I have received a couple of complaints and rightly so. It seems that I have left out a portion of the history up to now regarding the developement of the Muscle Car Era. What has been pointed out to me is that for every vehicle Ford came up with, they also had a Mercury division companion vehicle. True and I thought I had mentioned that fact, but I did not mention model names nor did I show photos of these cars.
This post will correct my omissions up to the point we are at, namely through the 1966 models. The main point for talking about the Galaxie with its 427 CID engine was because of its sucess in NASCAR and how some of this trickled into other models and became part of the Muscle Car models. Since the Galaxie was a full size car it technically was not a Muscle Car and neither were the full size Mercury’s shown here. This is the 1963 Mercury Monterey S-55 convertible. Under the hood was a big block with a tri-power setup. Mercury was a conflicted division during the 1960’s. They wanted to be a luxury brand, yet wanted to be a full line manufacturer with the performance models just like it’s parent…..Ford.
For 1964 Mercury came up with a Montclair Marauder and then further upped the ante with the Super Marauder shown here with its 427 pushing out a factory claimed 425 horsepower. Remember that unlike today, when the factory made a horsepower claim it was almost always under-rated. People at the track and the “car magazine” reporters were figuring close to 475-500 horsepower was actual. Remember that in the 1960’s they used “gross” horsepower not “net” as is used today. Gross horsepower is rated at the flywheel, whereas net is at the rear wheels (or today possibly front wheels for front wheel drive vehicles).
The obvious difference between the Marauder and the Super Marauder was that the Super used multi-carb setups such as this ones dual four barrel intake system.
Unless you are very gifted as a mechanic, or know someone else who is multi-carb engines are very difficult to keep properly tuned and running. Stick with a single 4 barrel engine if you want something to drive and enjoy rather than something you want to work on for weekend fun. Just my opinion, of course, but that’s the only one that counts since I am the author of this post.
One of the nicest things about some of the full-size vehicles was the fact that because they cost more than most intermediates, they also had nicer interiors and used better materials where they did not need to cut corners to save money and hold costs down.
This is the Interior photo for the Super Marauder.
Full gauge instrumentation was also a benefit of full size cars and for any vehicle that had a performance image, idiot lights were not an option for high-end buyers.
Chrome trim was used inside and out on most cars from the era as well. And it was real metal, not chrome plated plastic as is common today. Sometimes old school is the best.
For 1966, the Super Marauder got the 428 engine like the Galaxie and the 7 Litre model at Ford did. The 428 delivered smoother power and could actually idle without shaking the car. It was a perfect match for the image Mercury wanted to portray when compared to the bare knuckle attitude of the old 427 which was a race engine being used in a street car.
As I pointed out Mercury also had the Caliente and Cyclone models which were based on the Comet model. Check past posts for those photos. That’s the update to include Mercury in the timeline I have been doing.
Any other suggestions let me hear from you, otherwise be posting the 1967 model lineups soon.
Davey Boy
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