by Michael GolubiewskiProduction Editor
When originally designed, the Mercury Comet was destined by Ford to become part of the Edsel line. When the line was phased out, Ford didn’t give up on the Comet. It reassigned the model to the company’s Mercury division, where it would be a sales success from 1960 through 1977. The name “Comet” was chosen for the car to appeal to the excitement surrounding the Space Race going on at the time between the United States and the Soviet Union.
Joseph Lipko owns this 1960 Comet, from the first year the model was available.
“It’s a great car,” Lipko says. “A lot of people forget about the classic Mercurys, so it’s nice to get complimented.”
The Comet was introduced in March of 1960 and was available in three different body styles: a two-door coupe, a four-door sedan and a four-door station wagon. The engine in the Comet is a 144 cubic inch Thriftpower straight six-cylinder with a single-barrel Holley carburetor that produces about 90 horsepower.
While not known for being powerful, the Ford Thriftpower engines were known to be economical and could get fairly good gas mileage for the time (between 20-25 miles per gallon). The Comet is based on the body platform of the Ford Falcon but stretched five inches. The 1960-63 Comets are sometimes referred to as the “round body” Comets for their more aerodynamic shape.
Lipko’s car has a two-speed Merc-O-Matic automatic transmission, which was unique to the Comet, but the car was also available in a three-speed column shifted manual transmission. Unlike the competition at Chrysler, Dodge and even Ford, the Mercury brand did not feature that many models, so the Comet had to be basically everything for Mercury in the 1960s (compact, midsize and pony car) at the same time. Comets from the later 1960s would prove to be very competitive muscle cars as well.
Lipko inherited his Comet from his father, who bought the car in the late 1960s.
“I was just a young boy. I used to help him wash and wax it on nice Saturdays,” he recalls. “It definitely was his pride and joy, and I’ve tried to keep that up since he is gone, and I took over ownership.”
The exterior teal blue was repainted once back in the mid-1980s, and has stayed since.
“The new paint job was one of the last things my father did to the car,” Lipko says. “I hope to make it last as long as possible.”
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