Few articles have generated as many comments and phone calls as the recent article on Cale Yarborough’s Cale Yarborough Spoiler. Thanks to Team Member Alan Miller we are now several steps closer to knowing the entire story. Alan forwarded to me the attached PDF article from 1986 that appeared in Car Review magazine. It contains an article by John Smith regarding a “Street Clone” Cale Yarborough Special. The car in the article was owned by Bud Bulger and is the same VIN as Cale’s car.
Cale stated he bought the car from a man in Ohio who had ties to the Loraine Mercury plant. He also said the car was special and was not supposed to be released to the public. According to the article (link attached: CaleMagazine) this Cyclone was one of fifty such cars pulled off the assembly line to make a Pre-Spoiler. The statement by the owner was that the factory wanted to drum up excitement ahead of the actual production of the Spoilers.
Mr. Bulger states in the article that he did repaint the car and replaced the rear Cyclone Spoiler decals with the large Mercury script. This adds a new twist to the question. Now, if the other 49 cars have the decals on the rear they would look nearly identical to a regular Spoiler. Is it possible there are 49 more of these Pre-Production Spoilers out there? The article also states that there were similar Dan Gurney blue and white Pre-Spoilers built. Has anyone ever seen one? I have never even seen a Color Code Gurney car!
How confusing can this get? Now we have evidence of the existence of Pre-Spoilers being built in August of 1968. At the same time the factory was cranking out Color Code cars and by January 1, 1969 that all stopped and the production of Spoilers began! These were then followed by the Spoiler II cars in March!
Many years ago when we first started to see Color Code cars I was told a similar story of fifty pre-production test cars being built but discounted it completely for lack of proof. The story, when first told to me, was very jumbled and full of mistakes but, now, may had some basis in truth.
The next time you are looking at a Cyclone take a close look at the paint code, DSO and build date. Depending on what those three things tell, you might be looking at a Pre-Spoiler, Color Code or Spoiler. Up until now if I found a Cyclone painted Red and White or Blue and White with a standard paint code or early build date I would say it was a clone and not worth much. Now, it might be one of the most valuable Cyclones!
Is all of this fact or simply some car owner trying to pump up the value of his Clone? Mr. Bulger was not the original owner. He purchased it from the original owner in 1976.
Does anyone else have any additional information on these cars?
There is still one more part to this story that we need to discuss, any ideas? I will get to that subject in a future post.
I do want to thank Morgan Eldridge for contacting me regarding his appraisal of Cale’s car. Without his extensive research into the history of this car none of us may have ever known of this mystery. Morgan is owner of Eldridge Appraisals, Inc. I highly recommend him if you are ever in need of a fair appraisal of your car. He also recently opened a collector car dealership in Fort Myers, FL so if you are ever in that area stop by and say hello and see if he might have a new ride for you. His contact info is listed below.
Morgan W. Eldridge, ASA
Eldridge Appraisals Inc.
The Beachway Building
3301 Bonita Beach Road
Suite 213
Bonita Springs, FL. 34134
239.243.9163 Direct
239.236.1443 Fax
239.285.4992 Cell
Naples Auto Collection
17121 Cam Court
Fort Myers, FL 33967.
I knew when I saw the big Mercury decal on quarter panel. I had seen that car before .
Great job Alan, thanks for sharing with all of us.