1974 Mercury Montego MX Brougham

Launched in 1968, the Mercury Montego was the upscale version of the midsize Mercury Comet line, serving the same function (and sharing the basic mechanicals of) the Ford Torino, which was the upscale version of the midsize Ford Fairlane.

The Montego/Torino twins got a serious revamp for their second generation in 1972, but had the unfortunately clunky mandatory 5mph bumpers added to the front in '73 and the rear in '74. This Dark Green 1974 Montego MX has the opera window and partial vinyl roof of the Brougham, so there's no six-cylinder under the hood.

The smallest motor available was Ford's 302 two-barrel Windsor small block, rated at 140 horsepower. Buyers who wanted more oomph could get the 351 Cleveland 2-barrel 163 horsepower or 170-horse 400M 2-barrel. To get the full throttle early Malaise Era experience, the top-line option was the 460 cubic inch FoMoCo big block with a Carter 4-barrel and 220 SAE Net horsepower...about the same as the 5.0L EFI motor in a late Fox Body Mustang.

This one was photographed using a Nikon D1X and 24-120mm f/3.5-5.6D zoom lens in October of 2015.