The Marauder name first appeared as a 1963½ model in the full-size Mercury lineup. It was available as a 2-door hardtop with a forward-slanted "fastback" roofline; this was the reverse of the Breezeway roof introduced on other full-size Mercurys. This fastback roofline was developed for both the Mercury Marauder and the
Ford GalaxieThe Ford Galaxie was a full-size car built in the United States by the Ford Motor Company for model years 1959 through 1974. The name was used for the top models in Ford’s full-size range from 1959 until 1961, in a marketing attempt to appeal to the excitement surrounding the Space Race...
for
NASCARThe National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing is a family-owned and -operated business venture that sanctions and governs multiple auto racing sports events. It was founded by Bill France Sr. in 1947–48. As of 2009, the CEO for the company is Brian France, grandson of the late Bill France Sr...
competition, and may have helped with the many 1963–64 Ford Mercury victories. In 1964, the Marauder became available in a four-door sedan, also with a fastback roofline. It was an option on the
MontereyThe Monterey was introduced in 1950 as a high-end two-door coupe in the same vein as the Ford Crestliner, the Lincoln Lido coupe and the Lincoln Cosmopolitan Capri coupe. The reason was to offer a more luxurious coupe as the FoMoCo still not had any hard top. The Mercury line got a styling redesign...
,
MontclairThe Mercury Montclair was a full-size automobile produced by the Mercury Division of the Ford Motor Company from 1955 to 1957, the M-E-L Division of Ford Motor Company 1958 to 1959 and by the Lincoln Mercury Division of the Ford Motor Company from 1964 to 1968...
, and
Park LaneThe Mercury Park Lane was a fullsize automobile produced by the Mercury division of the Ford Motor Company from 1958 to 1960 and by the Lincoln-Mercury Division from 1964 to 1968. During this time, the Park Lane resembled the Monterey, but with a higher trim level.The Park Lane was introduced in...
. Marauders also featured bucket seats, central consoles, and other trim items similar to those in the
Ford Galaxie 500/XLThe Ford Galaxie was a full-size car built in the United States by the Ford Motor Company for model years 1959 through 1974. The name was used for the top models in Ford’s full-size range from 1959 until 1961, in a marketing attempt to appeal to the excitement surrounding the Space Race...
.
As it was common practice during that time to share components between Ford and Mercury, powertrain choices for the Marauder were identical to the big Ford, including
390, 406, and 427 cubic-inch Thunderbird V8sThe Ford FE engine is a Ford V8 engine used in vehicles sold in the North American market between 1958 and 1976. A related engine, the Ford FT engine, was used in medium and heavy trucks from 1964 through 1978. The FE filled the need for a medium-displacement engine created by the discontinuation...
, and a choice of 3-speed or 4-speed manual, or 3-speed automatic transmissions.
After 1965, the Marauder name was discontinued. The nameplate lived on as the branding of the most powerful engine available in Mercurys in 1966 and 1967 and could be found in other full-size Mercurys including the
Mercury S-55Mercury, a division of the Ford Motor Company added the S-55, a full-size performance / luxury vehicle to its S or "Special" line in 1962. The S-55 was first available from 1962 to 19631/2. The S-55 was not available from mid-1963 to 1965. The S-55 was re-introduced in 1966 as its own model...
.
Second generation (1969–1970)
In 1969, the Marauder was re-introduced in the Mercury lineup. Instead of being a sub-model of other full-size Mercurys, the Marauder was now a stand-alone model intended to compete in the
personal luxuryA personal luxury car is a highly styled, luxury vehicle with an emphasis on image over practicality. Accenting the comfort and satisfaction of its owner and driver above all else, the personal luxury car sometimes sacrifices passenger capacity, cargo room, and fuel economy in favor of style and...
market. Its front end and interior components were shared with the Marquis, but the back end was unique. The Marauder had its own look with distinctive non-functional louvered side air intakes in the quarter panels and a tunneled rear window. Well-appointed versions had bucket seats with a floor console housing a U-shaped
automatic transmissionAn automatic transmission is one type of motor vehicle transmission that can automatically change gear ratios as the vehicle moves, freeing the driver from having to shift gears manually...
shift handle, and sporty Kelsey-Hayes stylized road wheels complete with rear fender skirts.
The market for sporty full-size cars had disappeared, though, and production was limited to about 15,000 cars for 1969 and barely a third of that for 1970.
Mechanical Details
Standard versions of the Marauder were equipped with a 390 cubic inch engine; the Marauder X-100 was normally equipped with a larger 360 hp
429 cubic inchThe Ford 385 engine family was the Ford Motor Company's final big block V8 engine design, replacing the Ford MEL engine and gradually superseding the Ford FE engine family...
engine.
Revival (2003–2004)
From 2003 to 2004, Ford resurrected the Marauder name as a high-performance version of the
Mercury Grand MarquisThe Mercury Grand Marquis was a full-size rear-wheel drive sedan sold by the Lincoln-Mercury division of the Ford Motor Company; the Grand Marquis was the flagship of the Mercury lineup. The nameplate itself had been in use since 1975 as the premium trim level of the Mercury Marquis; the Grand...
sedan. Although the Mercury division is most directly a competitor to
BuickBuick is a premium brand of General Motors . Buick models are sold in the United States, Canada, Mexico, China, Taiwan, and Israel, with China being its largest market. Buick holds the distinction as the oldest active American make...
