By the way, for those of you who don't know me, I'm Tom Maruska and I'm pleased to have you visit my website. If you're an 'old car' person you probably follow the Barrett-Jackson Collector Car Auction on Speed TV if you're not able to get there (Scottsdale) in person. Anyway, I've sold several cars there that I've restored with the most notable being the 1963 Thunderbird Italien Concept car followed by the World Record 1964 Amphicar. Actually, the Amphicar (Jan 2006) was before the Italien (Jan 2008), but the Italien is far more notable. Back to the car at hand, earlier I promised you I'd show you some pictures of the safety modifications the University of Michigan made to the dash area of the XM-800. First I'll show you a picture of the dash when the car was first completed by Mercury: The interior color in this photo looks pink or red but it actually is copper colored. Note the 'flat' steering wheel, the position of the radio knobs and the 'un'padded dash. Now take a look at the next two pictures. They are recent and show the sad condition of the XM-800 when I began the restoration but they show the modifications made by the U of M. This first one shows the deep dish steering wheel that was installed with the idea of the rim of the steering wheel absorbing the impact in a collision before you get the center column in the chest. With the new steering wheel they also had to install a shorter column or the steering wheel would be right up against the driver. This picture shows that the radio knobs were moved down on the dash below the radio faceplate. A note of interest is that there really wasn't a radio in there at all but only the faceplate so moving the knobs was a relatively easy task as they are simply screwed on from behind. They also removed the humps on top of the dash that mimicked the large knobs. You can see remnants of padding on the dash where the padded vinyl was added. It had already deteriorated from the sun to the point that not much was left. Another point to note in these photos is that the windshield is plexiglass and not real glass. As long as we're at the dash area I'll show you something else interesting. This is a picture of the back of the dash at the gauges: None of the gauges are functional! There are a few instrument lights below them that work but none of the gauges have anything connected to them. The clock on the right side of the dash is the only functional thing there. I suppose because they wanted the second hand moving when people looked at the car in shows.

There are a lot more unique and interesting things about this car that I'll cover when I get in their areas. I suppose some of you are wondering about the XM-800 being mired in the barnyard muck up to it's floor boards for nearly 20 years if it's heavily rusted out. Probably the most interesting thing about the XM-800 is that it's body and most exterior trim are made completely from fiberglass!. Yep, even the bumpers are chrome plated fiberglass! Fiberglass was new to the auto industry in 1953 when the XM-800 was built and you may recall that the all new 1953 Corvette was made from fiberglass as well as the New Kaiser Darrin. The XM-800 was Ford Motor Companies first venture into fiberglass and I believe they may even have been first to chrome plate fiberglass. Prior to 1953 fiberglass was used in some coach building and in liners in refrigerators. It showed great promise in the auto industry but never got a good foothold except for the Corvette. I thought this was kinda neat when I was under the car for the first time with the seats removed. I could see light through the floors and it wasn't through rust holes! Here are a couple of articles relating to the testing and modifications the University of Michigan did to the XM-800: The first page is from the UM Engineering research Institute and describes the XM-800 Note the mention of the 312 cubic-inch engine. The engine that was actually in the 800 is a new for Mercury in 1954 256 CID 'Y' Block V8 and not a 312. Early Ford Documents state the car "IF BUILT" would have an advance version of the OHV V8. The prototype XM-800 was fitted with a standard 256 as the 312 was still in developement at the time the 800 was assembled. The second page of this report tells of the donation of Henry Fords boyhood home to the University along with 6.5 million dollars in cash for renovations to turn the estate into the Dearborn Center (in 1956 that was BIG, BIG money!) Next is an article from the August 1958 Car Life magazine showing the Center of Gravity test the UM students performed on the XM-800                                                                                    PAGE 3