I'm having difficulty naming this car. IT's just so awesome looking in these racing versions. Especially the black one without a large wing.

Robison Racing

Start of 93007 SCCA Laguna Seca Regional - Chuck Koehler Photography

Laguna Seca T5 92907 SCCA Laguna Seca Regional - Chuck Koehler Photography

Larry Sacks image from Laguna Seca front stretch during 93007 race

Running with Art Muncheryan during 90107 SCCA Infineon Regional - Chuck Koehler Photography

90207 SCCA Infineon Regional - Chuck Koehler Photography

90207 Infineon - Chuck Koehler

T3 during 102806 SCCA Laguna Seca Regional - Chuck Koehler Photography

Laguna Seca "Corkscrew" during 102806 SCCA Regional - Zack Steinkamp image

Laguna Seca T5 during 102806

T8 during 100806 NASA Infineon race - Head-On Photos

May 2006 test during Ferris, Baker Watts Thunderhill day - Larry Sacks Photography

Images from track-side preparation

Sweet lookin' car! Reminds me of a Bonneville with wider hips.

Yea I could see that, I was thinking it might be some kind of pontiac.

that's the 1970-71 Mercury Cyclone Spoiler.... related to the Ford Torino Talledega. Intermediate body, the Mercury in those years came as Montegos and Cyclones. the equivalent Fords were the Torinos, and Fairlanes,

even though the previous 1968-'69 intermediate Fords and Mercurys had used two different pillarless coupe rooflines, fastback and notchback, the 1970-'71 Montego and Cyclone used only a flowing notchback, sort of a mix of the previous two. The Torino/Fairlane could still be ordered in fastback and notchback bodies. Cyclones in '70 and '71 had a protuding gunsight grille and hidden headlights on some models.

The Thunderbird of those years, '70 and '71 also had a protuding nosepiece btw, called the Bunky Beak back then. For a brief couple of years, an ex GM exec named Bunkie Knudsen was named the president of Ford, in a stunning upset for Lee Iacocca who thought he had it in the bag. Knudsen was the son of a former president of GM, and had himself been the head of Pontiac and i believe Chevy before he was hired by Ford. He was fired in about 2 years. i like the designs he pushed through though.

Google 1970-71 Mercury Montego or Cyclone, or Cyclone Spoiler, or Cyclone Spoiler II, for a lot more information. Those intermediate Fords and Mercurys were quiet something back then. i wouldn't mind one now. my very first car was a '69 Comet, the decontented version of the Montego that year. awesome car though.

Nice! Wow so they were only produced for 2 years? Thanks, I knew you would figure out the name. Now that I know the name I can find more pictures for this nice car.

'The Streeter That Looks Like a Racing Car'

In the heat of the muscle car wars in the late '60s, even staid ol' Mercury offered some prodigious power across its lineup. Of course, there were plenty of plush machines on offer, but Ford Motor Company's middle division had been quietly building up to some of the best-regarded all-around vehicles of the era. From the pony car Cougar Eliminator up to the expansive Marauder X100 Coupe, there was a muscle Merc for everyone, it seemed. In between those two models was Mercury's mainstream muscle car, the Cyclone.

A twin-under-the-skin of the Ford Torino, Cyclone was largely new for 1970. The style was in the longer-lower-wider vein: wheelbase stretched an inch, to 117 inches, the vent windows were gone, and the most dramatic nose this side of Barbra Streisand, incorporating a forward-jutting prow and a bullseye target in the middle of a square. The semi-fastback roofline was the only one offered; mid-size Mercury convertibles had gone away, and only Ford could afford to go with a formal roof and a SportsRoof. Three models were available: Cyclone (largely unadorned save for the lower-fender engine callout), Cyclone GT (fancier, with hideaway lights and stainless rocker and fender trim that separated the body color from the satin-black rockers) and Cyclone Spoiler (featuring stripes, a front air dam, and a wing on the trunk that necessitated a prop rod to keep the trunklid open, such was its weight.

Underneath, Cyclone was fairly conventional: independent coil-sprung A-arms in front, like just about every other compact and mid-size Ford from the '60s; and leaf springs in back, riding a unit-body chassis. Save for the extra inch in the wheelbase, in fact, it could be a twin to the '68. A Competition Handling package, beefing up the standard Cyclone's shocks, springs and anti-roll bar, was widely regarded in the media as one of the better ride-handling compromises in the muscle car field, although understeer was easily invoked on the Firestone Wide Oval rubber. "If you can do 140 MPH without a ticket, you'll find it stays flat," reported Motor Trend.