(and formerly
OldsmobileOldsmobile was a brand of American automobile produced for most of its existence by General Motors. It was founded by Ransom E. Olds in 1897. In its 107-year history, it produced 35.2 million cars, including at least 14 million built at its Lansing, Michigan factory...
), the design of this Marauder drew many parallels to the 1994–1996 Chevrolet Impala SS in being a contemporary full-size "muscle sedan."
To differentiate itself from the Grand Marquis, the Marauder borrowed and customized trim parts from both its Ford and Mercury stablemates. The headlights and corner lights, from the Grand Marquis, had all non-reflective surfaces blacked out and wore a body-color grille instead of chrome. Side trim and the B-pillars are painted body-color like the Crown Victoria, which donated its trunklid, and tail lights tinted to just within DOT standards. The Marauder wore its own front and rear bumpers, with the front featuring Cibié fog lamps and "Marauder" embossed on the rear. The car's five-spoke 18" wheels feature Mercury's classic "god-head" (
Mercury'sMercury was a messenger who wore winged sandals, and a god of trade, the son of Maia Maiestas and Jupiter in Roman mythology. His name is related to the Latin word merx , mercari , and merces...
silhouette) emblem on its center caps.
In contrast to the Grand Marquis, the interior of the Marauder featured front bucket seats and a floor shifter with a center console; leather seats were standard. Instead of the simulated wood trim seen in the Grand Marquis, the Marauder substituted simulated satin aluminum trim in its place. The instrument cluster was Marauder-specific, with satin aluminum gauges (with a 140-mph speedometer borrowed from the Ford Police Interceptor) and the pressed electrical board to control them are model-exclusive. To make room for the tachometer, the oil-pressure gauges and voltmeter were moved to the center console. The Marauder is also the only Panther car after 1997 with a specific pin on the PCM for a tachometer.
While Ford showed a two-door, five-passenger convertible version of the Marauder with a supercharged engine as a concept car, it never saw production. Automotive commentators suggested the supercharged engine should have been made available for better performance.
Mechanical details
The Mercury Marauder was based on an updated version of the Ford Panther platform that was introduced for 2003. The Marauder had a naturally aspirated 4.6 L V8 DOHC Ford Modular engine producing 302 hp (225 kW) and 318 ft·lbf (431 N·m) of torque; this engine had many parts — including heads, cams, block and rotating assembly — in common with the 2003–2004 Mustang Mach 1 Automatic and the 2003–2005
Lincoln AviatorThe Lincoln Aviator was a mid-size sport utility vehicle produced by the Ford Motor Company's Lincoln luxury division. It was introduced in 2002, and production ended in 2005. The Aviator was built exclusively at Ford's St. Louis Assembly plant in Hazelwood, Missouri...
. The Marauder featured a dual exhaust system with unique tailpipe tips, with newly developed chassis and suspension modifications – such as moving the rear shocks outboard of the frame rails, which were later made available for the Crown Victoria and Grand Marquis. The Marauder was fitted with the 4R70W 4-speed automatic in 2003 and received the upgraded 4R75W 4-speed automatic for 2004. The limited slip differential with a 3.55 rear axle ratio was standard fitment from the
Ford Crown Victoria Police InterceptorThough the name has been officially in use since 1992, the 1978–1991 full-size LTDs and LTD Crown Victorias and 1992 updated body style used the "P72" production code designation for both fleet/taxi and police models, with the model itself being internally classified as S...
, as was the aluminum drive shaft.
Reaction
The 2003–2004 Marauder sales fell short of corporate forecasts, and after a production run of 11,052 vehicles, the Marauder was discontinued at the end of 2004; in comparison, Mercury produced 179,723 examples of its Grand Marquis counterpart during the same time. The Ford Crown Victoria LX Sport remained, bearing a monochrome appearance similar to the Marauder but powered by the standard 239 hp 4.6 L 2-valve SOHC V8. The LX Sport included 17" silver-finish wheels, firmer suspension (though softer than the Marauder), a taller 3.27 rear axle ratio (shorter than standard 2.73), but it had far less differentiation between it and the Crown Victoria than the Marauder did from the Grand Marquis. By the mid-2000s, non-fleet sales of the Crown Victoria had all but disappeared; the LX Sport was discontinued after 2006 and all retail sales of the Crown Victoria in North America would end a year later.
In 2008, the Ford Performance Group officially began recognizing the Mercury Marauder (along with the Motor City Marauders Car Club as the official club for the vehicle). And as of Fall 2009, the Ford Performance Group also began offering certificates verifying the Mercury Marauder as a Limited Production Vehicle.
Total production for the 2003–2004 Mercury Marauder was 11,052:
- 2003 – Total: 7838 (328 Dark Pearl Blue, 417 Silver Birch, 7093 Black)
- 2004 – Total: 3214 (980 Dark Toreador Red, 997 Silver Birch, 1237 Black)
Further reading
- Edmunds.com, 2003 Marauder Review
- AutomobileMag.com, 2003–2004 Mercury Marauder, Joe Lorio
- Car and Driver, July 2002, 2003 Mercury Marauder - Reviews / Road Tests, John Phillips
- Car and Driver, 2004 Mercury Marauder, User Road Tests
- Motor Trend, July 2002, Merc Meets Merc, Marauder and S500: Two cool, bad-ass powerbrokers on the run, Todd Lassa
- JD Power Quality Survey, 2003 Mercury Marauder
External links
- http://www.MercuryMarauder.net
- http://www.MotorCityMarauders.com
- http://www.MercuryMarauder.org
- http://www.fordperformancegroup.com