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Final Parking Space: 1961 Mercury Comet 2-Door Sedan
Quick, what was the lowest-priced new 1961 Mercury? That’s what we’ve got for today’s FPS machine: a San Jose-built Comet two-door sedan found in a boneyard near Sacramento over the summer.
Facing ever-increasing competition from small cars such as the Rambler, Volkswagen Beetle, and Renault Dauphine (plus the threat of new compacts then being brewed up by General Motors and Chrysler), Ford’s Robert McNamara drove the development of the Falcon compact. Resources for the Falcon project came at the expense of the Edsel; you are free to debate the merits of this decision in the comments.
Because nearly every Ford-badged car model sold in the United States had a Mercury-badged counterpart during Mercury’s 1939–2011 existence, the Falcon had a Mercurized sibling from the very beginning. This was the Comet.
The early Comet looked very similar to the Falcon, but got a different grille, more decorations, and these snazzy angled tailfins. Mercury badging didn’t appear until the 1962 model year (just as the early Valiant didn’t get Plymouth badges right away), so this car was sold as “the Comet by Lincoln-Mercury Division of Ford Motor Company.”
The build tag was just glued on over a 1969 oil-change sticker, so I thought it might have been swapped from a different Comet by a final owner lacking a title or documentation. However, the codes on the plate check out for this car: a 1961 two-door with Sultana White paint, green interior, and three-on-the-tree manual transmission. It was built on December 30th (presumably 1960, since there would be a “30Z” date code for 1961) at the San Jose Assembly Plant, now the site of the Great Mall. That’s not the only California shopping mall located where American cars were once built; The Plant Shopping Center lives where Camaros were born at Van Nuys Assembly, while GM’s legendary Oakland Assembly (1916-1963) is now the site of Eastmont Town Center.
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It appears that Pick-n-Pull tried to sell this car as a “builder” before putting it out in the general self-service inventory. I’ve found plenty of such cars at PnP yards in California, including a 1952 Hudson Wasp, a 1967 Cadillac Calais, and a 1949 Dodge Coronet. In my opinion, $3199 was too much to ask for a Comet sedan with California-roasted interior, despite its solid body (the Comet convertible and hardtop coupe weren’t added to the lineup until the 1963 model year).
This car was built with the base engine, a 144-cubic-inch “Thrift-Power Six” rated at 85 horsepower. That was enough for a 2376-pound car by the standards of the time. A 1961 Comet buyer seeking more factory power could get the optional 170-cubic-inch Thrift-Power Six, with its 101 horses. Production of this family of Ford straight-six OHV engines ended in 1980, though you could make the case that the Ford HSC four-cylinder of Tempo/Topaz fame was at least a cousin of the Thrift-Power). Comets didn’t get factory V-8s until the 260 Windsor became available for the 1963 model year.
Maybe Mercury would still be with us today if it had kept yellow valve covers.
The transmission is the base three-speed manual with column shifter. This was the most common transmission/shifter setup for low-priced American cars until fairly deep into the 1960s.
Lincoln-Mercury offered some high-priced iron at this time of this Comet’s manufacture, with the luxurious 1961 Mercury Colony Park station wagon listing at $4115 ($43,589 in 2024 dollars). For a base Comet two-door that year, the MSRP was just $1998 ($21,164 after inflation). Meanwhile, the 1961 Ford Falcon started at $1912 ($20,253 now). In case you’re interested, the sticker price on a new 1961 VW Beetle was $1565 ($16,578 today), while the 1961 Rambler American business coupe was $1831 ($19,395 in current dollars).
Available with two tight-fisted engines!
Yeah, this STILL looks like it could be salvaged and built, although I agree about that window price. I doubt that the car was worth $3200 even brand new, let alone in junkyard condition! Maybe just drop that last 9 and make it $319 for a fairly straight body that’s going to need about 98% of everything. But still could be a fun little car, although I could see a $10-to-$12-grand investment by even a skilled DIY’er to get it roadworthy.
I agree with DUB6, it’s worth more like $319. Or one of those “you can have it if you’ll come haul if off” deals that I get sometimes because I’m known as a sucker around here. To me this car would be a great candidate to just do mechanical work, a comfortable seat, and leave the aesthetics alone.
This was supposed to be an Edsel, which is why it has those Edsel type tail lights and the partially why it has the Comet name since the tooling was done to punch holes for 5 letters before the decided to drop the Edsel brand.
Further evidence of the Edsel heritage of the Comet. Models with hood ornaments featured a “C” for Comet at the center of the ornament. Careful observation of the “C” reveals that it was actually an Edsel “E”, with the center horizontal portion painted out.
That’s a bit o’ trivia I’ll try to remember for the next bench-racing “Stump Everyone For A Beer” session that occasionally takes place at a friend’s garage. 👍
Since we are low bidding, $3.20? Body looks fine, interior looks bad. It will require a lot of work.
