The Mercury Cyclone had plenty of NHRA and NASCAR success in the 1960s, but it never translated to much success on the street. In the collector world, the Cyclone is often an enigma – even among FoMoCo fanatics.

So when we found this 1969 Cyclone on the Torino and Cyclone Technical Forum, we realized this car was the missing link to understanding what the Cyclone was all about. Look closely and you’ll see it’s not a Cyclone CJ that all the magazines feature but rather the base Cyclone.

When Mercury introduced the redesigned Cyclone series for 1968, there were two models and two body styles for a total of four permutations: Cyclone and Cyclone GT in fastback and coupe body styles. The base Cyclone came standard with a 302 with options up to the 428 Cobra Jet (which was introduced in April), while the Cyclone GT started with the 390.

In 1969, Mercury shuffled things a bit. The hardtop disappeared, leaving only the fastback. The GT disappeared, leaving the base Cyclone and a new addition:  the Cyclone CJ, which was Mercury’s answer to the Plymouth Road Runner (much like Ford’s Fairlane Cobra).

Standard, of course, was the 428 CJ rated at 335 horsepower. There also was a Cyclone Spoiler package for the base Cyclone and included the sloped-nose NASCAR homologation special known as the Spoiler II.

Image: KiwiBoss429

So is it any wonder that some Cyclones are enigmatic? That’s why this blue example is a great find. It’s a base model with all the doodads that make the car easy on the eyes, and it has the 390 motor that tends to be ignored by the collector market. It also has the GT appearance group, which was a trim package that included the following:

• Comfortweave vinyl bucket seats
• Rim-blow steering wheel
• Remote control body-colored racing mirror
• Turbine wheel covers
• Wide-tread fiberglass-belted white sidewall tires
• GT emblem on trunklid and dashboard

The new owner, a Ford collector from New Zealand, just had it shipped from Hawaii. If you check out the Marti Report you’ll see that it originally was a Bay Area car equipped with the aforementioned GT appearance package, body side tape stripes, wide-ratio 4-speed with console, Mercury’s gorgeous “styled steel wheels,” and AM/FM Stereo, among other options. Owner added the hood scoop – correct only for Cyclones and Cyclone CJs equipped with the 428 Cobra Jet and ram air – and hood pins. All told, out of 6,968 base Cyclones, only 213 came with the 390 and wide-ratio 4-speed.