In recent years there has been a lot of interest in old drag racing cars. Many of these legends of the drag strip were abused, beaten, twisted, wrecked, or otherwise ruined by owner after owner, who either didn’t know or didn’t care that they were thrashing a piece of racing history. While many of these cars have been saved and restored, few authentic, original survivors are actually left.

But this ’68 Mercury Cyclone “King Komet” featured on Bangshift is just such a survivor. It is no pampered collector car either; the new owner races it on a regular basis at its original home track in Atco, New Jersey.

Bought by Glenn Steely off the showroom floor, this 428-powered Cyclone saw service as a serious drag racer and was even tuned and tweaked by Al Joneic. Now owned by Jim Sartori, the new owner showed now reluctance in returning this racing legend to the Atco racetrack. The Comet still bears original stickers from this track.

After racing it for a while, the track manager came down and said his girlfriend’s father carried a picture of this exact car in his wallet, and that was how Sartori ran into the original owner, Steely. The Comet is so well put together that Sartori has not yet had to tear apart the badass 428 engine, and it still manages to turn consistent 11.9’s at 120 mph 40 years later. That is friggin’ fantastic. They just don’t build drag cars like this anymore. Head over to Bangshift for a ton more pictures of this all-original Cyclone.