The Montclair was usually Mercury’s mid-range full-size automobile, from 1955 to 1960, and again from 1964 to 1968. The seller has owned this 1957 example for 20 years, and it came with the Turnpike Cruiser’s 368 cubic-inch V8. However, that motor sits on the floor, so the vintage Mercury is a roller for now. Located in Shreveport, Louisiana, this restoration project is available here on Facebook Marketplace for $10,500. A thumbs up to “Zappenduster” for another cool tip!
Car companies have sometimes named their products after geographic locations. Speculation is that the Montclair was named after a community near Mercury’s Mahwah assembly plant, though that has not been confirmed. With a new streamlined design in 1957, Mercury had a good sales year at 285,000 units. More than a quarter of them were Montclairs, and 2-door hardtops dominated at 40% of Montclair production. The easiest way to tell a ’57 from a ’58 is that the former still used single headlights.
This Merc came out of Colorado two decades ago, and the seller has kept it in his garage all that time, perhaps working on it year to year. We’re told it is rust-free, and the white-over-red paint is original but worn out. A 312 cubic inch V8 was standard, but this one came with the high-performance 368 with a 4-barrel carburetor and a Merc-O-Matic automatic transmission (like the Ford Cruise-O-Matic?).
As a restoration project, this car comes with a spare engine (another 368?) without mention of either of them being original to the Merc. The listed mileage is 10,000, but a fair guess would be it turned over at 110,000. The vehicle has been listed for nearly two months, so its lack of movement is either price-related or because 1950s Mercurys aren’t considered top picks.
Russ,
That’s not a real Turnpike Cruiser – a Turnpike Cruiser
has more items like air vents,etc. on the outside of the body.I
have an old issue of Special Interest Cars that did a test on the
TC here somewhere,& it was loaded up with all kinds of things
like that.
To be clear, the author only says it has the Turnpike Cruiser V8, and doesn’t say that this car is one. That seems to come up a lot with these Mercs. TCs comprised a small amount(16,000) of Mercs sold in ’57( almost 300,000). They were wonderful cars, I just don’t see any interest putting this one back together.
In a side note, there are some cool trucks, if the only way to see any here, is in the background of other ads, so be it. Looks like a ’40(?) Ford, an IH R-190, and a Mack B model.
It’s a Montclair with (supposedly) the Turnpike Cruiser V8 which was optional.