1969 CALE YARBOROUGH CYCLONE SPOILER II BUILT FOR NASCAR

Mercury Other 1969 Description

Anyone who is a fan of NASCAR will be familiar with this rare and historic piece of racing history. Back in the day, "stock cars" were actually mostly stock and had to meet certain rules established by NASCAR, especially when it came to the shape of the body. To gain market share, Dodge, Plymouth, Ford, and Mercury set out to build special wind cheating aerodynamic cars to dominate the high bank tracks like Daytona and Talladega. After all, what won on Sunday sold on Monday. In total, six different AERO cars were built by four manufactures including the 1969 Dodge Charger 500 and Charger Daytona, the 1970 Plymouth Superbird, the 1969 Ford Torino Talladega, and the 1969 Mercury Cyclone Spoiler II (rarest of the AERO cars). All were essentially limited production hand built cars to meet the strict NASCAR homologation rules which required that a minimum of 500 cars be produced. Mercury reportedly only build about 318 Spoiler II AERO cars which was evenly split between the Dan Gurney Specials and the Cale Yarborough Specials built with these modifications. This car is one of the 159 Cale Spoiler IIs produced. No options were available and all Spoiler IIs were delivered with a 351W 4-BBL engine, auto on the column transmission, 9 3/4 rear and a bench seat. The following excerpt is taken from the Talladega spoiler registry:
Mercury Spoiler IITo build 500 such cars was a tall order for Mercury; each Cyclone Spoiler II had 19.5 inches of new sheet metal added to the front of the car. The entire front end was cut off just In front of the front tires and an entirely new, sloped nose was grafted to the original fenders. These cars were all built on an assembley line. The fenders were first modified and additional assembly materials constructed for final assembley in the factory. Many believe the Ford Talladega and the Mercury Cyclone Spoiler II are identical. In fact the Talladega had only 15.5 inches added to its nose. The Spoiler II’s nose is not only longer it is also built at a steeper 35-degrees vs the Talladega’s 30-degrees. At high speeds these differences actually made the Spoiler II from 2 to 8 mph faster than the Talladega. Most also believe the Talladega and Spoiler II have identical bodies, this also is not true. The only shared components between the cars are their doors, bumpers, grilles, and turn signals!
This car is #102 in the registry which currently only shows 79 Cale Specials left in existence, and was featured at the 2009 AERO-WARRIOR reunion held at the Talladega International Speedway in Alabama. To learn more about these amazing and rare NASCAR inspired aero cars, please visit the (talladegaspoilerregistry dot com) web site. There you will find more information on this car including a complete listing of all prior owners.
Now for the condition. This car is not a trailer queen, but a very nice driver. It was restored about 15 years ago and still looks great but there are some nicks and scratches and other minor imperfections in the paint. Most of the mechanicals have been gone through and the engine runs quiet and smooth, doesn't smoke, and has power to spare. The interior is real nice with no rips or tears in the upholstery. The dash pad and gauge cluster was restored along with the headliner and steering wheel. Door panels are nice and appear to be the originals. I'm told the engine and trans are matching numbers, but I have not verified this. There is no rust on the car that I can find, but it appears the drivers lower rear quarter was replaced below the body line at some point. All of the unique NASCAR parts are there including the special inner nose bracing, brackets and struts, header panel, lower aero pan, factory hand fabricated fenders, flush mount grill and brackets, headlight surrounds, rolled rockers panels (to lower the body and reduce drag), hood, latch and cable, and mint front bumper which is actually a rear bumper that was cut, welded and hand formed by Mercury to fit flush against the body to better cut through the wind. The car is also equipped with it's factory steel wheels and reproduction Goodyear Polyglas tires. I have a stack of paperwork including thousands of dollars of receipts, some pre-restoration photos and a copy of the Marti report.
Please contact me if you have any questions or would like to come inspect this amazing Cale Yarborough Special before the auction ends. Once the auction has ended and the reserve is met, the high bidder will be contractually obligated to purchase the car. Becoming the high bidder is NOT an invitation to inspect the car after the auction is over and deciding then if you want the car. The reserve is set lower than you might think for a car of this pedigree. A $500 non refundable deposit is required immediately after the auction has ended. Please note that the car is being sold in "as-is" condition, and I reserve the right to stop the auction at anytime. Thanks for looking and good luck!