Unless you were driving on California’s highways in the late Fifties to early Sixties, odds are you’ve never laid eyes on a car like this before. That’s because, according to its owner Roger Clements, this is the only restored example of a genuine 1958 Mercury Monterey California Highway Patrol car known to exist. Not only that, but Roger has also located only one other ’58 CHP Mercury—in any condition—since acquiring our featured example in 2006.
“I’ve been interested in Lincolns and Mercurys ever since owning one of the Bill Stroppe-prepared 1954 Lincolns built for that year’s La Carrera Panamericana road race in Mexico, a car I bought and restored in the 1980s,” Roger says. “I had a chance to talk with Bill on several occasions while I owned that car, and I later became intrigued by the idea of owning one of the Stroppe-built ’58 Mercury CHP cars. It took me a while, but
