1967 Daytona Ford Mk2 #3

While casually surfing through EBay I came across this photo of the #3 Ford Mk2 at the 1967 Daytona 24 hours:

http://cgi.ebay.com/...=item335f618f5c

Now after a closer look, I noticed that the lower front of the tub has the word "Ford" on the stripe, but after checking some other photos of this race I found that the #3 was "badged" with the word "Mercury" instead of "Ford."

Not an earth-shattering situation, but it got me wondering when and why the car would have been changed? Anyone have an insight? Thanks.

Wow ! a tiny detail but not wholly insignificant, the only pic I can find of the #3 Ford MKII Chassis #1047 at Daytona also carries the Ford badge but looking it up on less than 100 percent reliable wiki reveals that although the MKII's ran with Galaxy based 427 engines chassis #1016 and chassis #1047 ran with Mercury branding on them, presumably on the camcovers.

The only photo i can find of the #4 Chassis #1016 ironically does not show either Ford or Mercury badges

Are your pix of the Mercury branded MKII viewable on line ?

Interesting. Here's a photo from my dad's archives which clearly shows the Mercury logo.I'd never noticed it till now. IIRC the #3 car was co-driven by Gurney who also drove a Mercury Cougar in the Trans Am race held there, guess there was some sort of tie in.

Just found a pic of the #3 running with Mercury logo's but no sign of the #4 Donohue Revson entry ?

Interesting. Here's a photo from my dad's archives which clearly shows the Mercury logo.I'd never noticed it till now. IIRC the #3 car was co-driven by Gurney who also drove a Mercury Cougar in the Trans Am race held there, guess there was some sort of tie in.

Fabulous shot JJ Kudos to your old man, I wonder if he got close enough the take a picture of the cam covers ?

Ronnie Spain's book, GT40: an Individual History and Race Record, reports that two cars, GT40P/1016 and GT40P/1047, ran at Daytona Feb. 4-5 '67 with Mercury "sill badging," referring to the lettering in the rocker stripes. One of these cars, the Donohue/Revson #4, is pictured with the Mercury lettering just visible on p. 125 of Dave Friedman's book, Shelby GT40. The lettering is small cursive script between the roundel and the front wheel house, in the same format as the red car pictured above.

Also according to Spain (p.151), GT40P/1016 was a Shelby entry, #3, red/white, driven by Foyt/Gurney. The #4 was GT40P/1047, a Holman Moody entry, gold/black, driven by Donohue/Revson.

According to the description in the eBay ad, the photo of the red #3 Mk II was taken in 1994 at Daytona at a historic event. This is verified by the '90s-model vehicles in the background.

Edited by McGuire, 26 July 2010 - 17:44.

Ronnie Spain's book, GT40: an Individual History and Race Record, reports that two cars, GT40P/1016 and GT40P/1047, ran at Daytona Feb. 4-5 '67 with Mercury "sill badging," referring to the lettering in the rocker stripes. One of these cars, the Donohue/Revson #4, is pictured with the Mercury lettering just visible on p. 125 of Dave Friedman's book, Shelby GT40. The lettering is small cursive script between the roundel and the front wheel house, in the same format as the red car pictured above.

Also according to Spain (p.151), GT40P/1016 was a Shelby entry, #3, red/white, driven by Foyt/Gurney. The #4 was GT40P/1047, a Holman Moody entry, gold/black, driven by Donohue/Revson.

According to the description in the eBay ad, the photo of the red #3 Mk II was taken in 1994 at Daytona at a historic event. This is verified by the '90s-model vehicles in the background.

Mystery solved

Here is one:

http://www.racingspo...7-02-05-003.jpg

Mercury is hard to read but there

Ooops! Missed the info in the description.

Reference Michael Argetsinger's newest book, Mark Donohue, His Life in Photographs, page 45:

"Ford's Mercury Division wanted to be part of the racing program, and two of the six factory-entered Mk IIs carried the Mercury nameplate."

I do recall reading about this back when Mercury announced its 1967 Trans Am program with the introduction of the Cougar. Mercury spoke about rebadging some Mk IIs and Mk IVs as 'Mercury King Cougars', or something similar. The release mentioned Le Mans as one of the goals. Obviously, outside of the door sill treatment we see above, little came of the effort and it quietly faded away. Whether Mercury had a change of heart, Ford management decided to keep them as Fords, or as happened with other parts of Ford's road racing program back in the late sixties apathy triumphed, I do not know.

Tom

Edited by RA Historian, 26 July 2010 - 19:13.

This info is contained in another thread, but here it is again:

There is a two-part article on 1967 Daytona on the Sportscar Digest site. Here is a link to the 2nd of them with a decent photo of Mark's Ford Mk II "Mercury"

http://www.sportscar...llery-part-two/

My model of same:

http://public.fotki....iiaedited1.html

http://public.fotki....ted1.html#media

Thanks for the link AlMark, fab model too :-)

I have asked this before elsewhere but since the picture has come up again I may as well ask one more time, half way down AlMarks link there is a picture of the #14 Chaparral 2D in the garage with what appears to be a wooden box attached to the tail with some sort of black vinyl cover does anyone know what it's for ?

This box does not seem to have been part of the car in 1966.

Edited by arttidesco, 27 July 2010 - 18:56.

I have asked this before elsewhere but since the picture has come up again I may as well ask one more time, half way down AlMarks link there is a picture of the #14 Chaparral 2D in the garage with what appears to be a wooden box attached to the tail with some sort of black vinyl cover does anyone know what it's for ?

FIA suitcase, I believe.

FIA suitcase, I believe.

Are we talking bundles of used fivers guv'nor ?