Since finding this Mercury last summer, I have seen the car twice. The first time almost ruined my day.
While heading south along US 63, I’m sitting at a signal behind this dog lover and thinking of what Curbside Classics might be awaiting me. As this particular town is ripe with them, I knew something was longing to meet my camera.
As I continue south, I’m continually attempting to find contenders that meet my self-imposed rule of being 20 years old or older. Suddenly there is the Monterey, in a commercial driveway to my right. I’m really thinking how great it is that somebody is exercising it. As I approach in my company-owned Ford Escape, my eyes grow wide, my heart begins to race and a variety of words erupt from my mouth….
…He’s pulled out in front of me to turn left, and I am about to hit him!
Slamming on the brakes, he must hear my concern. The driver is a little old man with huge eyeglasses who can barely see over the dashboard. When he realizes his error, I hear this ear-splitting, “WWAAAA” as he shoves the throttle into the firewall.
The big white Mercury takes off like a slingshot and I, in my little white Escape, breathe a huge sigh of relief. The sweet old Mercury has been saved from a very ugly door ding, and I have been saved from ruining a Ford Escape.
As you might have guessed, I wasn’t able to grab any pictures. However, I did discover this old Mercury has tremendous throttle response.
About 10 years ago I had a 1970 Marquis convertible with the 429.
That car was amazingly fast considering how heavy it must be.
I always thought it was an ugly car, but it was a very nice cruiser.
Bit big and no doubt thirsty for my taste but i enjoyed reading this article.
The near-miss reminded me of a bumper sticker I saw on the back of a Dodge Avenger driven by a woman: “If you’re going to ride my ass, at least pull my hair”.
I wondered how many offers she got to take her up on it.
Those stickers were pretty common on Camaros and Probes too.
These things were all over Beale AFB and in the Marysville/Yuba City area, not to mention the entire Sacramento valley when I was in the service. I liked these almost as much as the generic Plymouth “cop cars” that were also all over town.
Nothing worth seeing here. Gimme a Chevy.
“Not worth seeing here gimme a Chevy”
Whaaat??? As much as I think the full-size Fords from this era are grotesque, this is still an awesome find and way more unique than it’s still plentiful Chevrolet counterpart. They might’ve been a big hit around Beale AFB 40 years ago, but I can’t recall seeing too many ’71 Montereys in recent memory. If I had a real hankerin’ to see a late 60’s GM B-body I could just go to the next local car show.
Please understand that on “CC”, I enter a different mind-set; when I see something that stirs old emotions in me, that is pretty much what I express.
Yes, the Mercury above and their Ford counterparts were uglier than any other full-size car at the time, but I will admit that any survivors in reasonable shape are worthy of my respect!
We had a Blue one with over 90 K on clock when I was in High School. Mom had bought it for $700 and it REEKED of Cherry Blend Pipe Tobacco. That problem was solved with leaving windows down. I had bought a Realistic Cassette player and mounted it to the ashtray. One day the sight of that through open windows was too much temptation. It was annoying to see the perp had snapped the ashtray plastic instead of simply taking the whole thing. The Merc had a 400 with 2 bbl carb and sucked gas like a starved mosquito at the blood bank. I went to one year of college and returned home to find Mom was moving back with my step-father. I was given the task of driving from South Lousy-anna to Las Vegas by way of Pecos, TX. Pecos was due to my Great Granny living there and my co-pilot being my Granny. At 10 PM, Off we go with a 4×12 Jartran (Great CC Idea on Jartran changing aerodynamics of rental units) trailer and our stuff in back seat and trunk, almost the same capacity of the rental.
Somewhere in Houston about 5 AM on a Saturday I check the speedometer. We are doing 72, and being passed on BOTH sides as if we are standing still. The Merc did not flinch and I had plenty of pedal left. I slowed her down some, and in about an hour, we smelled something burning. I pull over and see smoke from the trunk. Out comes some possessions with caution, and the culprit seems to be a margarine container full of bobby pins. I insulate the container and it seems nothing else is smoking, and in the summer heat and abusive humidity, I did not realize how hot the trunk is, until about 4 weeks later. We spent some time in Pecos and enjoyed the visit there, only I was disappointed my friend in the next house had moved. I noticed the right turn signal/brake/ taillight was out and attempted to replace the bulb. The plastic housing was melted. The local boneyard had a donor and I replaced the assembly. I then wondered what would MELT a taillight. There was a garage about a block away, so I decided to pay a visit. I did not get to WWAAAA” as the motor died almost as soon as I exited the drive. Dead. Nada. I walk over to the mechanic, who kindly walked over and found a broken e-clip in the distributor. He did not charge me and found the heat/smoke/melt was due to a rusted tailpipe. Seems in the Underwater 135% humidity of Lousy-anna, (we lived below Baton Rouge and North of only Bayou and Gulf) the tailpipe fell apart where it went over the axle. It was impossible to see without being on a lift, and the hot stream followed the fender/trunk lines to the rear bumper / taillight.
The only other quirk was the heat would not stop blowing. This was very easy to solve, as the heater hoses attached at the firewall. A 2 inch piece of discarded pipe made the loop back to the engine and stopped the leak. Sadly as we arrived in Las Vegas, the car was captured by my step-father leaving me carless. It was a great ride with many great memories.
