1964 Mercury Comet Caliente

1964 Mercury Comet Caliente in Ford on Safari: East African Safari 1964 - Cortina Conquest, Documentary, 1964

Class: Cars, Coupé — Model origin:

Minor action vehicle or used in only a short scene

Comments about this vehicle

Author	Message
dsl ◊ 2015-02-22 22:58	9 Mercury Comets were entered by Lincoln-Mercury (Detroit) -#73 to #81, but only 2 finished - #80 in 19th and #81 in 21st and last place #73 (I think), R Brock/N Greatrex #74 H Temple-Boreham/Cliff Collinge - main and #79 William Coleridge/Colin McNaughton #80 Joginder Singh/Jaswant Singh, finished 19th #81 Kim Mandeville/Peter Walker, finished 21st and last Great fun watching the footage of these wallowing around in the mud and scrabbling for grip. Seems they actually entered 10, but broke 4 on the recce, so only 6 started. The biggest problem was weak rear suspension, and Tommy Fjastad who had been hired as one of the drivers told them this needed sorting before the start. So they fired him. So he dug out his own VW 1200 from his garage, entered it at last minute and finished 17th, 2 places ahead of the best Comet finisher. Beetle 1 Detroit 0.
DidierF ◊ 2015-02-22 23:04	(Please go on, dsl. J'adore !)
dsl ◊ 2015-02-23 00:12	The other story is that all the Comets arrived at scrutineering with built-in roll cages, but there were complaints that this gave them illegal body strengthening, so they had to be removed before the cars were allowed to start. Seems roll cages were only allowed from early 70s onwards.

Author

Message

dsl

◊ 2015-02-22 22:58

9 Mercury Comets were entered by Lincoln-Mercury (Detroit) -#73 to #81, but only 2 finished - #80 in 19th and #81 in 21st and last place

#73 (I think), R Brock/N Greatrex

#74 H Temple-Boreham/Cliff Collinge - main and

#79 William Coleridge/Colin McNaughton

#80 Joginder Singh/Jaswant Singh, finished 19th

#81 Kim Mandeville/Peter Walker, finished 21st and last

Great fun watching the footage of these wallowing around in the mud and scrabbling for grip. Seems they actually entered 10, but broke 4 on the recce, so only 6 started. The biggest problem was weak rear suspension, and Tommy Fjastad who had been hired as one of the drivers told them this needed sorting before the start. So they fired him. So he dug out his own VW 1200 from his garage, entered it at last minute and finished 17th, 2 places ahead of the best Comet finisher. Beetle 1 Detroit 0.

DidierF

◊ 2015-02-22 23:04

(Please go on, dsl. J'adore !)

dsl

◊ 2015-02-23 00:12

The other story is that all the Comets arrived at scrutineering with built-in roll cages, but there were complaints that this gave them illegal body strengthening, so they had to be removed before the cars were allowed to start. Seems roll cages were only allowed from early 70s onwards.

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1964 Mercury Comet Caliente