Although this site seems to focus a lot on the Ford Talladega and most of the cars represented in the Membership are Talladegas, we do have a good number of Spoiler and Spoiler II cars in our group. Unfortunately, the information and documentation for these cars is as hard to find as snowball in Miami on the 4th of July. We have a complete list of all the VINs for the Talladega but no such list exists for the Spoiler or Spoiler II. There doesn’t seem to be any ex-assembly line workers, design engineers or anyone else that seems to want to share their history on these cars. We have not even been able to locate a prototype photo let alone the real car for the Spoiler II!
We may not have answers but we sure can stir the pot a little with some thought provoking questions. It seems the more we find and look at different Spoilers the more questions we have. Today, we bring you Part One of Taking a Second Look at the Spoiler. We all know by now that those decals on the side of the Dan Gurney and Cale Yarborough Spoilers were dealer installed. That means they came with the car from the factory but were only installed by the dealer if the owner wanted them. We have even heard of Gurney decals on red and white cars and Yarborough decals on blue and white cars.
When was the last time you saw a spoiler with a CHROME Cyclone emblem on the rear quarter panel? The first time we saw this I marked it off as a dealer installed item or a replacement quarter panel or, in the case of a Cale car, a color code car and not a Spoiler. Well, I have now seen enough of these cars to think something else must have been going on but I still have no idea what. The real kicker was when I recently spotted a Dan Gurney car not only with the Cyclone chrome emblem but also with the chrome 5oo emblem like would be found on a 1968 GT 500! I have included some of the photos of these cars for you to look at. For the most part these appear to be original cars.
What do you think? Have you seen one before or have any photos? I think the 500 emblem relates to a special done for a NASCAR race, likely the Atlanta 500. As for the Cyclone chrome script on the quarter panel I have no good reason for that one. Was it a factory mistake?
Do you remember the anti Road Runner decals from back in the late 60s and early 70s? They were the unofficial Ford response to the Road Runner/Superbird cartoons being used by the MOPAR folks. If you want one click here and visit our Online Store to order yours.
Hello Richard, Do I get the award for the roughest spoiler to be rebuilt? She is such a mess. We started taking all the damage off the car and so far the sport mirrors and the roof are in good shape Headed to an old wrecking yard to look at a GT500 tomorrow.
Wow,
This is a tough nut to crack. I’ve never seen a 68 Cyclone badge on a 1969 Cyclone of any discription.
I’ve seen my share of Cyclone’s along the way and I have never seen or heard any mention of a Race Promotion package for a 1969 Cyclone that mirrored that of the 68 Cyclone 500 deal.
What really gets me is the adhoc positioning of the 500 badge on this 69 , it just looks odd after seeing the aligned format for the 500 and Marauder/ Comet Cyclone Flags on the previous years Cyclone 500 Promo Package.
What I’d like to know is where in the build sequence did this car or any other examples fall in the 69 Build process? This makes me wonder if it was maybe a early build example with 68 Items being carried over to a 69 or maybe a special order from someone with influence or over-eager Dealership ties?
Man…without Mercury documents or someone in the know from the Lorain Assembly line , we can conjecture up just about anything on this.
The possibility that somewhere in this cars history the owner got ambitious with a drill and added 68 emblems on thier own accord is also not out of the question. This wouldn’t be the first example of a car recieving a driveway upgrade or downgrade depending on perspective.