RARE MARAUDER IS A FULL-SIZE, BIG-ENGINED RIDE
Owner is crazy about his Mercury, but only cruises it up and down the road to car shows, writes Dale Edward Johnson.
When Barry Dansereau of Regina displays his 2003 Mercury Marauder at car shows, there are often puzzled stares.
“People don’t know what it is. They think it’s a cop car, or they think it’s an old man’s car — a Grand Marquis,” says Dansereau.
Actually, the Marauder is a sporty, high-performance, dressed-up Mercury Grand Marquis. It shares a body with the Ford Crown Victoria — best known as police cars — and the Lincoln Town Car.
No wonder most people don’t know about the Marauder; Dansereau knows of only two others in Saskatchewan. They were produced for only two years, 2003 and 2004 — and all of them were manufactured at Ford’s assembly plant in St. Thomas, Ont., along with Crown Victorias.
“It’s an all-original car that hasn’t been ... changed,” Dansereau explains.
However, it looks like it’s been changed, because it sure doesn’t look like a typical Grand Marquis of that era.
It stands out not just because of its large size, but also because of all the black trim. The grill and bumpers are black; the backup lights and tail lights (from Police Interceptor Crown Victorias) have a black tint, and even the headlights have more black trim than the headlights on regular Grand Marquis. Marauders were also available in dark blue or silver, but the majority – 90 per cent – are black.
Inside, the wood trim on the dash has been replaced with black and silver trim; some gauges have been added, along with bucket seats and a floor shifter.
The Marauder’s high-performance engine is an all-aluminum, 4.6-litre, 32-valve double overhead camshaft V-8.
“They used the same engine in the Cobra Mustang, which was supercharged,” he says.
The Marauder version is not supercharged, and features goodies from other engines, and the exhaust system is unique to the Marauder.
“I like rear-wheel-drive and a V-8; that’s old-school,” Dansereau says.
Over the years, Dansereau has owned six used Ford Crown Victoria police cars, and he now has a 2009 Crown Victoria Police Interceptor. Many of the performance parts found on Crown Vic Police Interceptors, like improved suspension and other heavy-duty equipment, are also found on the Marauder. That’s why he thought it would be interesting to track down a Marauder.
Dansereau bought his Marauder two years ago. This particular car was originally bought in Kelowna, B.C., and had a list price of $48,305 when it was new in 2003. Then it was bought by a person in Fort Qu’Appelle, who kept it in his garage and rarely drove it during the five years he owned it.
Dansereau has put on 4,000 kms in the two years he has owned it. As a member of the Saskatchewan Ford and Mercury Club, Dansereau enjoys showing off his Marauder at car shows. The longest trip was to Watrous for a car show earlier this summer.
With just 45,000 kms, he does not know of any other Marauders with fewer kilometres than his.
The idea of a large, high-performance sedan has been around for decades.
The first mass-produced large, powerful car was the Buick Century of the 1930s — so named because it could hit 100 m.p.h. (160 km/h).
During the 1950s, Chrysler offered a 300 model — a designation that has returned in recent years.
The Pontiac GTO launched the muscle car era in 1964 by putting a big engine in mid-size car; but the concept of putting a big engine in a big car continued.
In the 1960s Mercury was one of several automakers to offer a full-size, high-performance car. Mercury introduced the Marauder partway through the 1963 model year, as a trim package on various Mercury models. The main difference from other Mercurys was that the Marauder had a different roofline. The Marauder had a semi-fastback roof, unlike the reverse-slanting window on other Mercurys. The new roof improved aerodynamics and also helped Mercury return to stock car racing. This first Marauder was dropped after the 1965 model year.
The Marauder name was brought back for the 1969 and 1970 model years for what was essentially a two-door fastback version of the top-end luxurious Marquis. Motor Trend magazine tested a 1969 Marauder against a Buick Riviera, Ford Thunderbird, Pontiac Grand Prix and Oldsmobile Toronado in the February 1969 issue. The Marauder was the longest, tallest and widest of the bunch. It was also one of the fastest; only the Grand
Prix had a quicker 0-60 m.p.h. time, 7.7 seconds vs. 8.0 seconds. The Marauder had the shortest stopping distance. However, Motor Trend called this version of the Marauder “somewhat of a disappointment” because it was cumbersome and “just seems too big.”
In 2002 Mercury created a concept car for the car show circuit, and it was a two-door convertible Marauder. However, when the Marauder went back into production in 2003, only the four-door sedan version was offered. Ads for the revived Marauder paid homage to the original 1963 version.
Only 7,338 Marauders were made for the 2003 model year, and his is the 6,028th built. Only 471 Marauders were sold in Canada – and Barry Dansereau has one of the lowest-mileage and best examples remaining.