This 1973/79 Mercury Montego MX Ranchero Is an Awesome One-of-None Ford Luxury Ute

The ute design is primarily credited to the car wizards from the other side of Planet Piston – namely Down Under – and dates back to the early 30s. Ford of Australia built a rugged car to haul livestock to the market Monday through Saturday but also stylish enough to carry the spouse to church on the seventh day.

Fast-forward some two decades (and the entire vastness of the Pacific Ocean), and Ford Motor Company released the Ranchero in 1956. The car could best be described as a two-seat sedan with a bed tucked behind the cabin. After some half a million examples were assembled, the line was discontinued at the end of the 1979 production.

Another short-lived Ford product of the same era was the Montego, built by the Mercury division in two generations, from 1968 to 1976. The two vehicles had virtually nothing in common, being addressed to different sections of the market. The luxurious Mercury was targeted at well-off buyers. At the same time, the cowboy Ford utilitarian was self-explanatory – the Ranchero name pointed strongly at physical labor.

In the automotive universe, there will always be someone who’s not content with the state of things and seeks new ways of exploring uncharted possibilities. In 1988, Dan Romanoski bought a Ford Ranchero (vintage 1979) but wasn’t satisfied with its overall styling. He wanted something more high-end – and a Mercury Montego MX from 1973 was the closest thing he could find to suit his preference.

Luckily for him, combining the two Ford automobiles into one-like-none ute proved more straightforward than it appeared at the very beginning of the project. Since the Blue Oval cars of that era were vastly similar (some would say the main difference was the grille), the panels were interchangeable to the point that Mr. Romanoski only had to drill one hole for one screw. Everything else fit right into place as if the front clip of the Mercury had been designed to adorn the Ranchero body.

This is how the Mercury Montego MX Ranchero came to be, but there was still the powerplant issue. In 1973, the Mercury division offered six engine choices: a 250-cubic-inch Six, and five V8s (one two-barrel 302, two 351s – two- and four-throat, a 400-4v, and the big 429 – again, with four-barrel carburetion).

The 1979 Ranchero, on the other hand, put only two eight-cylinders on the table, both with dual-venturi carbs: a 302 (standard) and a 351. None of those options pleased Dan Romanoski, so he sourced a big-block from 1968 to put his creation on the road: the bulky 460-4 Police Interceptor. The 365-hp, 388 lb-ft (370 PS, 526 Nm) output is sent to the rear wheels via a three-speed automatic (the owner doesn’t say the provenance of the transmission nor what rear gearing ratio it drives).

As we can see in the video (shot last October in Chicago by Lou Costabile, the classic car vlogger, and YouTuber), the ‘Monchero’ also sports interior features of its Mercury ascendence, with the gauges and seats from the Montego MX. This is not to say that the car isn’t unique enough as it is, but the owner fabricated the custom deck lid himself when he set to put together this Ford interdivisional mule.