He Lost the Auction but He Bought the Car

            “I liked the car, I liked the price so I bought it,” said Alan Singer of the 1967 Mercury Park Lane he is now the proud owner of. Only it wasn’t quite that simple.

            He first found the car on line as part of an eBay auction in 2008. He bid and tried to buy the car at the time but lost the auction. Fortunately for Alan the person who won the bid never was able to finalize the deal. So Alan approached the Louisville owner of the car and bought it in a private sale.

            “At the time I had the time and the money and I wanted to buy an old car,” said Alan. “My wife said that if I bought a car it had to be a convertible, an old convertible.”

            This original Mercury was built in St. Louis, one of only 1,191 of this Park Lane model made.

            “The previous owner found it in a barn,” said Alan. The car had sat in a Jeffersonville, IN barn for 20 years before being rescued and “mostly restored.” The car was originally purchased for the first owner’s son who unfortunately passed away. That’s when the car went into the barn.

            According to Alan, the previous owner had replaced the top, the floorboards, carpet, seat belts, brakes, belts, tires, shocks, a new master cylinder, starter, alternator, battery and more. In addition, that owner had had the car painted a very distinctive metal-flake black cherry.

            The car isn’t finished though. “There’s still a few things I’d like to do on it. The rear bumper, a tail light on the driver’s side and some suspension repair,” said Alan, listing off his person to-do list for the car. He admits that the tough economy is hindering his progress.

            Still, he takes it out and drives it every week or two to keep it running smoothly. “It handles really well,” he said of the car that gets about 11 MPG. And it should with a 410 Marauder engine that was re-built in 2009 pushing 350 horses with Holley four barrel carb and a 2008 re-built C 5 transmission doing the heavy lifting.

            So with this unique body color, all of this power and a vicious growl coming from a custom dual exhaust, it is little wonder why Alan decided he liked this car enough to buy it.