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25/06/2010
Story and images by MURRAY HUBBARD
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When Peter Clark was a younger bloke he almost exclusively drove V8s. The likes of 1939 Ford, 1938 Ford DeLuxe, 1946 Oldsmobile and 1955 Pontiac. There was also an A-Model Ford in there somewhere, although that was a four. After years as an itinerant worker he decided to settle down and one of the first goals was to get back into his favoured transport, one of the classic early V8s.
In 2006 he travelled to the U.S. – not just to buy a car but to look around the country that embraces V8's like no other – the car manufacturing nation that passed on it's love of V8 grunt to Australia back in the early 1930s. While in the U.S. he kept an eye out for a car that would fulfil his desire: he wanted a good, clean unit that required little to have it on the road and reliable back home.
New Mexico, he was told, was a good place to look. The dry air meant the car bodies were rust-free. When you go looking, you eventually find what you're seeking and in Peter's case it's was this lovely 1947 Mercury Eight coupe.
“I happened to come across it and it was in such good nick body wise, that was it,” said Peter. “I did not have to do much to it at all.” He brought the car back to New Zealand, where he was working at the time and then moved back to Australia, bringing the Mercury along for the ride. While in NZ he saw a lot of the Land of the Long White Cloud by attending various classic cars shows in the Mercury.
In Australia he has had the car re-painted and replaced some of the stainless steel trim. We caught up with the car at the Gold Coast Super Swap Meet and Show 'n Shine earlier this year. The Mercury is powered by a 239 cubic inch V8 run through a manual three speed column shifter. It's a significant engine. Edsel Ford, son of Henry, started Mercury in 1939. The idea was to use basic Ford branded product and enhance it into a luxury model above Ford, but below Lincoln.
As part of that strategy in 1939 Ford developed a 239 cubic inch V8 for Mercury released at the same time as the 221 cubic inch V8, for Ford-badged products. The engine in Peter's car is an evolution of that original powerplant and develops 75 kw of power and 240 Nm of torque.
Peter said the Mercury drives like a `typical old car' but believes by replacing the cross ply tyres with radials will greatly improve handling and tracking. He's hoping to attend the Wintersun Port MacQuarie
event in New South Wales between June 3-10 in 2011.
As a brand Mercury competed against GM's Buick and Oldsmobile and Chrysler – all brands pitched slightly above standard cars from those automobile camps. With Mercury marching out of showrooms as the same time as Hitler was marching into Poland, it was a difficult time to launch a new brand, but Mercury did well until the US entered the war in 1942. By 1945 it was combined with Lincoln to form the Lincoln-Mercury Division of Ford. The idea was that Mercury was to be seen as a `junior' or smaller Lincoln.
But, Mercury has often suffered an identity dilemma. In the 1940's it was seen both as an upmarket Ford and a down market Lincoln. In the 1950s it sought to give itself an identity by tweaking the Ford platforms for it's product. This involved lengthening the chassis and lowering the body. Even this 1947 Coupe has a slightly longer wheel base. In the decades that followed Mercury fought to forge it's own identity by pursuing a range of different models.
Yet, it still found itself strapped to Ford. Sales in 2010 represent just one per cent of all US sales and on June 2, 2010, Ford announced the closure of the Mercury production line by the end of the year, giving the Mercury brand a shelf life of just over 71 years. In that time Mercury produced some great cars and perhaps the period of the late 1940s through the 1950s were its halcyon period. That makes this original car pretty special.
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