Chasing Mercury’s Ghost: The One-of-One 1972 Montego MX Cyclone

I’ll be honest with you—if there’s one car that keeps me up at night in 2026, it’s not a seven-figure Ferrari or a forgotten Hemi ‘Cuda convertible. It’s a weird, wonderful, windowless-fastback-adjacent Mercury that I will probably never see in the metal. The 1972 Mercury Montego MX Cyclone. One built. None found. And the more you dig into its story, the more it feels like the automotive equivalent of Bigfoot riding a unicorn while listening to an eight-track of Boston.

Back in the early ‘70s, Mercury was Ford’s slightly more sophisticated middle child. It had access to all the Blue Oval’s best toys—engines, chassis, styling cues—but was supposed to use them in a slightly more grown-up way. Mercury politely ignored that memo whenever it could, and the Montego was its rowdiest response. Launched in 1968 as a swankier cousin to the Ford Torino, the Montego got a full glam-up for 1972. The second-generation car arrived with a choice of body styles, and the real party was in the rooflines. The GT got an aggressive fastback profile that looked like it was doing 90 mph standing still. The MX wore a more formal notchback silhouette, like it was trying to pretend the 60s never happened. Both could be had with the Cyclone performance package, and that’s where things get wonderfully ridiculous.

The Cyclone Treatment: More Than Just a Sticker Pack

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