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MM Retro Write-Up: 1949-1951 Mercury Custom/Monterey
IN A NUTSHELL: Famous for three things…..Whisky-Running, NASCAR Racing, and Chop-Top-Street-Rodding.
During World War II, starting shortly after the attack on Pearl Harbor, New American cars were no longer available for regular civilian purchases, as the vast and (at that time) unparalleled resources of American factories, including auto-plants re-tooled to produce military vehicles, aircraft, tanks, cannons, boats/ships, guns, ammunition, and thousands of other war-needs that ultimately helped win the conflict and defeat our enemies. For example, Ford’s huge Willow Run plant in Detroit built the large four-engined B-24 heavy-bombers for the U.S. Army Air Corps (the predecessor of the U.S. Air Force) and the PB4Y patrol-bomber version of the B-24 for the U.S. Navy. A number of the basic stapes of daily life, such as sugar, meat, shoes, and (for us car-buffs), gasoline, were strictly rationed according to a colored-coupon-system issued for your status and need. While the American civilians at home, away from the fighting overseas, even with the coupons/rationing, admittedly had a lot of things better than the GIs who were doing the fighting and suffering, and a lot better than civilians overseas who were caught up in the fighting and getting bombed, war-life and rationing did get stale after a while….particularly with not being able to replace Old Betsy, out there in the garage, with something new and nicer. (And it must be remembered that cars didn’t last as long in those days as they did now….engines and transmissions generally wore out much faster).
And so, after the war, in the fall of 1945, when our enemies were defeated and a bright new future beckoned for those who survived the war, the prospect of brand-new cars and unrestricted gasoline sales brought joy to the American public again. Many left big-city-life for new homes in the growing suburbs. And some didn’t even wait for the bigger American cars…a few years after the war, the GIs overseas brought back small (but unreliable) British open-top roadsters and the reliable but quirky German VW air-cooled Beetle, which, by then, were starting to be produced again after the factories got rebuilt from the bombings.
But these were still considered niche-vehicles at the time…..the vast majority of Americans still wanted larger cruise-machines and their relative comfort. The first new post-war vehicles to start coming off of production lines again, in early 1946, with price-inflation from supply/demand, were not all that much different from the latest pre-war designs, although the first primitive automatic and semi-automatic transmissions were starting to gain in popularity, as traffic increased in some areas, and many drivers did not want to be constantly on the clutch and shifting gears.
By around 1948 or so, American automakers had had time to design and test sleek new postwar designs, some of which, like Cadillac’s new tail fins, had been influenced by the war……the fins, for example, were inspired by the twin-rudder Lockheed P-38 fighter-plane used during the war. All-new and more powerful engines, such as the Oldsmobile “Rocket” V8, also made their first debuts. Ford, Mercury, and Lincoln, in particular, stood out with some very sleek new body designs, in the fall of 1948 for the 1949 model-year….for purposes of this write-up, I’ll mostly stick with the two-door Mercury Custom and Monterey, as it was arguably the most noted and famous of the three.
The ’49 Mercury, whose styling more or less remained through 1951, was an instant hit. Not only did traditional car buyers who wanted a highway-cruiser flock to it, but also the street-rod crowd whose numbers were rapidly growing after the war Many in the street-rod scene, as with the also-new motorcycle-gangs, were ex-fighter pilots during the war, who were used to flying and fighting aggressively, no longer had their planes any more to satisfy their ego, and looked to daily satisfaction in hot cars and motorcycles instead. Some them chose the sleek new Ford, but those who had a little more to spend went with the slightly more expensive Mercurys. The new Mercurys were sleek enough from the factory as it is, but many of the street-rod owners chose to lower the original roofline down and have little slit-windows on the back and sides. They were known as “Chop-Tops”. Didn’t do much for visibility (and cars back then had virtually no safety features in a crash), but the owners loved the look, even in spite of poor visibility and increased chances of accidents…made even worse by their aggressive driving-style. Unlike with Cadillac, whose owners at the time were seeking a traditional luxury car, some of the customizing-crowd with money even bought and customized or chopped the Lincolns of the period, which shared bodies/frames and a number of features with the Mercurys. Indeed, some of these modified Lincolns were extolled in a later pop-song, where a father tells his son he is going to start drinking if his son doesn’t stop driving the “Hot-Rod Lincoln.” and getting into trouble.
The ’49-51 Mercury was also quite popular in other areas beyond the street-rod crowd. As with the cheaper Ford coupe/sedan, Moonshiners/Whiskey-Runners, particularly in the more Southern reaches of Appalachia where stills had existed for centuries, used the Mercurys to illegally transport moonshine (whiskey which had been illegally produced without the Federal and state taxes paid on it) through the hills to their markets and evade the Federal Agents who pursued them in their own Government cars. These Mercurys, as with the Fords, were modified with beefed-up versions of the Ford/Mercury Flathead V8, which was kept in production until 1954….the extra power allowed the Whisky-runners to often outrun their pursuers, although it was still a highly-dangerous business for both sides, particularly on the mountain roads of the time. Most of the whisky-runners, of course, chose the traditional three-speed manual transmission over the relatively primitive 2-speed slush box automatics / semi-automatics of the time. A manual transmission of the time gave markedly better power and better gas-mileage….something to take into account when you not only wanted to outrun the ATF guys on your tail, but also keep from running out of gas, period. Although it is a fictional account, one can still get a fairly good idea of what that business was like in the movie “Thunder Road”, staring Robert Mitchum, which was made in 1958….Mitchum used both an old 1950 and a newer 1957 Ford to run the whisky. He had a James-Bond-like feature on the Fords which spewed oil out on the road behind him to cause his pursuers to spin out of control.
The Mercurys of that period were also quite popular in the early years of NASCAR stock-car racing, which was just starting to get organized by founder Bill France…indeed, the first actual “races” were actually Southern whisky-runners getting together on Friday or Saturday nights to have some competition among themselves on a (usually) dirt-track. Spectators enjoyed watching, and slowly the sport grew. The Mercurys, in general, did quite well on the tracks and made a name for themselves, although the competing Hudson Hornets, with a lower center of gravity, generally had better handling and response to the steering, and the Oldsmobile Rocket V8s, depending on how much they has been modified, sometimes had more power.
As the 1950s went on, Mercurys, like many larger American cars in general, grew substantially in length, width, weight, chrome-trim, power, and interior plushness, while at the same time getting lower and lower, and somewhat harder to get in and out of. Although I’ve gotten some chances, over the years, to sample and test-drive some cars from the mid-late 1950s, I never sampled the ’49-51 Mercury (they were built a few years before i was born), so I can’t describe first-hand how it drove. Perhaps all the better, though, as I am a big guy, with a large frame, usually wear a ball-cap, and I probably could not have sat in one of these classic chopped-top Mercurys without my head and chin being bent down to my chest LOL.
And, as Always, Happy-Vehicle-Memories.
MM
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DRIVING IS BELIEVING
