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Red Rover: 1957

"1957 Mercury Commuter at Hialeah Park racetrack, Miami." The rear vent wing in this 1956 photo of a prototype station wagon never made it to production. Color transparency from the Ford Motor Co. media archive. View full size.

"1957 Mercury Commuter at Hialeah Park racetrack, Miami." The rear vent wing in this 1956 photo of a prototype station wagon never made it to production. Color transparency from the Ford Motor Co. media archive. View full size.

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This is a rather plain photo, except for the most likely intended red/green color contrast, so I guess this is only a testshot for a series that sees this car "in action" at the actual racetrack or with a human model/models positioned next to it???

For the car experts here:
The license plate is only a decoy and MX stands for Mercury eXperimental??
Why Miami? Were specific models/variants like this one with the rear went wing aimed at dedicated regions, in this case hot & humid Florida??
And were these showcars usually fully functional and roadworthy or only hulls without an (expensive) engine, serving as eye-candy for photographers / PR events??

Finally, the red-roofed building in the background might be seen here, too:

[The red roof in the photo covers the horse stables. The car is a plaster model (note the non-existent gaps around the doors and gas filler) and doesn't have a dashboard. - Dave]

What a shame

... that the rear vent wing in this 1956 photo of a prototype station wagon never made it to production. It is really cool!

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