a Comet was in front of the conv. center at this years SEMA.. that is pretty cool

I just learned of a treasure of 60's dragstrip photos, Nomad Eternus Flikr page

Above, the only photo I've seen of Danny Ongais, who you may have not learned was an Army paratrooper, AHRA and NHRA champion, and among other famous teams, he drove for Roland Leong, John Mazmanian, Dragmaster, and while partnered with Mickey Thompson they broke 295 records at Bonneville. He won a lot of SCCA races, qualified for a lot of Indy 500, and what else I don't know

above, plexi windows in the front of a belly tanker... must have been a blast to drive!

Above, that is some air induction!

just a small sample from http://www.flickr.com/photos/57343654@N03/page1/

I just learned about the Hajek Motorsports Museum, a collection of dragsters and Nascar vintage racers

above, Wendell Scott

these are just a small sample of the cars and photos from the collection and website of Brent Hajek's website and museum in Ames Oklahoma http://hajekmotorsports.com/about

one of the actual 1964 Mercury Comets that was in the African Safari endurance trials

you might have noticed the handles mounted to the trunk in the previous photos, I noticed that they were the only handles I've ever seen on the top of a trunk

Kevin added in the comments " I've seen those handles on rally cars before they're there so that the co driver can hold the handles and stand on the bumper and bounce the car in case they are stuck. "

And on the back bumper you can see the steps that are on either side of the license place for the co-driver to stand on

Mercury had a lot of endurance races to prove the durability of their Comet... I don't know why it was a question, or if they just needed some publicity stunts to get free press....  but here's my post about the around the world, and north to south continent runs they had these Comets do http://justacarguy.blogspot.com/2013/05/the-1964-mercury-comet-durability-run.html

the 1964 Mercury Comet durability run from Cape Horn to Fairbanks Alaska, 16,200 miles

images from googling, even Google books and Google newspapers

Mercury Comet Cyclone... good looking classic muscle car looks