Car StoriesFeaturedMercury Spoiler IIRace Cars and DriversTeam Members

Spoiler II does 200MPH!

Michael Callahan makes his goal!

We have done several articles about Michael Callahan and his exploits with his Spoiler II. For several years he has been keeping his car as stock as possible while also meeting the Bonneville requirements for safety. His most recent goal has been chasing the 200MPH mark. Remember, this is a stock body street driven 1969 Spoiler II!

Michael recently achieved his goal. Below, in his own words, is his brief story of how he achieved this remarkable goal. I have also included some links to our previous stories about the path this remarkable milestone was achieved.

200 mph at Bonneville is finally a reality!

Since my last trip to Bonneville in June (2024), where I ran 187, I have made a couple of changes to the Mercury in hopes of maybe going back to the salt this year. I changed from a dual plane street intake manifold to a single plane and added taller rear racing tires. Luckily I was able to return to Bonneville and run at the World of Speed event this month. On my first pass on Friday I ran 193. The salt was dry but slick and with a lot of vehicles to run, you could only get in one run a day. For my next pass Saturday I decided to increase jet sizes in the carburetor and advanced the timing a couple of degrees and also blocked off the front grill to help with the aero. Driving more aggressively I was able to reach the magic 200mph at the three mile. That was everything the old Mercury had that day. After all the years of work and many trips to the Salt Flats I had finally accomplished my goal of going 200 on salt in my street car! Thanks to everyone for all your support thru the years.

Below are links to previous stories from Michael.

October 2016

September 2018

September 2020

June 2021

October 2022

March 2023

June 2023

August 2023

June 2024

Richard

Some of my first and strongest memories from my childhood relate to cars. I still remember when things happened based on what car I was driving at the time. I grew up and lived in Iowa for nearly 40 years before moving to Southern California and now live in Tennessee. I was a Corvette fanatic for years but then re-discovered vintage American Muscle. My wife, Katrina, and I decided we wanted to focus on unique and rare muscle cars. After a lot of research we fell in love with the Ford Blue Oval Aero Cars. These were only built in 1969 and and aerodynamics became an important part of winning races. The only purpose of these limited production cars was to win NASCAR races using the Boss 429 and 427 power plants complimented with a special, wind cheating, aerodynamic body. The Ford Talladega and Mercury Cyclone Spoiler II are terrific and historic cars. This site is devoted to these car and their owners past and present. We provide an Online Registry for recording the long term history and ownership of every remaining Talladega, Spoiler and Spoiler II.

Related Articles

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

*

*

Check Also
Close
Back to top button