for durability and being reliable. It was more of an everyday car that you might have seen a businessman driving to work, more so than a young teen dragging it on the strip. This is probably why it is not as popular today as many other classic cars, especially when it comes to models known for speed and power.

Like most models, the Cyclone ran its course and production ceased in 1972 as sales slowed. Even though it had to say goodbye, the Cyclone was a great car that unfortunately isn't as well known as other muscle cars of that era. While it wasn't the best vehicle in its class, it still receives a lot of love from many classic car enthusiast today and does hold some value for collectors who own this car.

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William Jason has admired classic cars ever since he was a young child and you can read his blog at: http://musclecarmonster.com/