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Ford reshaped its mid-size muscle car for 1973 to meet new federal bumper rules, and the redesign paid off with a 52 percent jump in production over 1971. Buyers could choose between a humble inline-six and a deeper bench of V8 options than you’d guess, with the sportiest Gran Torino Sport reserved for V8 power only. The changes pushed the Torino ahead of its longtime rival, the Chevrolet Chevelle, in Fords ongoing battle for intermediate muscle car sales.
A Mercury running under NASCAR lights sounds like a trivia-night trick question today, but at the turn of the 1970s a Montego-based stocker was a legitimate threat on the high banks. Mercury’s competition effort leaned on the Cyclone Spoiler II, a Boss 429-powered homologation special clocked at 199.6 mph in period testing. This particular car carries the scars of something built to run rather than to sit under a cover. Read on for how it got there, and why the story ended so fast.