Right from the archives of SUPER FORD Magazine this is the one and only original artwork hand drawn by noted automobile artist and instructor Tom Hamilton for the original SUPER FORD MAGAZINE as the #62 SUPER FORD COLLECTOR SERIES on the 1968 1968 Mercury Montego Cyclone & CJ. Tom was chosen to hand draw the renderings of each car in the series not just an artist, but because he was a genuine "car guy" his whole life. His attention to detail was uncanny as he brought the style and attitude of each car to life by hand drawing them in pen & ink then depending on the car itself, he would add some pencil shading or watercolor effects to the art.
The artwork is mounted on a black 1/4" thick foam studio artboard. Also included on this artboard is a NOS print of the actual Super Ford Collector series that the art was originally drawn for, and it is signed by the author. The artboard measures approximately 30" wide X 14 1/2" tall X 1/4" thick. (I have included a picture of me holding it to give you a better idea of its size.) I have a total of 26 different one off original art boards that were commissioned from 1976-85. Most were displayed at the Super Ford Magazine building thru '89 then shipped with me to Florida in 2002 and put in storage. THEY ARE NOT PERFECT. THEY ARE 40+ YEARS OLD. Some may have minor smudges or tell tale spots where Tom revised or made corrections, and maybe a ding here and there.
HERE'S A LITTLE BACKGROUND ON HOW AND WHY THE COLLECTOR SERIES ARTWORK CAME ABOUT.
In 1974 I had put together a contact list of 88 fellow Ford racers, and I decided to mail out a list comprised of Ford cars and parts that I was selling. Many of the recipients of my list are names you'll recognize like: Mickey Thompson, Bob Glidden, Don Nicholson, Bob Tasca, Connie Kalitta, Carrol Shelby, Hubert Platt, Gapp & Roush Racing, Holman Moody and many others.
Some of these racers bought parts from me, some made trades with me, and a few wanted me to add their parts and cars that they wanted to sell to my list and do another mailing to the people I had on my Ford mailing list.
I sent out two other Ford Parts lists that included cars and parts from other Ford racers, and I charged them $10 to include their parts and contact info to my list and I blasted the new list out to my 88 Ford Racers. The response was amazing! As these lists made it to the Ford Racers and they saw that other Ford Racers were included with their parts and cars on the list, I was overwhelmed with Ford Guys that wanted to be on the mailing list or wanted to add their cars and parts to my next mailing. And so it began. That's when I started the SUPER FORD PARTS EXCHANGE as a paid subscription publication with paid advertising for Ford cars and parts for sale.
As the SUPER FORD PARTS EXCHANGE grew, I decided to add a special one-page review of a particular Ford or Mercury that I felt had a "stand out" place in Ford Motor Company's history. This special addition was dubbed: "John Paradise's SUPER FORD COLLECTOR SERIES". Each car, or group of cars, was meticulously chosen and a review of the car, its history, its place in automotive history, production figures, and more. Noted automotive artist Tom Hamilton was chosen to hand draw the renderings of each car in the series. Not just an artist and an art instructor, Tom was a genuine "car guy" his whole life. His attention to detail was uncanny as he brought the style and attitude of each car in the series to life by hand drawing them in pen & ink then depending on the car itself, he would add some pencil shading or watercolor effects to the art.
As the number of subscribers rapidly rose and THE SUPER FORD PARTS EXCHANGE evolved into SUPER FORD MAGAZINE, the popularity of the SUPER FORD COLLECTOR SERIES grew so much that with every new collector series I did, we had to increase the number of extras we had to print to keep up with the demand for them with new subscribers.
A BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE NOS COLLECTOR SERIES ARTICLE THAT IS MOUNTED WITH THIS ARTWORK
1968 - 1969 LINCOLN MERCURY MONTEGO CYCLONES & CJ
Late 1959 found Ford Motor Company pulled in a number of directions all at once. The first Thunderbirds (1855-57) had already grown from two seaters to five seaters, the innovative, yet controversial Edsel, was in it's final production phase, and FoMoCo was already adopting a "return to racing" policy. As if that wasn't enough, certain departments were working on a new type of car - the compact car.
The domestic car market was experiencing a number of major automotive changes. New car buyers were leaning towards the purchase of smaller economy type cars, and American Motors was filling the bill with it's Rambler American. Even the ailing Studebaker was feeling some revival with it's increased sales of it's Lark. Ford, GM, and Chrysler prepared to meet the challenge, and in the Fall of 1959, all three were ready. Ford introduced the Falcon, GM introduced the Corvair, and Chrysler introduced the Valiant.
The 1960 Falcon was the conservative member of the group in both styling and engineering featuring a standard 90 horsepower 144 cubic inch six cylinder with either a 3 speed standard, or a 2 speed automatic. By mid-1960, Ford introduced it's second entry into the compact car field, from the Mercury Division came the Comet.
After setting comfortably in the compact car slot, Ford was the first of the big three U.S. automakers to enter the intermediate car field. From Ford Division came the Ford Fairlane, and the Mercury Meteor was Lincoln-Mercury's entry. Sales of the Meteor were very sluggish from the start. By 1963 Lincoln-Mercury decided to drop the Meteor name, and concentrate their efforts on the newly redesigned Comet. A new name, "Cyclone" marked the sportier version of the Comet. Most performance Ford and Mercury enthusiasts want to look at the 1964 and 1965 Comet Cyclones and those wild A/FX Comets as the real mainstay of the Lincoln-Mercury Division performance campaign, and for the most part they were. However, these wild quarter mile warriors did little to sell new cars.
Lincoln-Mercury had commissioned the construction of 5 special Comets that went on to break over 100 world wide records for speed and durability, in addition to breaking scores of American records. 1965 found the Comets competing in another speed and endurance run, and the huge amounts of publicity netted a 57% increase in Comet sales.
1966 proved to be the best year yet. The new Mercury Comets had out grown their "compact car" status, and turned to more of a mid-size car status. The total redesign of the Comet was only the beginning of what would easily be considered the peak year for the Comet Cyclone. The big news was under the hood ! These new bodies would now handle the big block Ford FE engine series. Super stock Magazine named the Cyclone GTs the "Performance Car of the Year", it was also chosen to be the official pace car for the Indianapolis 500 in 1966. 1967 brought on only minor styling changes and no new engine options.
1968 found Mercury Division phasing out the Comet name and adding a new name, the Montego. The new Mercury Montego series was longer, lower, and wider, and more aerodynamic than it's predecessors. In fact the Mercury Cyclone fastback provided a 1.5 to 2 mph advantage over the Ford Fairlane bodies on the NASCAR super speedways. The article goes on to list the engine options from the 200 cu. in. 6 cylinder, to the powerful 428 CJ (including 14 cars that came from the factory with the 427 !). Also included are the changes for the 1969 models, as well as Mercury's designing of the Cyclone Spoilers for NASCAR warfare, and the Cyclone Spoiler IIs for the street. Full production figures are also included. As with all factory super cars, the Mercury intermediates were nearing the twilight of the performance era, but 1968 and 1969 will stand out as the years that Lincoln-Mercury showed Ford Division the short strokes in aerodynamics !
Note: All information is based on research done by the author at the Ford Archives at the time of the article's publication.