Having just a five-year run, the Mercury Comet GT is a rarely seen car today. This 1974 Mercury Comet GT is in Rome, Georgia and the seller is super bummed out about having to sell it to pay for some home repairs. This rare GT can be found on eBay with a current bid price of just $250 but of course the reserve isn’t met yet.
Ford originally planned on cancelling the Comet and related Ford Maverick – to be replaced by the upcoming Monarch and Granada in 1975 – but they decided to make them both until production finally ended in 1977. The Comet GT’s final year was actually in 1975 but basically the same features were available for the Comet’s final two-year run. It’s unfortunate that the 1974 bumpers were so wicked huge on these cars, I really like the thin bumpers on the early cars.
The seller of this Comet GT says that it’s a “rare barn find” and apparently “the previous owners has taken the transmission out of it, and removed the side pipes, and the GT wheels as well!” Well, that’s super unfortunate, those may be tricky to track down. I’m not sure if the Comet GT came with side pipes, but there was a dealer in Atlanta, Pugmire Lincoln Mercury, who created a package called “The Stabber” for Comet GTs with side pipes, a hood tach, and a few other goodies. They are incredibly rare today. Not to mention a similar package from a different dealer which they called the Bear Cat – also incredibly rare. But, back to this GT. The seller says that side pipes only came on manual-transmission Comet GTs – can anyone confirm that?
The interior is an interesting mix of stuff and things. It sounds like the transmission isn’t the original 3-speed, or maybe there isn’t even a transmission in it now, just the shifter? They say that the former owner “gave me a 5 speed trans mission to go with the car, and it is in the trunk. I was going to try and find a 4 speed top loader to use in it”. You can see that it will need a full restoration, unfortunately. This will be a labor of love due to the cost of restoring this car.
The engine is there, that’s a good sign! Unfortunately, “car is not running and is not road worthy at this time, it has been a while since it has been on the road, so it needs to be checked out real good before making it road worthy.” This should be Ford’s 302 cubic-inch V8 which would have had 140 hp and 230 ft-lb of torque. That isn’t a lot of power for a nice little V8, but I’m sure that most of you could “hop it up” (nobody says that anymore!) like crazy. Any thoughts on this ’74 Mercury Comet GT? Can it be saved?
Like this….
Is that a mullet? Business in the front, party in the back?
Yes, it is
With apologies to my friends that grew up farther south than myself….
“Er ya’ll makin’ fun-a my mullit???”
I always liked Mavericks, especially the ones with the thin bumpers. Unfortunately this Comet shows a number of signs IMHO that at some point in it’s past life Billy Joe Bob (again, my apologies) has been thrashing this car in two lane 1/4 mile dashes to within an inch of it’s life. Aftermarket gauges under the dash, aftermarket air cleaner, what looks like a high output coil? and those wonderful chrome extended valve cover hold-down bolts to give the impression that one is ready at a moment’s notice to whip off the valve covers and adjust the lifters. I think that this merits a “pass”.
OMFG Pat , that is the seller !!!
If that’s his pride and joy, it would be amusing to see what he calls junk.
Do love the feature, my first car was a red ’72 comet GT, 302 auto.
Legend has it that there used to be a Special ordered Boss 302/351(?)/4spd Maverick in the Oakland hills. Never got to see it, but heard it was sold late 80’s never to be heard from again. Man, I wish this Comet was just like it. I bet there has to be a similar Comet version too. Small car w/v8! Yes!
I’ve never seen a Comet with sidepipes, GT or other.
Here’s a pic of the factory original
Cool! You got the “Fairy Tale” side pipes!!
That is NOT a factory original car with sidepipes. They are part of a dealer added ‘Bear Cat’ package.
Thanks, z28th1s – I mentioned that in the post but sometimes those details get passed over as they did here.. a few times..
Pictures from 15 years ago are a serious warning flag to me. Factory side pipes are pure fairy tale.
I don’t know about that. A high-school chum had a Grabber Blue model with side pipes. It was brand new. I assume they were factory installed or possibly dealer installed. They had a nice sound.
Date is on the camera, Rock On, not necessarily when the photos were taken. If the owner never set up the datestamp menu when new, it will always read the date when the camera was first turned on. Pretty old camera, by digital camera standards….
I had a friend in high school with a Mercury Grabber. It had the 302 V8 and was a three on the tree manual. Probably why this one has had extensive modification to the trans tunnel for a top loader switch over. It also had factory chrome slotted wheels instead of wheel covers which was very unusual in that era of vehicle.
Perfect restomod material here. Build that 302, or drop a 347 stroker crate motor in it. Take that 5-speed out of the trunk and put it to use. Big, ugly bumpers? Narrow and tuck: problem solved. Tons of potential here, great project.
Man, that car looks tired. I think it’s get up and go has got up and went. It looks like I felt after 2 a days football practice in August. I hope somebody takes this as a labor of love and does this car right. If not, just put it behind a barn and let it sleep.
Here is a picture of one similar with the Bearcat option.
Mine is Bearcat also
Bucking traditional thinking by not running both skinnier tires on front and both larger on the rear is a real paradigm shift…. by running one of each we may be witnessing ingenuity the likes of not having been seen since Preston Tucker ‘s groundbreaking ideas. I digress…my mind is blown and I have to get back to work.
GLWTS.
I remember reading about the Grabber Maverick being a lot cheaper than the Mustang and having better performance because it was so much lighter. People were buying them over the Mustang, and Ford wouldn’t have that, so they raised the price of the Grabber package to where it was only fifty dollars less than the Mustang.
Maverick grill in this car, but I still want it. Are there Comet parts vendors around?
The body actually looks pretty solid on this one. No Maverick or Comet was ever equipped with side pipes from the factory. If they had side pipes they were dealer installed.
We have a last year ’75 Comet GT that has had the bumpers swapped to the early smaller style and the trans has been changed to a top loader 4 speed. I have attached a picture of our car.
It’s a fun little car with a warmed over 302 and the 4 speed. Always get plenty of thumbs up when out cruising in it.
Dang so many beaters on here that just can’t keep from beating.. Sleepers like the Duster/Demons and Nova/Omegas. Body looks good like original paint don’t see the 4 speed ones often….LIKE
Anyone notice all the pictures are dated January 30, 2003 ? hmm
All I have left is a scanned Polaroid photo. Maverick Grabber /Comet GT were just trim packages. 72 and earlier were rated 210 gross HP. 73 and later were rated 140 SAE net, pretty much the same, yet more emission controls were added
No wonder Polaroid went out of business!
I had a 73 GT new.302/3speed w/a 279 axle . big front bumper,small back bumper . 302,2bbl,single exhaust , alcapolko? blue w/ blue int , thrush sidepipes , 15′ L60s on back, stock e 70’s , all on 5 hole alm. wheels , 4 bbl on ford intake w/ headers . ran 15:o .would out run most stok 350 novas in the quarter . Loved that car .
I’m looking for one of these Shelby versions
I own the car
1971 Mercury Comet Gt Stabber by Pugmire
Car was in my step Dad’s garage for 37 years..
Another pic..
The 1 and only 1 left.. YES, it was a Dealer add on package. But they only put pugmire stickers on the full pugmire package.. This car was owned by Richard Pugmire himself before selling to my stepdad in 74-75 . In which he drove for a couple years, then parked it in the garage and closed door for 37 years. Then i got it in 2016. All original with 73 thousand miles.
Hi Todd, I am writing a book on the Maverick & Comet. Would you like to send some pics of your Stabber for the publication? I am on Facebook. Regards Marc Cranswick