What Happened to the Mercury Marauder?
A few years back Mercury debuted their special edition Marauder “Sleeper” car – a callback to the 1960’s race car that ripped through NASCAR circuits. It was dubbed a sleeper since it was built within the trim of a Grand Marquis, but contained a 4.6 liter DOHC V8 under her hood, producing 302 horse power. Ford also threw in dual exhaust and a meaner looking grill – and I wanted one badly. I assumed one day I’d make enough money to buy a Marauder, though sadly the vehicles were discontinued in 2004. It was after this I learned this new Marauder followed in the footsteps of a classic American automobile.
Mercury’s first Marauder hit the streets in 1963 as a two-door with V8 engine under her hood. This design remained popular until the end of Marauder’s first run in 1965. Its fastback roof design was typical of 60’s Marauders was used in the Ford Galaxie NASCAR racer, which brought the Ford/Merc team numerous wins during its ‘63 – ‘64 series.
Mercury brought the Marauder tag back in 1969 for a second round, this time in the form of a large two-and-four-door luxury model. You could pick up a Marauder with 390 cubic-inch engine or a Marauder-X with a more powerful 429 cubic-inch plant. Like the 21st century Marauders, its 1969 – ‘70 run shared many external design aspects with the Marquis. Inside, one would find bucket seats and a floor console U-shaped automatic transmission shifter. Ford/Mercury produced 15,000 Marauders for 1969 and a third of that for 1970 before canceling the second run.
2003 brought the Marauder back for a third run, building the larger engine into a stock Grand Marquis/Crown Victoria body and marketing it as a “high performance sedan.” Many of the suspension and brake features standard in this generation’s Mercury Marauder came from the Police Interceptor Ford Crown Vic’s. Marauder was also the only car before 2006 to have a factory standard tachometer. 10,782 Marauders were produced before production ended in late 2004. Now, if Mercury can get past a current sales slump, and history repeats itself, we may see a fourth generation Marauder further down the road.
Photos courtesy of Wikipedia
Leave a Reply