Marauder Web Site

[Smokie]

Has anyone noticed the drastic change in the Mercury Marauder web site. Gone is the tire smoking run at a dragstrip, gone are all references to muscle car, gone are all references to high performance. From the beginning I believed that Ford was going to get sued for advertising the car as muscle at a dragstrip and them after you buy it, you go to dealers and if the words "mods" or high performance escape from your mouth; the first thing you hear is "void warranty". I believe this is the beginning of damage control by Ford. Once again it proves that they do not have serious commitment to high performance. I been a Ford man since I was 14 years old but this company is starting to make me sick. :mad:

[SergntMac]

I agree, Smokey, the MM site has changed, but I was still able to locate the burnouts and stuff. Just not as easy to find as before. Can't imagine why, and don't want to start wondering....

[mtnh]

Hey Smokes, would you trade your Ford Panther for a front wheel drive GM muscle car?? Ha ha ha. :^)

Mike

[Smokie]

Mike, No. I just don't like backtracking.

[Logan]

The whole smoky burnout thing cheesed off alot of people, I'd like to know what vehicle they were doing it with, certainly wasn't a stock marauder without a liberal amount of water or bleach under the wheels...

[Murader03]

Originally posted by Logan
The whole smoky burnout thing cheesed off alot of people, I'd like to know what vehicle they were doing it with, certainly wasn't a stock marauder without a liberal amount of water or bleach under the wheels...

There are several combinations that would have allowed that.

1. They put a line lock on the front brakes as most drag racers do!
2. Being retired military, I can tell you that some of the hangers I
worked out of had some really nice coatings over the concrete
that make them really smooth and at times slicker than snot!
3. The car they did the burn out's with was actually had the SC
installed, with a beefed up tranny, and gears!
Take your pick of any of the above or the water/bleach addition that
Logan stated would have done the trick.

[JohnnyB]

My feeling is that the MM is only going to get better...... If this car flops it would be an embarrassment to Ford. I think you'll see a S/C on the 2005 model in addition to other performance upgrades. This car has a cult following and there is a demand for it.

The 2003 MM is a worthy contender and if they do what I think they will for the 2005 model, I'll be in line to get one.......

[Smokie]

JohnnyB I do want the Marauder project to succeed, I love my MM. But I believe something is going wrong with this project. Ford wants you to spend extra $6000-$8000 more than on Vic because they promise "muscle", but you better only drive Miss Daisy to church on Sundays or you "void the warranty". I wrote a letter to Steve Babcock, just asking a few questions about the car, recieved a one paragraph reply from some lackey that said nothing. No national commercials and now they "sanitized" the web site of the burnout at the dragstrip. Something is wrong with this project. I just don't know why.

[SergntMac]

Actually, I wasn't that impressed by the burnout stuff myself. But, I was boweled over by LMs representation of that possibilty as part of their general advertising. That moved me, to see LM stage a romantic "burnout" when that word is probably illegal in all 50 states, and most religions.

LM set out to seduce us and they have. I don't feel cheapened by this seduction, do you? I signed off on my new MM and drove her home lovingly. I parked her in her new home and ran upstairs to wash off the salesman's greasy handshake. One soothing and cleansing shower later, I ran down to meet my girl again. We got to know each other better in my cement alley and the ***** took everything I gave her...begged for more.

You bet...this visual "seduction" was filmed in an airplane hangar, and those concrete floors are verydeep cement foundations with several layers of protective chemical "sealants"(impervious to all known man made acids and abrasives) in place.

A perfect setup? Yes. Simple moisture will cause any gymshoe to glide out of control, how else can they manuever a 747 in such tight space.

The tire spin we are privy to, is surely a staged performance. Water (or any other liquid introduced here) will not generate very much "smoke," and even less "steam" the likes of which we have seen since then here, thanks to personal videos available to us.

Steam and smoke look different on camera and in our eyes, than what we are given by LM. But, they wanted us to see something and in the end, LM seduces themselves into beliving that smoke and dust "look" the same.

This visual tease, available at the MM web site, as well as the advertising CDRom, is an exercise in special effects. Their "visual" is generated by something dry, something dusty, perhaps they used a few cups of brake dust, or, graphite powder, but whatever compound they used, that compound is present and visible on the hangar floor, before those tires spin. I can see that, you should be able to see it too.

The very first time I saw this demonstration, I knew it was phoney. But, I also knew that any automobile company that reached for this romantic string in our hearts, could reach what it was reaching for. They also knew that they could not disappoint us, and they have not.

I'm not disappointed. I was not "had" by the advertising. LM simply applied the usual "cosmetics," and seduced me. I bought one, and considering that I have, these visual cosmetics seem to have worked. They got me to pay attention and buy. And, buy I did. The cosmetics worked, but maybe we got exactly what were were promised too.

I can't beef. My ***** is still one bad ass automobile that I never thought any manfacturer would ever produce again. If that is the end result of a little extra heavy lipstick and falsies, so what. Maybe I was looking for the heavy lipstick too...

[JohnnyB]

I'll bet the majority of the marketing team at Mercury was born after the original MM was phased out in 1970.... do you think they really understand what torque and horsepower are... I doubt it. They figured that if they show the car burning out and laying 100's of feet of rubber that this would excite the buying public and the MM's would fly off the lot.... dealer's figured they could tac on an additional $5,000 over sticker price and people would pay it...... none of the above happened. I have yet to see a commercial or newspaper advertisement on this car.... Hey Mercury - if you are listening do the following:

1. - Offer a MM package similar to the 2003 (so grandpa can drive it)
2. - Offer an "X-100" option package that would include a supercharged engine, available manual transmission, additional suspension and brake upgrades ( so some of us can make believe it's 1969 again). It's been said that the MM will be in the lineup for the long haul......

