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There is no doubt that music and automobiles have a place together in history. For many people, there is nothing quite like cruising around town with the radio blasting. The love affair with cars and music inspired songwriters to craft memorable pieces all about their favorite cars, like the Lincoln Zephyr, the Mercedes Benz, and the Chevy Corvette. Here are a few cars that appeared in song lyrics by artists from a variety of different music genres:
The Top Cars Named for the Space Race
In the 1950s and 1960s, automakers jumped on the Space Race bandwagon. They not only designed their cars to look space-age and cutting edge, but they gave their cars names that were taken right from the skies as well. It was almost impossible to buy a car in the mid-centuries that did not have a name taken from outer space or from the aircraft that would take pilots and astronauts there. These are a few of the most memorable:
Metro Cruise Draws Big Crowds
Car guys and gals know all about the Woodward Dream Cruise that occurs each summer during the third weekend of August in Detroit, Michigan. However, the east side of the state is not the only place to show off your hotrod, muscle car, sportscar, or tin lizzie. Every summer for the past nine years, Grand Rapids holds the 28th Street Metro Cruise the weekend following the Dream Cruise on the fourth weekend of August. This classic car show draws huge crowds up and down the 10 miles of this business-lined five-lane road as everyone wants to see classic cars like the Ford Fairlane, Chevy Bel Air, as well as exotics like the Ferrari Testarossa and the Lotus Esprit.
1968 Cyclone GT
The 1968 Cyclone GT was one of the top performing muscle cars of the era. It ranks in the top 50 fastest muscle cars of all time on many lists and was a popular name for the Mercury car brand. The division of Ford brought out the Cyclone name in 1964 as the Mercury Comet Cyclone. It kept this naming structure through 1967, after which the Cyclone came into its own.
Occasionally, an automobile company has some trouble coming up with a completely unique vehicle unlike any others on the market. After all, if it’s not a good idea to reinvent the wheel, it can sometimes seem that way about cars that are selling. Add in regulations on things like emissions, and creating a completely new model becomes quite difficult. In the 1960s, the Mercury division of Ford was having some trouble with their originality, at least for some models. The Mercury Cougar is a classic car which was originally based on the Ford Mustang when it was first built in 1967. It would later come to resemble other models, such as the Thunderbird.
Largely based on the Ford Torino, the Mercury Cyclone was the “sportier” model in the Montego line-up. The most noticeable difference between the Cyclone and the Torino was the lack of a fastback roofline. Another radical difference in the Mercury Cyclone was the “W” shaped nose to the car with the crosshair emblem. Even though a convertible was offered for the same year as the Ford Torino, the Cyclone never saw a soft top. In 1970 the Cyclone came in three different trims; the Cyclone, the Cyclone GT, and the Spoiler GT.
Mercury Montery: In the post-war years as the Baby Boomers were starting to walk and talk, the Ford Motor Company was working to fill the huge demands of growing families across the United States. The Mercury division of Ford rolled out the Mercury Monterey, a full- size car model. Though the name and concept of the vehicle began two years before its official debut as its own series, the Monterey was introduced in 1952. Both a convertible and a four-door sedan version were available in the first model year.