1949 Mercury Coupe ‘Merrodder’

Merrodder, a radically customized 1949 Mercury designed by Larry Erickson and built by Larry Kramer, first debuted in 1993. The body received a two-foot reduction in overall length, a cowl and windshield from a 1988 Camaro, a Kevlar lift-off top, custom tube grilles front and rear and enough sectioning and pie-cutting and body sculpturing to make it hardly recognizable as a Mercury. Kramer set the body on a custom tube frame with 1993 Corvette running gear and a Donnie Everett-built 510-cu.in. big-block Chevrolet V-8 with Thunder Power 32-valve aluminum cylinder heads and custom electronic fuel injection. He then had Sneed’s stitch up the interior for owner C.K. Spurlock.

1949 Mercury owned and built by Larry Kramer. Known as “Merrodder,” Larry’s Merc won the “King of the Mercs” award in 1994. “This was a two-year build,” Larry told Sondre Kvipt of Kustomrama in 2020. “I built the Merrodder when I worked for Spurlock at Gambler. Spurlock was Kenny Rodgers show producer.”

Larry Kramer performed much of the build.  The original ’49 Mercury body was sliced and diced to accommodate the enlarged dimensions of the independent C4 Corvette suspension it rests on.

The shocking yet beautiful, shortened, widened, and chopped look is accentuated by its lift-off hardtop and tilting front end.

A Meaney Brothers Big Stuff engine management system, dry-sump oil delivery and 180-degree headers finish out the package.  The luxurious tan leather interior stitched by Larry Snead and Larry Bell takes second to no one.

Merrodder’s Turbo 400 transmission runs into two-yes, two-Gear Vendor overdrives which allows the car to work like a 5-speed automatic.  Top speed?  Potentially very, very fast.