Built for the Lincoln-Mercury division by famed customizer Gene Winfield, the Cyclone Sportster was a production Comet reimagined as a two-place, open-air roadster.

As we’ve noted previously here at Mac’s Motor City Garage, in the early ’60s the Ford Motor Company’s styling studios formed a working alliance with the top hot rod customizers of Southern California. The partnership created a number of noteworthy concepts and show cars, including this one: the 1965 Mercury Comet Cyclone Sportster, built by none other than Gene Winfield.

Not that he requires any introduction, but Winfield is the creator of the famous Jade Idol, a wildly customized 1956 Mercury, and the multicolor paint blending technique known as the Winfield Fade. He’s also produced numerous TV and movie vehicles for Blade Runner, Sleeper, and others, along with a number of cars for Ford. The basic design of the Cyclone Sportster was the work of the Lincoln-Mercury styling studio in Dearborn, but the execution was all Winfield.

The Cyclone Sportster was based on a production 1965 Comet, with a cut-down windshield and side windows in acrylic plastic and no provision for a top. A simulated bugcatcher intake poked through the hood, while a metal tonneau cover and a targa hoop made it a two-seater. The custom paint, a Winfield specialty, was a distinctive Candy Emerald Green.

The interior featured a pair of pedestal bucket seats, custom upholstery, and a redesigned instrument panel with large round gauges. The unusual steering control was from an experimental Ford engineering  project of the time called Wrist Twist Steering. (See our feature on Wrist Twist here.) Lincoln-Mercury equipped numerous test vehicles with the feature but it was never approved for production, obviously.

Two-seat roadsters were a common theme in show cars from Ford, GM, and Chrysler in the ’60s, and the Cyclone Sportster made the rounds of the exhibition circuit and  recieved a cover feature at Rod & Custom magazine in March 1965 (below). What ultimately became of the custom Comet is unclear, but as of this writing, Winfield is still an active and popular presence on the hot rodding scene well into his 90s.