Here’s a fun look at Mercury’s entry in the muscle-car category for 1968, the fastback Cyclone GT, in an original dealer film.

A late-night dance party on the beach is the setting for this groovy dealer introduction to Mercury’s muscle car for 1968, the Cyclone GT. It’s “switched on, turned on,” the announcer says. But here, the messaging is entirely on lifestyle and there ‘s almost no mention of the available performance features. So we’ll cover that: A 302 CID V8 with 210 hp was standard, while a pair of 390 CID V8s with up to 325 hp were optional. On paper at least, the detuned 427 CID V8 with a hydraulic cam and 390 hp was available, but it was cancelled early in the year before any such Cyclone GTs were produced, reportedly.

The real news on the performance front arrived at mid-year with the introduction of Ford’s potent 428 CID Cobra Jet V8. Motor Trend magazine tested a Cyclone GT with the Cobra Jet mill and a 4.11:1 rear axle in the August ’68 issue, where technical editor Eric Dahlquist managed to squeeze out a quarter-mile in 13.86 seconds at 101.69 mph. This he accomplished by removing the power-steering belt and swapping in a set of fresh spark plugs, which on the muscle car beat in those days was simply good investigative journalism. Anyway, back to the beach party. Check out the guy who thinks his trumpet is a saxophone. Video below.