Cyclone Zone: 1970 Mercury Cyclone Spoiler
When you think of "70s musclecars" what comes to mind? Retina-searing color hues? Asphalt-shredding torque? Over-the-top graphics and stripes? Wings and spoilers everywhere? How 'bout all of the above...
If your heart's pounding right now, it's probably because you've just entered the Cyclone Zone! Big. Bold. Bad. All words that aptly describe Mercury's top-of-the-line muscle for 1970. This car was the winged god's armed response to cars like the Plymouth Superbird and the GTO "Judge". The Cyclone Spoiler could easily hold its own against any other mid-sized muscle of the day, and more often than not left them scrambling in its wake.
When Ford and Mercury decided to redesign their intermediate line for the 1970 model year, they pulled no punches. The base Montego's new look was both stylish and aggressive at the same time, and the Cyclone option handily kicked it up a few notches. When the "Spoiler" package was ordered, things got out of hand. Witness our feature car: Competition Orange, packed with all that glorious '70s musclecar opulence, ready to eat up the road a 1/4 mile at a time!
When you checked off the "Spoiler" option package $65G) at ordering time, you opened the door to the "Zone": A 429 cubic inch Cobra-Jet big block with Ram Air, Crazy color choices with the word "Competition" in front of them. A serious looking grille with a razor-edged target smack dab in the middle of it. A massive front air dam that looked like it could plow snow. An adjustable rear spoiler better suited to an indy car, and enough stripes and decals to make a stock car driver jealous. The accompanying performance goodies simply sealed the deal: a Hurst 4-speed shifter, dual exhausts, F70x14 "Traction Belted" tires, competition suspension (beefed up springs and sway bars), a functional hood scoop, full instrumentation (including a 140 mph speedometer), and dual racing mirrors.
All that good stuff came at a surprisingly low sticker of $3759. The "base" 429 CJ engine offered up plenty of horsepower and torque (370@5400 rpm and 450@3400 rpm respectively), and the optional 429 SCJ raised the bar even more so. Check out our comparison charts and you'll see the differences between these two motors. Although the advertised power ratings are almost identical, the SCJ was vastly underrated. Needless to say, Mercury was playing it real conservative with both these ratings (the insurance companies were beating their war drums very loudly at this point).
Road tests of the day had these mid-sized Mercs running low 14-second quarter mile times. Pretty stout for a car that measured in at 210" long, 77" wide, and shipped with a curb weight of 3882 pounds (there's that Big, Bold, Bad thing again!). Actually, Mercury's full-color ad back in 1970 said it all. The full page ad featured a screaming yellow Spoiler at the dragstrip. The big, funky "Laugh-In" style lettering spouted: "Cyclone Spoiler. Password for action in the '70's. Better bring along a drag chute." Although it seemed like just another hard sell musclecar ad (wouldn't it have been fun back then to work in an advertising agency?), the text offered some serious technical attributes: "Here's the muscle machine that parts the wind for you. Tested at 100 mph, the front spoiler drops lift from 186 to 120 pounds. The rear spoiler cuts it down from 67.5 to 5.8..." Good stuff back when muscle ruled the road.
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