If this is done, the car will be untouchable, the reviews will all be positive, Mercury will re-establish itself.......

[03 Merc]

JohnnyB,

Be careful what you ask for, the 69-70 Marauder was a overweight, slow barge ;)... I looked at a 70 X-100, with a 429 4V, 51K mile original, before I bought my 72 LTD Convertible, and it was about as sedate as it gets...:( A 69 "plain" Marauder with a 400, I believe, was even worse.. maybe that's why they don't have a 69-70 on the poster..:o Now my LTD, also a 400, isn't fast but dropping the top and crusing makes up for it...:D

[JohnnyB]

03 Merc:

I hear ya..... I never drove a 69-70 Marauder. I've only seen pictures and I think they look real good. I like the concept of a big car with a big engine.

The 2003 MM is a good car but it can be better.

My friend had a '73 2 door LTD Brougham hardtop....... great car... outlasted every other car he or his family bought in the interim.

[smith5365]

The stock version of Mercurys have always been in need of mods. Starting in the 50's (when I was in my 20's and just out of the USAF), we had a group in college that worked the models available then. In the early Marauder era, we had handling problems. While you could really improve the power train, the chassis wasn't set up for anything other than pretty much straight line work. The new Marauder we're getting now has a world of difference in chassis stiffness and weight distribution. The handling is so much better (including the braking), that I can't really find anything to bad mouth about the current design. Mercury has always given us the best basic design for the money and left it up to us car nuts to bring the car up to its real potential. They've had to do this in the past to meet economic goals for the division. They have to sell a lot of GM's to be able to run the Marauder down the line too, and it has to pay for the "customizing" features by itself as well. We've never had it so good for the past 50 years that I've been pushing Mercury iron down the road!

Bill Smith

[MarauderBoy]

Again, I will say that the MM reminds me of the the earlier Mustang Gt's that I had. They were great starting points for the money and responded well to hot rod mods. As far as the mods are concerned, if I'm willing to spend money to enhance it I probably shouldn't be surprised that somebody might fight me come warranty time. Let's face it, even if Mercury had put 350 hp in this car there would be a contingent that would argue that they were disappointed. I read in the Sunday Chicago Tribune that some new Viper owners are asking for just 20 more hp (this is after the new one just was bumped to 500hp!).

The point is that this car begs for you to spend time & money on her and will continue to favorably respond to you as long as you do. When you stop she'll still put a smile on your face but she'll always want MORE!

[LincMercLover]

I agree the MM is a good base to build upon. Someone here said before, like with any car, new and old, it's like playing with matched when adding mods. Warrenties are a big thing now, not like they were 20-30 years ago...

As for the smoky burnout, I dunno... I'm impressed with my brake torque, and in the DVD, you can see that is what they are doing with the car (granted, on slick concrete as mentioned...) I did one on black top, got A LOT of smoke, and decent track left behind. The smoke and rubber continued for awhile up the lot as I went until I let off. Everone who was watching was thouroghly impressed as well! I will say though, with the brouchur/poster, that is photoshop at it's best (or worse, however you want to look at it). No brake lights, tires spinning, smoke... Either they disconnected the brake lights to do that, or took the pic of the car standing still and photoshoped it. Pretty corney, but it got you to buy the car, ehh? :D

[SSMOKEM]

No juice, no water, all motor, just nail the sucker......:D

http://www.cadwiz.net/cherrybomb/Burn1.jpg

[Bigdogjim]

SSMOKEM: A tip of the hat to you! This what the MM should have been! Had mine (MM) for 2 months now and don't really know which way to go! As in trade or mod's! Think the factory left us a little short!
Big Dog Jim

[SSMOKEM]

Hey Bigdog,

I don't see where you have much choice if you want a new car. I'm sure you can mod your Marauder as well as I did my Impala :)

I I had a Marauder right now, here is what I would plan on:

4.10 gears
New aftermarket posi
3500 stall converter
Matrix composite driveshaft
BFG DRs for the rear (daily driver tires)
DOT tires for the track
Change cams and have the heads ported
Long tube Headers and new exhaust
Cold air intake with K&N filter
Dennis Reinhardt program
C6 manual valve tranny with Gear Vendors overdrive
2 stage wet Nitrous setup.

My Marauder would run 11s no problem.............:D

[SergntMac]

Jeeze Louise SSmokem, you left out the GPS!

[SSMOKEM]

Actually, I left out the suspension mods because I'm not too familar with the Marauder suspension. If it's a 4 link, then Instant Center brackets, HAL shocks front and rear, adjustable upper control arms with NoHop bars :)

My feeling is this car would run low 13s on motor......

[chapel1]

I bought my MM because I liked my 93 CVLX so much.I told my salesmen When you build/sell a car with some more real power I"ll buy it! It was a long wait....And face it boys it's just the begining!I hope?

[Bradley G]

I got a chuckle out of this thread:P

[frdwrnch]

I thought it was ground hog day!

[DEFYANT]

Must be something in the water. BTW, how prophetic!

[burtreynolds]

Smokie,

I bought my car last week for a few simple reasons

A: It has the engine I am pretty familiar with making horsepower on

B: The chassis is perfect for anything I want to do. Its a simple frame under body chassis that has proved its design for drag racing, it can road race decently (why would bob bondurant use them if it wasnt) and is simple to work around

C: Its big. I like big.

I have planned on having monthly meets here in my neck of the woods, and such meets would not consist of sitting around, drinking pinot and discussing the finer points of our vehicle going to pebble beach concourse...We will be eating fatty american food, drinking beer if we are not driving, going out and having some fun in our cars. I dont know if its changed, but I hope its refreshing that there is still someone who is interested in the capability of these cars, not just the rarity.

[J-MAN]

A lot of names you don't hear from anymore! :(