GRAN DEUR OUT OF A CRISIS

The Mercury Monarch and its Ford Granada twin were products of postFuel Crisis austerity, with compact luxury designed to rival Europe's best

- MARTIN BUCKLEY

Released concurrently in the autumn of 1974, the mechanically identical Ford Granada and Mercury Monarch were born into a nation that, by Federal decree, had suddenly decided that anything to do with performance was both figuratively and literally toxic. It was a world in which luxury, economy and perceptions of status trumped all notions of excitement and driver appeal.

The pair were hundreds of pounds lighter and two or three feet shorter than most fullsized domestic models, and nobody cared that the base, straight-six-engined Granada and Monarch set the power-to-weight/bhp-per-litre equation back decades, despite upgrades that included electronic ignition on all versions.

You had to dig deep in the literature to discover that the 'sixes', festooned with newfangled catalytic converters, heat sensors, positive crankcase ventilation and exhaust-gas recirculation systems, made just 75 and 97bhp from their 3.3 and 4.1 litres. Even the largest of the two V8 motors available produced a mere 140bhp from almost 5.8 litres.

Ford was not exactly shouting about 0-60mph times from the rooftops, either (the base 'six' took 23 secs), but it was keen to point out that these new, more responsibly sized cars were almost as roomy as the full-size offerings, while getting economy in the 16-31mpg range.

Yet, as miserable as they appear, these were extraordinarily successful products, selling to the tune of two million units and bearing all the hallmarks of cars conceived in the agile mind of marketing whizzkid Lee Iacocca.