Cyclone GT 500 Yellow Tail Panel?
What is this?
We get a lot of questions regarding all of the cars covered by the Registry. One of the smallest number of cars in the Registry is the 1968 Mercury Cyclone GT 500. Production was low and information on these cars is very hard to find. Recently, we had a Member send us some photos and asked a question we absolutely had no answer for. There have been examples of GT 500s done in a couple of different colors. You can check out our website pages on these cars for more details at the link above.
These cars were used as “Track Delivery” cars but as far as I know this was optional and not mandatory but I cannot confirm that.
Here is the email I received.
Hi everyone. I recently purchased a mercury cyclone GT 500 from my brother. It is listed in the registry at #10 (8H15R581776). I have disassembled the car to restore it, it is a low mile original paint car, It still has the markings under the rear bumper from the assembly line. My question is , it has a yellow stripe across the rear tail pan , does that mean anything? If so what? Can it be proven by documentation? I have heard it was part of a promotion, when you ordered the car, you had to pick it up at the race track and only 60 were done that way. Any information would be greatly appreciated Thanks Dave
I have already suggested the owner get a Marti Report for the car to see if that provides any clues. I have never seen anything like this before, have you? I cannot imagine why an owner would want to paint this are of the car yellow but neither can I come up with a reason that the factory would want to do it. Here is another image.
If you have seen anything similar on a 1968/1969 Cyclone or have any knowledge of why this yellow paint might be on this GT 500 please contact me at rfleener@comcast.net.
