1971 Mercury Comet Pro Stock Coupe

The famous Super/Stock drag team of Barrie Poole and John Elliot, known as the 'Border Bandits' of the Sandy Elliot racing team with bold 'zebra' paint scheme, rolled into NHRA's Springnationals of 1970 and blasted everything, including Dick Landy's SS/EA Hemi Charger to take Eliminator. The next year, Elliot set the lowest ET ever achieved by a Cobra Jet up to that time, 10.78 seconds at 125.52 mph in another Poole prepared Mustang.

By the season's end, Poole and Elliot were 1-2 in NHRA Division III by shutting down a host of hemi-haulers with record runs, and Poole was awarded 'Racer of the Year' by Ford-Canada. Both Barrie and John were named NHRA Super Stock Driver of the Year. At the 1971 Winternationals, Poole backed up the previous year's Super Stock win as the Elliot team went on to make final rounds in 16 and 17 events, an astounding record.

While campaigning Cobra Jet Mustangs in Super Stock during 1971, Poole built a Pro Stock Comet with a 429 Cobra Jet engine that turned 10.17/136.77 miles per hour on its first run, more than a second quicker than his best Super Stock ET. This is that car. It was initially a Ford twist test vehicle to analyze welds that was shipped to Sandy Elliot's shop where Poole built it and its engine to conform to NHRA Pro Stock rules. Major changes to the vehicle were required to accommodate the engine's massive torque. Then, the 1972 Pro Stock rule changes made the car obsolete.