Ex–Parnelli Jones 427-Powered 1963 Mercury Monterey S-55 2-Door Hardtop 4-Speed for sale on BaT Auctions - ending June 26 (Lot #111,770) | Bring a Trailer
That's a Breezeway roof. You can see the passenger side breezeway window track through the side windows.
Special car. Never knew you could get the sporty S-55 model (comparable to a Ford Galaxie 500XL) with the breezeway roof. I don't recall ever seeing one.
It's no skin off Mercury's nose to have done an S-55 with the Breezeway roof, but you do have a point, I have never seen a hardtop Breezeway, let alone a 2-door.
In 63 only you could also get an S55 four door hardtop too, similar to Ford having a Galaxie hardtop sedan too. I guess if you were a buyer in 63 the direct competition for a sporty buckets and console hardtop sedan would be a Wildcat or a 300, as I don't think anyone else had that niche in their regular catalog. I have only ever seen one in the metal at Hershey.
I had a friend in Estancia, NM that has a turquoise’63 S-55 4 door. Loved that car. She died and never knew what became of it. Probably a family buzzard swooped in. It was a pretty nice car.
It was not unheard of for someone with a fistful of Benji's to go in and make a deluxe specific order that was otherwise disallowed by Ford Sales and the Whiz Kids. This fits the bill for that.
Yup. That sort of thing was mostly truly disallowed for multiple reasons by the late '60s and early '70s but before that if you were a good customer or willing to put down a nice chunk of change for a deposit, a pretty wild car could be built for you. I do wish I could have walked into a dealership in 1963-1964 and ordered something completely over the top.
