Yahoo Autos Junkyard Gem: 1957 Mercury Montclair Phaeton Sedan
Just about every U.S.-market Mercury model ever made was an obvious Ford- and/or Lincoln-badged sibling (though some of those siblings originated in other countries). The members of the 1957 Mercury lineup were mechanically similar to their Ford Empire brethren, but got wild styling that looked like nothing else on the road. Today's Junkyard Gem is one of those '57 Mercs: a Montclair hardtop sedan with the biggest engine available in any new Mercury (or Ford or Lincoln) car that year.
Mercury called their two- and four-door hardtops "Phaetons" for 1957 and 1958, beating Volkswagen to that name by close to a half-century.
I shot this car in my favorite Colorado car graveyard, a family-owned operation located about 30 miles north of Denver. Speedway Auto Wrecking is open only on Saturday mornings, so plan ahead if you want to get parts from this car. The 1954 Nash Ambassador, 1938 Ford Tudor, 1974 AMC Pacer Levis Edition and 1987 Chevrolet Cavalier Z24 hatchback we've seen in this series were all shot at Speedway.
The Detroit horsepower wars were getting serious by 1957, and the original buyer for this car checked the box for the most powerful single-carburetor engine available in a new Mercury that year: a 368-cubic-inch (6.0-liter) Lincoln Y-Block V8 rated at 290 horsepower. If you needed even more power, you could get the dual-carb M-335 version of the 368, which made 335 horses (but that was a seldom-ordered NASCAR homologation motor).
This engine was standard equipment in the top-of-the-line Turnpike Cruiser, and Mercury named the engine after the model.
