Reacting to small-car competitors from American Motors, Volkswagen and even Renault, every member of the Detroit Large Three developed its personal compact automobile to debut for the 1960 mannequin 12 months. For Basic Motors, this was the novel rear-engined Corvair, whereas Chrysler created the rugged Valiant. Ford scored the most important long-term success with its small automobile for the brand new decade: the Falcon and its Mercury-badged twin, the Comet. Right this moment’s Junkyard Gem is a type of first-year vehicles, present in a self-service yard subsequent door to Denver, Colorado.
The platform designed for the 1960 Falcon went on to change into the idea for the unique Mustang, the first-generation Econoline, the Fairlane/Torino/Ranchero, the Maverick, the Granada and all their Mercury- and Lincoln-badged brethren. After 1980, when the ultimate Falcon-derived Ford Granadas, Mercury Monarchs and (regardless of the plural for Lincoln Versailles is perhaps) had been constructed for america market, manufacturing of what amounted to the 1960 Falcon continued in Argentina right through 1991.
This chassis design was a reasonably bizarre unibody rig with a leaf-sprung stable rear axle within the again and a entrance suspension with coil springs atop the higher management arms. The massive spring towers made for a characteristically slender engine compartment that made it powerful to squeeze in extra-wide V8 engines afterward and the tortured entrance suspension geometry made road-racing setup a problem, however so what? These vehicles might be constructed cheaply, tens of millions upon tens of millions of them, and so they served their house owners effectively for many years.
As was the case with almost each Mercury since Edsel Ford launched his new model in 1938, the 1960 Comet was a barely extra prestigious and better-equipped model of its Ford twin (there was additionally a Canadian-market model often called “the Eventful Frontenac” for 1960 solely). The most affordable 1960 Falcon four-door sedan listed for $1,912, whereas its Comet counterpart had an MSRP of $2,053 (these costs come to $20,502 and $22,014, respectively, in 2024 {dollars}). The unique plan among the many Dearborn fits had been to make the Comet an Edsel mannequin, however Robert McNamara had different concepts.
The one engine obtainable within the 1960 Falcon/Comet/Frontenac was the 144-cubic-inch (2.4-liter) pushrod straight six, rated at 85 horsepower and known as the Mileage Maker Six (Falcon), Thrift-Energy 6 (Comet) or Frontenac Quick-Stroke Six (Frontenac). The primary mannequin 12 months for Falcon/Comet V8 energy was 1963, when the 260 small-block grew to become an possibility.
A 3-on-the-tree column-shift handbook was the bottom 1960 Comet transmission, however this automobile was bought with the non-obligatory two-speed “Comet-Drive” automated transmission (also referred to as the Merc-O-Matic, however to not be confused with the three-speed Merc-O-Matics). The associated fee: $172, or $1,844 in right now’s cash.
This was a easy, environment friendly automobile with snazzy-looking tailfins, deal for its value. Mercury sellers moved almost 120,000 Comets (which included two-door sedans and two- or four-door wagons along with four-door sedans) for the 1960 mannequin 12 months, whereas Ford sellers bought effectively over 400,000 Falcons on the similar time.
As a result of so many had been bought and so few fanatics are excited by bizarre Detroit sedans of this period, even a stable early Comet like this one has little likelihood of being rescued and stuck up.