Photo: eBay User: baker519
The 1971 Mercury Montego is one of those classic muscle cars that is, for the most part, unjustly buried in the history books. Deep behind more well-known and prestigious American nameplates that it shared the roads with.
At least the Montego model from a year later shared a platform with the Ford Torino, famous for the eponymously named movie in its honor starring Clint Eastwood. That's why when we saw this 1971 Montego Cyclone for sale over on eBay, we knew he had to give it some limelight. Introduced as a stop-gap inside the larger Mercury Comet lineup, the Montego and Montego MX and Comet all shared a great deal of hardware with the Ford Torino and Fairlane.
The 351-cubic inch (5.8-liter) Ford Windsor V8 may not have been the largest engine a Ford product could have sported in 1971. But it's the engine this ultra-rare Montego Cyclone has to play with. Though, the notes on this car's official eBay listing indicate its current engine is actually a rebuilt unit with an aftermarket four-barrel carburetor paired to a four speed manual gearbox. The rest of the car is more or less as it was the day it last saw public roads over 30 years ago.
With several design cues that differed from the standard Montego, this Cyclone special edition is totally unique from an aesthetical perspective. Being meaner-looking than a Ford and less snobbish than a Lincoln certainly had a unique appeal.
With all the aggressive styling lines of a muscle car and all the size of an early 70s mid-size car, there was perhaps never again such an effective bridge between a Ford and a Lincoln than what was on offer here. That's why it's all the more of a shame that short of 400 were made for the 1971 model year.
The price for this ultra-rare piece of muscle car history? That'd be $39,000 before taxes and fees. Keep in mind that it includes all the labor to get the engine fully broken in. Is it worth it? 100 times over, yes.
The 351-cubic inch (5.8-liter) Ford Windsor V8 may not have been the largest engine a Ford product could have sported in 1971. But it's the engine this ultra-rare Montego Cyclone has to play with. Though, the notes on this car's official eBay listing indicate its current engine is actually a rebuilt unit with an aftermarket four-barrel carburetor paired to a four speed manual gearbox. The rest of the car is more or less as it was the day it last saw public roads over 30 years ago.
With several design cues that differed from the standard Montego, this Cyclone special edition is totally unique from an aesthetical perspective. Being meaner-looking than a Ford and less snobbish than a Lincoln certainly had a unique appeal.
With all the aggressive styling lines of a muscle car and all the size of an early 70s mid-size car, there was perhaps never again such an effective bridge between a Ford and a Lincoln than what was on offer here. That's why it's all the more of a shame that short of 400 were made for the 1971 model year.
The price for this ultra-rare piece of muscle car history? That'd be $39,000 before taxes and fees. Keep in mind that it includes all the labor to get the engine fully broken in. Is it worth it? 100 times over, yes.
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