Overview of the 1969 Mercury Cyclone Spoiler

If you are new to this site, there are three 1969 Ford Family products that you need to learn about. We will give you a quick overview of one of them here. The three include the 1969 Ford Talladega, the 1969 Mercury Cyclone Spoiler II and the third is the car we cover today; the 1969 Mercury Cyclone Spoiler.

1969 Mercury Cyclone Spoiler

1969 Cale Yarborough Spoiler

During the 1968 NASCAR racing season, the Ford Motor Company race teams were the guys to beat. They showed up at the race tracks with the new Sportback (that is what they called their fastback roof cars) Mercury Cyclone & Ford Torino. On the Super Speedways, these more aerodynamic fastback bodies were like getting an extra shot of horsepower. In 1969 to honor two Ford Motor Company Racing heroes, the Company decided to produce a limited number of tribute cars, one for each driver. One was for the West Coast legend Dan Gurney and the second was for NASCAR legend Cale Yarborough, who won all four 1968 Super Speedway races in his red and white number 21 Mercury Cyclone. His Wood Brothers racing number 21 was well known down south. When Gurney took to the Riverside California NASCAR race track his car was number 121 and painted like Yarborough’s car, only blue and white instead of red and white.

In January 1969, the Mercury Cyclone Spoiler Cale Yarborough and Dan Gurney Special Option Packages became available. This Value Package came with a list of minimum equipment which included a 351 4v Windsor engine with dual exhaust, blacked out grill, two tone paint (Candy Apple Red and Wimbledon White for Yarborough and Presidential Blue and Wimbledon White for Gurney), black hood stripes and hood scoop, hood pins, and a rear deck spoiler plus other items. What made these Spoilers stand out from the similarly painted Spoiler II cars that would follow in March 1969 is that any option on the dealers’ order form was available to upgrade the Spoiler.

This opened the way for an owner to have a 390, 428 CJ or even the Ram Air 428 CJ or SCJ. The customer could add a 4-speed or even the Drag Pack option. Air conditioning was available as well as bucket seats and console. Although the standard interior color on Spoilers was red for Yarborough and blue for Gurney, the other optional colors were available. Where the Ford Talladega and Spoiler II were “Plain Jane” no option cars, the Spoilers could be custom ordered to meet an individual buyer’s needs.

Because the rear spoiler (wing), and the “Spoiler” decals were delivered to the dealer in the trunk of the cars, some dealers became confused over placement of these items on the car. In other cases, buyers preferred not to have the wing or driver decals installed. Some dealers were shipped both a Gurney and a Yarborough car at the same time and were further confused over what to do with these items stored in the trunk. Sightings of a Gurney car with Yarborough decals as well as the other way around have been reported. The spoilers for the trunk were shipped in black and most were installed that way, but many original cars have been identified with the spoiler painted to match the blue for a Gurney and red for the Yarborough version.

There were only 352 Dan Gurney Spoilers and 617 Cale Yarborough Spoilers manufactured. Before January 1, 1969, there were also a few standard Cyclones manufactured with the same paint red and white paint scheme as the Cale Yarborough cars. These cars do not have a paint code on the Data Plate. These should not be confused with the Spoilers. No known such blue and white cars were ever produced. Production of these cars ended with the beginning of the Spoilers on January 1, 1969. You can learn more about these cars on this site and they are also Registered on this site.