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Junkyard Gem: 1993 Mercury Topaz GS Sedan

As long as the Mercury brand existed — a period spanning the 1939 through 2011 model years — nearly every Mercury sold in the United States was more or less a redecorated Ford model. The Torino had its Montego sibling, the Crown Victoria had the Grand Marquis, the Cougar was based on everything from the Mustang to the Mondeo, and so on. Naturally, when the folks in Dearborn developed the Ford Tempo compact, a Mercury version had to be created. This was the Topaz, with the official launch of both cars taking place on the deck of the aircraft carrier often referred to as the USS Decrepit. You can't make this stuff up! The Tempo/Topaz, also known as the Tempaz, has largely faded from our collective automotive memory by now, since it broke no significant new engineering or styling ground (this story would be much different if Ford had only put the amazing straight-eight "T-Drive" Tempaz powertrain into production) and didn't have any endearing features other than being a cheap domestic competitor to the Toyota Corolla and Nissan Sentra. Still, close to 3 million Tempazes left North American Ford and Lincoln-Mercury showrooms during the 1984-1994 period. As you'd expect, most of these disposable cars disappeared from both the street and the car graveyard long ago. It takes a very special Tempaz for me to break out my camera while I'm patrolling my local wrecking yards; generally, this means an ultra-rare all-wheel-drive version or at least a very early model in super-clean condition. Today's Junkyard Gem is neither, but I took one look at this spectacular Bordello Red crypto-velour-and-slippery-plastic interior and recognized that this was no ordinary junkyard Mercury. It appears that Mercury had dropped the idea of clever names for base-grade seat fabrics by the time of the Topaz, referring to this stuff as just "cloth" in all the brochures I could find. That's too bad, because Mercurys had cool names for upholstery (e.g., Chromatex) in the old days. The interior is in very good condition but the steering wheel shows substantial wear, so I think this is a high-mile Topaz that got meticulous care from its owner or owners. Ford used five-digit odometers on these cars until the end of production, however, so we'll never know if this reading indicates 65,404 miles or 365,404 miles. The body is very straight, but there's some nasty corrosion behind the right front wheelwell.

Icon and Stealth EV are building an electric Derelict Mercury

Icon, a company known for its high-quality restomod vehicles, is building another Derelict, this one a 1949 Mercury coupe. While the fact Icon is building another one of its sleeper hot rods with patina isn't the most shocking, what's under the hood is. The company has teamed up with Stealth EV to turn this latest Derelict into an electric car. This content is hosted by a third party. To view it, please update your privacy preferences. Manage Settings. The car was shown in the above Twitter post with video. The exterior is just what you'd expect from an Icon Derelict. It's solid but with a weathered finish. And even as the guy from Stealth EV approaches the car, it looks like it has a V8 under the hood. But as he explains, there's actually the two motor controllers and half of a Tesla battery pack under there. It's just that they've all been given some classy looking metal casings and mounted to look like a V8. Apparently the motors themselves are in the transmission tunnel. The Stealth EV rep says it uses a pair of AM Racing motors. Depending on which motor controllers the companies are using, those motors could produce as much as 700 horsepower. Power will go to the rear wheels and no transmission will be used, making it direct drive. It will have a limited-slip differential, and the whole car sits on an Art Morrison chassis with independent suspension. This actually isn't the first electric Icon, nor the first developed with Stealth EV. Before this, the companies created a totally awesome electric Volkswagen Thing. That little truck made much less power at 180 horses, but it was also a way smaller and lighter vehicle. Related Video:

Ford's J Mays feels vindicated by Fusion reception

It's hard to think back now, but the same man overseeing the design of the 2013 Ford Fusion also presided over a rather lackluster period in Ford design, highlighted by vehicles like the Five Hundred and Freestyle. With the redesigned Fusion receiving high praise, J Mays tells Automotive News that he feels vindicated from criticisms suggesting he's not a daring enough designer.
When Mays took over as lead of design in 1997, he admits to having quite an ego ("My head would barely fit through the door some days. I've long since gotten over myself") and the workload to match. With the Blue Oval's portfolio full of premium brands like Aston Martin, Jaguar, Land Rover and Volvo at that point, along with the bread-and-butter Ford, Lincoln and Mercury models, Mays certainly had quite the challenge.
It was in the mid-2000s that Mays took over just the premium brands, and took on the new title of Chief Creative Officer. At the time, Mays endured some criticism for looking backwards to retro styling, rather than setting a new standard for American car design - criticism that Mays says he is free from with the all-new Fusion.