Monterey!: A Quinn Martin Production
It almost looks like an undercover cop car from a bad 70’s cop show….
Speaking of cop car, here a 1971 Mercury Montery as a cop car.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/formerwmdriver/5151962287/
I know a former Marion County, Indiana, Sheriff’s deputy who drove these in his day, and he said they made the finest cop cars ever. Frighteningly fast, he said.
I always heard it was the 1969 Dodge Polara with the 440 that was the ‘king’ of cop cars.
“I’m sitting at a signal behind this dog lover and thinking of what Curbside Classics might be awaiting me. As this particular town is ripe with them, I knew something was longing to meet my camera.”
Wow, no kidding… I see at least a few days worth of CC material in the background here. Mercury Topaz GS, an early Neon, Chevy Beretta, ’68 Galaxie fastback – and that’s just one block.
The Galaxie has been captured and I’ve seen it since – just not in the same type of situation.
https://www.curbsideclassic.com/curbside-classics/curbside-classic-1968-ford-galaxie-500-always-ready-to-roll/
Looks like an Illinois Tollway cop car from that time. They got Mercurys for patrol cars from late 60s to 1974. Then the tollroads were patroled by IL State police.
I imagine the fleet buyer figured, ‘Tollway employees will drive luxury Mercs, not boring Ford Customs!’
My mom had a ’70 Monterey Custom coupe with the 429 four-barrel. I learned to drive in that car. Amazing response. CHP was running the sedans that year.
The ’71s were the first time I didn’t want the new model. Bloated and ungainly compared to the ’70…and it was going to get worse.
I agree with you – The 1969-70 Ford LTD/Mercury Marquis was uniquely attractive and an era that ended as quickly as it begun.
The 1969-70 fullsize Mercury has a distinctive, Lincolnlike elegance about it, without looking overdone. As the pictured car shows, the ’71 moves back to being an obvious dressed-up Ford. That pendulum swing between upperclass Ford and junior-varsity Lincoln is, of course, the story of Mercury’s entire history.
The strange thing is that the ’70 Lincoln came out looking a lot like the ’69 Mercury. Although I get into arguments with Lincoln fans about this, to me that has always been the problem with the 1970-74 Lincoln. Because Mercury had the same styling a year earlier, the Lincoln seems like just a slightly bigger Mercury.
Wow, our next door neighbor had that exact car with a blue cloth interior. They seemed to have it forever!
That 429 was definitely one of Ford’s surprise sleeper engines.
It must have been old Ford on the Road day. On the way to work, I saw a baby blue 73 Gran Torino sedan with the rear end jacked up and Keystone wheels all around. Suddenly it was 1978 all over again. I had not seen this car before, and unfortunately, I did not have time to get a shot of it. I had better hurry and start looking for it before Jim Grey finds it. 🙂
You’re in luck — this one’s new to me!
This car is a great example of why 5 mph bumpers were mandated. The bumpers on this ’71 were basically just chrome ornaments. One small tap in the rear corner, and there goes an expensive taillight. Same deal with the front fenders and hood peak.
“Bumpers” were chrome ornaments on ALL cars before the 5mph standard!
I had a fecal brown 1970 Triumph GT6+ at Michigan Tech in Houghton, Michigan in the 70s. It broke down on every trip to and from home. I found a 1971 T-Bird with a 429 but I was $200 short so I traded the GT6+ in for a lime green 1971 Mercury Monterrey coupe in Calumet, MI instead. It proved itself to be one of the best cars I have ever owned. It had a 400 V8 with a C6 transmission. I put CD Ignition on it, aggressive spark timing, raised the float level in the 2100 2 barrel carb (so it ran extra rich) and put 3 gaskets in the Accelerator pump to increase its capacity. What a kick. It got 8 MPG and could suck the pigeons right off the sidewalk. Not one breakdown. This vehicle was so wide, I could sleep in the back seat and not even touch the sides. It even had 2 ash trays for the front seat. The AM radio picked up NYC at night. It was the first car that I never reached its top speed. I was working in Fuel Metering at Ford Advanced Engineering in Allen Park and raced all of my co-workers. Even won a couple races once in a while. I used to drive across Detroit on I-94 going over 90 on summer nights with all the windows down playing Cat Scratch Fever on the 8 Track at full volume. Love those big blocks. Those were the days.
The 1971 Mercury was such a disappointment after the stately 1969-70s. But then, so was the 1971 Cougar. And the 1970-71 Montego. Something must have been in the water . . . the dreaded bloat virus.
That happened to a lot of cars in the 1970s. For the 1971 model year alone, we had the Cougar and Mustang, GM’s full-size personal luxury cars and the AMC Javelin, which were among the top three offenders during the entire decade.
I do like these beasts, god help me I do.
Althogh it wasn’t the same as one of these, in the past week I encountered an early 70’s Ford LTD 2-door sedan which was unrestored but with little to no rust or body damage. What is shocking to me about it was that I recall seeing Fords no more than 2 years old with visible rust back in the day.
First time seeing one of these. A little heavy looking but an otherwise handsome car. I like it.
As a Marion county Sheriff deputy in Indiana I was issued several cars during my service one special to me was the 1971 mercury sweet very fast never lost a pursuit even two corvettes I am wanting to find one to restore for shows and parades . it had the 428 CJ if anyone knows of one reasonable please let me know. 317-989-2240