1972 Mercury Montego GT: The Fastback That Replaced the Cyclone

In November 1971 Ford's Lorain, Ohio, assembly plant built a Maroon Mercury Montego GT with a black knitted-vinyl bench seat and a 351 Cobra Jet. Old Cars Weekly reports that it reached its first owner at Pfeifer Lincoln-Mercury in Grand Rapids early that December. Its Elite Marti Report, as relayed by the magazine, says 14 1972 Montego GTs were painted Maroon and two had that black bench, without stating which population the counts cover. The same car also carried a C-6 automatic, the Competition Suspension and a 3.50 Traction-Lok. One documented car is a narrow window, but it shows how far a buyer could take the new GT from its standard specification.¹

The GT arrived with a new car underneath it. For 1972 Ford moved its intermediates from unit construction to body-on-frame. Wikipedia's Torino history describes a perimeter frame with 14 rubber body mounts and five crossmembers, used to give a quieter, more isolated ride, with a short/long-arm front suspension on coil springs. The Montego shared the change and the split wheelbase that came with it: 114 inches for two-doors and 118 inches for four-doors and wagons. Old Cars Weekly compares the approach to General Motors' A-body intermediates. The taillamps moved into the rear bumper.^2,3,1

The most consequential change for performance buyers was a name that lost its standing. The Cyclone had been a separate Mercury model through 1971. For 1972 it became an option package, and Mercury introduced the Montego GT in its place, a counterpart to Ford's Gran Torino Sport SportsRoof. Wikipedia and Old Cars Weekly both describe the GT as the Cyclone's replacement. The GT was offered only as a two-door fastback, and it lasted just two model years, 1972 and 1973.^3,1,4

Mercury's Canadian brochure, printed in August 1971, shows how much of the GT's character came standard. Every GT had the 302-2V V8 and a three-speed manual, F78-14 white sidewall tires, a performance hood with dual scoops, dual racing mirrors, a tachometer and gauges, and a black instrument-panel applique. Hi-back bucket seats were optional at no extra cost, and the Tu-Tone Comfort Knit vinyl came in black, medium blue, medium ginger, medium green or white. Conceptcarz lists the base price at $3,350 and the 302 at 140 SAE net horsepower.⁴

The engine list went well beyond the 302. The brochure's power-team table offers a 351-2V, the 351-4V Cobra Jet with dual exhaust, a 400-2V and a 429-4V, which required power front disc brakes and power steering. A four-speed with Hurst shifter was listed with every V8, and the Select-Shift automatic with every engine, but the three-speed manual was not listed with the Cobra Jet. The brochure prints torque figures of 296 lb-ft for the 302, 350 for the Cobra Jet and 450 for the 429 without naming a rating standard.

The Cobra Jet's horsepower is itself in dispute. Over-Drive Magazine's engine history gives 248 SAE net horsepower for the 351 CJ in the 1972 Torino and Montego. Old Cars Weekly gives 266 net horsepower for the Cobra Jet in its featured Montego, and Wikipedia's Torino history also gives 266 for the 351-4V CJ, calling it the only performance engine Ford offered in the Torino that year. Both numbers are SAE net ratings, not measurements. Until an AMA specification sheet for the 1972 Montego is found, the two figures stand side by side, with 248 carried as the Montego-specific rating.^5,1,2

The Cyclone package was what remained of Mercury's performance line. The brochure describes a functional dual hood scoop, a four-speed with Hurst shifter or Select-Shift automatic, Traction-Lok, wide-oval tires, special striping and Cyclone decals. It was available on two-door models except the Brougham, and only with the 351 CJ or the 429-4V. A brochure photograph shows it on an MX hardtop, so a Cyclone was not necessarily a GT. Old Cars Weekly and Wikipedia both report 30 built, which Wikipedia says makes it among the rarest Mercurys.^1,3

The totals show how buyers answered. Conceptcarz reports 5,820 Montego GT fastbacks built for 1972, against 9,963 base Montego two-door hardtops and 8,658 base four-door sedans, and it cites no source for these figures. Ford built 496,645 Torinos that year, according to Wikipedia, making the Torino the best-selling intermediate of 1972 and the first time Ford had outsold the Chevelle. Beside that, the GT was a small specialty car, and the 30 Cyclone packages spread across every eligible two-door were a fraction of even the GT's run.^4,2,1

The rest of the Montego line did well from the redesign. Wikipedia reports that Montego sales rose 136 percent over 1971, with the largest gains in the MX Brougham: 897 percent for the two-door and 1,021 percent for the four-door. Those percentages put the line's growth in its most luxurious models, not in its sporting one. The GT itself, with a 302 and a three-speed as standard, was a fastback given a performance hood, racing mirrors and gauges, sitting on a frame Ford had designed to give a quieter, more isolated ride.^3,2

On the racetrack the name that meant speed was still Cyclone, and it was an older one. The Fayetteville Observer reports that David Pearson's first win for the Wood Brothers came at Darlington's Rebel 400 on April 16, 1972, and that the team raced a 1971 Mercury Cyclone, the car it now calls “The '71 Mercury.” Pearson won 19 of 36 starts in 1972 and 1973, including all 11 of his 1973 wins in that car. Under NASCAR's three-year eligibility rule it was retired on January 20, 1974.⁶

That leaves the showroom GT and the racing Mercury pointing in different directions. The winning car carried the Cyclone body that Mercury no longer sold as a model, while the new fastback in the showroom carried a GT badge and a standard 302-2V. Old Cars Weekly's featured owner, Jim Spieth, dates his love of the sport to races shown on ABC's Wide World of Sports and says, “Those Wood Brothers Mercurys stood out to me.” Decades later, the GT he bought was one of the Cobra Jet cars.^6,1

The GT returned for 1973 and then disappeared. Its first year produced a new chassis, a fastback shared with the Gran Torino Sport, a long engine list topped by the 429 and the Cobra Jet, and a Cyclone package that printed sources count at 30 cars. The 5,820 GTs were about 31 percent of the 18,621 base Montego two-door hardtops and four-door sedans that conceptcarz lists beside them, with the MX and Brougham lines not included in that comparison. The Cyclone option, which had been Mercury's performance model a year earlier, ended the 1972 season as one of the rarest Mercurys built.^3,4