We all love a bit of eye candy, especially when it comes in the form of a bold muscle car. For many enthusiasts, we all have that one special car, the one that cannot be replaced with any other. For Cy Schmidt, that car is a bright Competition Orange 1969 Mercury Cyclone 428 Cobra Jet.
In this video created by Petrolicous, Schmidt shares that he enjoys cruising along the backroads of Ohio. He loves everything about his Cyclone, from its smell to the sound of its engine every time he drives.
Schmidt shares the car “takes you out of today and put you back a few years.” The turn of the key brings a smile to his face and it reminds him of a time when cars had a bit more to them than they do now.
He thinks back on the days spent with his grandfather simply sitting down together to watch the cars drive by. Most were domestic, and he soon got the knack of naming the brands based on their sounds and grill shapes—Buick, Mercury, Ford, Chevrolet, Dodge, all the American staples.
Schmidt has restored this Cyclone to “concours condition.” He remembers the car as being an intermediate market muscle car, something that was a little larger than a Mustang or Camaro, but leaning a bit closer to the luxury side, yet not as heavy and unwieldy as something like a Galaxie.
It wasn’t an utter drag strip dominator, but the Cyclone lived up to its name all the same, with this one packing a 428 Cobra Jet motor under the black-striped ram air scoop, good for roughly 400 push-rod horsepower.
He finds pleasure in the simplicity of what he’s got rather than harping on what he doesn’t. The car has the ability to separate him from the rest of the world.
The car hasn’t lost this ability in all the 18 years its been under his care, and seeing as it was the first vintage car Schmidt bought, and the first one he took down and restored, it probably won’t be going anywhere else.