Hi Everyone! A Few MM Questions...

[gto69home]

Hi Guys (& Gals),
New Marauder Owner here (just found the site). I've had my car since the second week of July and love it! I am a die-hard GM guy and think Ford has finally hooked me. I already added the Diablo chip to mine and am very pleased with it. I'm not up on Fords like you guys, so I have a couple of questions if you can help? Has anyone considered changing the mufflers to something else like Flowmasters, or are the stock just as good? Do they make a K&N filter for this car yet (I swear by them)? For those of you in cold climates, what other wheels can I put on this thing to save the nice ones from the salt & grime during the season? Lastly, I'm hearing all kinds of rumors about production on these cars, what's the latest # on the Black '03's? Any way of knowing the sequence of production #'s so I can tell which one mine is off the line? Thanks for the tip on the driveshaft!

I appreciate the help!

[03 Merc]

Jeff,

I'll try to answer some of your questions...

First since your already chipped that is out of way. BTW what profiles did you use?

Second, there has been some talk on this board and others of changing to Flowmasters but I do not think anyone has done it. Personally I am not going to as when I changed my 01 Cobra (The Marauder motor basically) to Flowmasters it did not do a whole lot for performance and the sound level (read drone) was awful. Someone will have to show me a real gain to put up with that again.

Three, K&N does not have a filter yet although one is in the works. BTW Ford Motorsports does not either but guess who their filter looks a lot alike.:D

As far as cold climates here in north Atlanta I will leave mine parked and take the wife's AWD Mountaineer on those days. I did see someone suggest using the spare tire wheels for snow tires though...

As far as production 15,000 units was the original estimate I saw posted. Since then however the line that makes Marauders has been slowed due to slow sales of the Grand Marquis and Crown Vic also built on the same line. The funny part here is Special Vehicle Team (SVT), the owners of the Cobra, tout exclusivity as a selling point. Well guess what, even at 15K units there would be less Marauders than Cobras on the streets!! I have seen four 03 Cobras on the road and haven't another Marauder on the street yet!

I believe Ford now sequentially orders their Serial Numbers, based on build date, not order date, but I do not know the starting range. You might try asking that on the Cobra forum on BON. www.blueovalnews.com

Enjoy your car...

[bozobill]

Jeff,

I got my MM on 6-27-02. By noon the next day I had a pair of 40 series Flowmasters installed and I LOVE the sound.

03merc says his "droned" on his Cobra. Different engine, different exhaust system from the MM. I don't live far from another member of this board and as soon as we can arrange to get together, he can report his take on the way these mufflers sound. Wags, give me a call when you can set some time aside to listen to and drive my "droner", and you can provide an independant viewpoint.

As for performance improvement, I didn't install these for that, just for the sound.

More later.

Bill

[Logan]

Unfortunately, you cannot tell by the vin what sequence your marauder is, because they share vin sequences with the Grand Marquis.

Production is slated for 18000 units, they'll make as many as they get orders for up to the plants capacity for 25000 units. I'm not sure that they'll hit even a 18000 unit mark though. Mind you, they presold 5200 of them, so who knows.

As for exhaust, I'm doing mine this week. Magnaflow is working on a cat back system due out in a month or two, but I'm not waiting. I've ordered a Magnaflow X pipe and two Magnaflows to replace the stockers. I've already heard a magnaflow equipped Marauder and it sounds sweet. Nice low, deep rumble, without the tinny-ness of the flowmasters. I like the flowmasters, I have a set on my 69 Cougar, but for the Marauder I want a softer, deep baritone rumble.

As for tires, IF I was in the snow belt, I'd probably order a set of spare rims, which are unpolished units (much cheaper) and run them for the winter... Or just get a set of cast "cop car" rims from the dealer.

[gto69home]

Thanks Bill! I have original factory glasspacks on my GTO and do enjoy the sound. I'd like to hear a bit more from my Merc, but would hope to get something else in HP is possible.

03 Merc - I'm checking with the guy that programmed my chip and I'll give you details as soon as I hear back. I told him what I was looking for in personal feel and he delivered for sure!

Logan - thanks for the tip on the pipes. Do you have model #'s and rough idea of cost fro Magnaflows? Are they easy to install w/the pipe - do I need to cut what's there?

Thanks Guys!

[RancorKeeper]

Originally posted by 03 Merc
The funny part here is Special Vehicle Team (SVT), the owners of the Cobra, tout exclusivity as a selling point. Well guess what, even at 15K units there would be less Marauders than Cobras on the streets!
Well, not really. Since 1993, the most Cobra's made was in 1999, when production reached 8,095 units. 7,251 were sold in 2001. I believe '93 was the year that saw the fewest Cobras with 5,100 made. Obviously, the Cobra is pretty exclusive. Even if you added all the models from '93 to '03 together, I bet it wouldn't even exceed 35,000 units.

[Wags]

Tire Rack is going to offer a winter tire/wheel package for the Marauder sometime in Oct. (at least that's what they told me). I got my Impala ones through them, and I was very happy with the price. I got plain steel rims with all season Comp T/A's with plain hub caps. Gives it a real "police car" look in the winter! Bozobill, how about this Friday evening (Aug. 30th)? I'll be in Naperville working on my Chevelle (have to pull the tranny out, clutch problems :mad: I would like to hear the new exhaust!

Wags

(Sorry if this is a duplicate response, the first one didn't go through)

[bozobill]

Wags,

Friday evening sounds fine. I'll call you later in the week to set up time and place.

Bill

[03 Merc]

Originally posted by RancorKeeper

Well, not really. Since 1993, the most Cobra's made was in 1999, when production reached 8,095 units. 7,251 were sold in 2001. I believe '93 was the year that saw the fewest Cobras with 5,100 made. Obviously, the Cobra is pretty exclusive. Even if you added all the models from '93 to '03 together, I bet it wouldn't even exceed 35,000 units.


I mostly agree with your past production numbers...I think 01 was larger than 99 however. SVT has not updated their site with 01 Production Numbers yet. I know the convertible count as mine was 584 of 3384 but not the hardtop tally.

That being said this year, unlike in the past, the Cobra was introduced early so they can have a longer production run and get in a full year. When I bought on 01 they did not produce any until April / May (Mine was a late May delivery after being ordered in December) with the 02 Mustang coming out in August /September. SVT is trying to increase their units as Ford is concentrating a lot on speciality cars... It will be interesting to see how many 03 Cobras are produced with this new early out strategy. The "plan" I saw posted called for a much larger run...