In the year 1960, comet Mercury was born. It was originally intended to be a new compact car for Edsel, but the Edsel was discontinued in 1959 before the "Baby Edsel" or Comet could be made. They were only produced for 17 years and had many different options available. There are five generations of the Comet series, in the last ones they kept the body style but changed the name. The Comet name was purchased by a company that produced hearses. During the first generation the Ford Motor Company used a longer chassis but the same styling as the Ford Falcon. The wheelbase was 114 inches and was considered a compact car, however many claimed it was a mid-size sedan. For the first two years the Mercury Comet was in production, it was owned by Ford. It later passed ownership to Mercury. The first year they were produced they were available in 2 and 4 door coupe or sedan versions. They also made a 4 door station wagon. They came standard with an 85-horsepower 144-cylinder straight-six engine with a single-barrel carburetor. Buyers had the option to choose between a 3-speed manual transmission or a 2-speed Merc-O-Matic automatic transmission. They were not introduced in any foreign country until 1961. During the first generation many people complained that the 144 did not produce enough power. To satisfy their customers they upgraded to the larger 170 cid straight six that produced around 100 horsepower. They also made a 4-speed manual transmission available. During this generation the first sport package was released, known as the s-22, the only difference was bucket seats and a center console. The last year of the first generation was 1963 and was essentially identical to previous models. The only differences are a larger motor and better support. Paper was replaced with sheet metal. It got all new bumper, light and body styles. A new sports model was launched to compete with the Buick Grand National GSX. This model was known as the Cyclone GT, the difference from the base model was that it had blacked out, racing mirrors and an air intake on the hood. In 1975 the final changes were made to the Comet. During that year they got larger bumpers and became slightly longer. The last year they made racing models was 1975. In the year 1977, in my opinion, one of the greatest muscle cars of all time was discontinued from production. The reason they stopped producing the car was so they could start producing the new Mercury Zephyr. For 17 years these beautiful and now rare cars dominated the streets along with other muscle cars of the 60s and 70s. I hope now you understand the amazing machines that were around at that time.