Inside, the five gauge roundels of the previous Cyclone made way for a more conventional bar speedometer. The optional Gauge-Pak instrument cluster, however, was a NASCAR-esque bit of trickery that canted the tach, oil pressure, water temp and electrical gauges toward the driver. It was gimmicky--in truth, the deeply tunneled gauges were hard to see unless illuminated--but it made for one of the more distinctive interior treatments available.

Powertrains were rationalized and expanded, with the 250hp four-barrel 351 Cleveland standard in GT, 360hp Thunderjet 429 standard in the base Cyclone, and the 370hp 429CJ standard in the Cyclone Spoiler. Top engine option was the 375hp 429 SCJ Drag Pak mill (the April '09 issue of Hemmings Muscle Machines explains the differences), and any model could upgrade its engine on up the line. (Even mom-and-pop Montegos could get in on the SCJ.) The semi-hemi Boss 429 was widely reported to have been an option, apparently as a homologation for competition, and magazines have pictures of such a machine, but no proof of a line-built Boss Cyclone has ever emerged. Transmissions included a three-speed stick, Toploader four-speed, or C-6 three-speed automatic, all shifted from the floor, not the column.

The no-frills base Cyclone with the standard Thunderjet 429 seems an odd choice, but really it was a natural for the street racer who wanted big-engine torque without a lot of the typical Mercury frills or showy Spoiler stripes.

This article originally appeared in the SEPTEMBER 1, 2009 issue of Hemmings Motor News.

Lol, I like this remark from the article, "If you can do 140 MPH without a ticket, you'll find it stays flat," reported Motor Trend.

the nameplate Montego lived from 1968-76 I believe. it was the intermediate car line for Mercury, equivalent to the Fairlane and Torino at Ford. this bodystyle was built in '70 and '71. the '72-76 had a different, larger body, but still technically an intermediate. in '77 the Cougar nameplate took over for all the intermediates. i might be off a year or two around there, i was in college then and not paying as much attention, and frankly the cars of the late 70s got uglier and uglier after the bumper standards and new emissions controls regulations began. it took the domestics a good 10-15 years to get itself together starting in about '73-74.

just for the info, the Fairlane became the Torino exclusively in '72 and then became the LTD II in '77, as even the Thunderbird became a version of this intermediate platform.

a news tease, lol: i'm working on 10-12 new Mercury chops for a large website, for the April timeframe. i can't say anything else about it right now. there's no money involved, or it would be a totally professional gig, my first in car illustration! i'll let everyone know more when i can.

there was a poster at AWCC and MT whose father owned a Cyclone from this period. i think it was the one that lived in Tahoe if i'm not mistaken. was that SirCarzy or something like that? i might be wrong, but someone posted photos at a forum of a '70 Cycone. it was loaded for the time, and i think it had a power sunroof too.

Aren't those deeply embedded gauges all the way across the dashboard hot!!! the regular Montegos only had a solid slab of foam there. the cars were a great size. they had wheelbases of about 116-117", making them intermediates. Compacts had about 108-114" WBs then, and ful lsizers ranged from 118-133" back then. i like the separate taillights and the grille shapes. the whole car is svelte!

this is why i can never answer the question, what is my favorite car, or even period of cars. There is beauty in so, so many cars. And beauty in the '50s is different from beauty in the '70s, i find it hard to compare various periods against each other. To me anyway!

Yea, as I get old I feel the same way, it's hard to pick out "the most beautiful" it's just different. That's why when I'm choosing things I want to do with my celica right now I like picking cues that were more available around the time it was built. Kind of like the "what if" photochops you do. Like it's really hard to find, but I don't think I'll be putting in any digital gauges in my celica that don't have that 80's green hue. I've seen people bastardize the old Digital clusters with new blue lights and such. I mean not to say some of those hot rods with all the crazy new stuff doesn't look good, just not my thing. And yes those recessed gauges are f'ckin hot. If I do a FG dash I think i'd like to have something like that. I think when it comes down to it, I like each period for it's uniqueness and I'm interested to see how the new 10's era will be like.