1975 Mercury Montego

It started out so innocently. This was a family car, purchased when Larry Richards’ second child was born. Then, driving his bad black Monte to work one day, Larry got dusted by a Mazda MX6 Turbo. How could this happen—a wheezy little four-banger usurping the majesty of a small-block Chevy?

Larry didn’t take kindly to it, so he overcompensated a bit and built himself a little 350 for his Monte. He started with a cross-drilled, micropolished, and balanced crank, worked up a forged 10.0:1 piston/pink-rod combo, then added ported, polished, and flowed angle-plug Bow Tie heads with 2.02/1.60 valves. Isky triple springs, Comp Cams guideplates and retainers, and 1.6:1 Comp Cams rockers cohabit with a Comp Cams .605-lift, 236-degree–duration bumpstick.

A worked 800-cfm Holley double-pumper sits atop a port-matched Edelbrock Victor Jr. intake manifold, while the trash is funneled through a Hooker Competition 2 ½-inch exhaust system. A complete MSD ignition—distributor, amp box, timing control, and coil—is set at 35 degrees BTDC for a healthy 485 hp at 6,000 rpm, and 454 lb-ft of torque at 5,500 rpm.

The switch to a Borg-Warner T-56 six-speed (2.97:1 First, 0.50:1 Sixth) and a 3.73:1 Auburn rear makes for serious grunt in any gear. The chassis is surprisingly stock, with fully boxed rear trailing arms, Guldstrand springs, and tubular upper front control arms, 13/8-inch H.O. Specialties bars front and rear, Koni shocks and polyurethane bushings all ’round, and a set of heavy-duty tie-rod ends with tube-style adjustment collars are the sum of its parts. (Well, that and the eight-point cage with side swing-out bars.)

Larry then incorporated ’92 Caprice F41 Police Package spindles with 12-inch front brakes, while the rears are PBR 12-inch ’96 Vette binders. Goodyear GSCs—255/45s front, 285/40s rear—get all that power to the tarmac.

Inside the car is largely the stock burgundy cloth gut it was born with—save for the VDO 200-mph speedo, and Auto Meter gauges dotting the dash. The Caddy tape deck and speakers still blare, and the A/C still blows cold. Simpson five-point belts snug Larry in place.

Keep in mind that this car sees the 100-plus–mile roundtrip to work several times a week. And it’s seen the better part of 160 mph on open-road circuits. But Larry’s not done yet. “The modifications will never end as long as I own the car,” he says. In that regard, he’s got plans for a 400-cube aluminum small-block tuned to NASCAR specs for the very near future. HR