I think that those engines lived on much longer than 1980 🙂 They became the 200 and 250 which in Australia at least remained in a recognisable form until 1993. There were 2 major revamps following that landing with the fantastic Barra, but you could trace those earlier 250s (aka the 4.1litre) way back to the start of the 60’s.
If in could be had for $300 I’d be there with my trailer. The real problem is that the mind is willing, but the body doesn’t agree.
How about this guy’s ? How great would it be to rebuild this solid body into a Vintage race car, with a 289/302 and 4-speed. It would fit in somewhere between a pre-cursor of Trans-Am and “Historic Stock Car.” Do the paint work in Mercury’s red, white & dark blue “Nascar” scheme of the early 60s. You WOULD get NOTICED.
I like it!
The Comet was supposed to be an Edsel and at the last minute was given Mercury styling cues. Photos exist of Edsel styling mock-ups similar to the full-size ‘59 minus the center grille. Fun fact: a couple of parts slipped through with Edsel part numbers. And the keys are Edsel keys with the center of the stylized ‘E” removed to make a C.
I know from experience that the 85 hp was not enough for the times. These have to be some of the slowest post-war cars manufactured. My best friend’s ’60 was certainly the slowest car I’ve ever been in or driven.
friend had a Falcon Ranchero with the 6 and an automatic; it did not accelerate, it just sort of oozed up to speed
My first car was a 1961 Comet 4-door sedan. Blue Haze with black & white 2-tone upholstery. It had a 170 c.i. motor with 101 raging ponies. It was great for going to the submarine races, to watch for UFO’s, or swamp-things. The motor was all but bullet proof. It’s one fault was the generator and voltage regulator-based electrical sysem was a constant issue. Also, the vacuum powered windshield wipers left a lot to be desired.
Still, I’d love to have it back or this one if it was located in Australia. I’d love to drop a Ford Barra 6-cyl in it.
Nowadays you can always upgrade the electrical to a 12 volt system and modern alternator.
We had a 1961 Comet with the 144 and column mounted 3 speed. I was 8 when we got it in all its robin’s egg blue painted glory. My brother drove it to college in the Bay Area of CA in the late 60’s and it was never seen again! I still get a little nostalgic when I see one!
this is my memory of this car: in 1982, a friend inherited his late grandma’s ’61 comet. at the time, we were about 21 years old. upon leaving my apartment, we waited for traffic to clear to make a left turn on a 4-lane road (with dbl-yellow line – no median). after waiting quite a while, my friend said ‘no worries’ and made the left turn…in oncoming traffic’s fast lane. a newish camaro was coming right at us at speed. the situation was so bad, i could barely say, from laughing sooo hard, ‘we’re going to die’. the camaro moved to the outside lane and we moved over to the correct side of the dbl-yellow at about the same time. when we came up to a red light, i rolled to my right. looking out, there were two girls that drove up next to us. they were almost laughing as hard as i was. my friend said ‘what’s so funny? carmaros are sporty cars and he got out of the way’. i must’ve laughed for another 5 minutes. did i mention the comet did not have seat belts?
Lucky you got to 22, norm! 😉
I still can’t figure out what’s so funny about driving like a jerk and endangering other drivers, but I guess good for you.
I got an oops compounded by sloooow from that story (based on context of other comments).
Who knows, just my perspective, perhaps influenced by my own youthful misjudgment of oncoming traffic.
as far as this car’s concerned, i would’ve offered $1,250, taking a chance whether the engine could be resuscitated. that, and if the undercarriage was no worse than the body, i’d spray on clearcoat, rebuild the bench seat, and thoroughly clean the car inside & out. if no more than $5k total investment, i wouldn’t worry over it too much. what a fun ride. oh, so it’s slow? i grew up in vw’s so this would probably feel at least adequate. freeways might be a slight challenge what with how people drive their high powered cars today 😒
I like this plan, too, although Richard D Brown’s gives me much more exciting mental images!
As usual you got it all correct. 61 first year for the non Mercury Comet while the Falcon was 60. As a kid we bought what was a very nice 61 Wagon, white with red and white vinyl interior, roof rack, 170, auto and a “power rear window”. Oh, the options! Would love to have today!
That 61 looks pretty solid , body wise anyway. As above if one could get her for 1,000 bucks I’d be on my way!
When I found my 62 Fairlane, right next to her was a 62 Comet, like.my Fairlane it had the 1st thin wall V-8 & like.my Fairlane I assumed it was a 260 or 289. I liked the look of the Comet more so than the 62 Fairlane,( those canted tail lights got me!)
But, when I took both of them for a short drive around the lot, the Comet had a very nasty clickerty clackaty & that got louder when reved up, so I took the Fairlane sport coupe negotiated to $ 2,150.( this was in the 90’s) Behind the Comet, 3 cars back was a 69 Camaro, I’d like to take that for a drive but, the shop owner said-” I’m not moving all those vehicles so you can go for a joy ride, gimme 50 bucks or forget it,”I bougjt the 62 F’lane & still have her.
Ford had a new 221ci V8 in 62 that quickly evolved into the 260 the same year.