Was there ever a decent Mercury?

Lancer007 wrote: In reply to Beagle: That's a Merkur. Not quite what we're going for here but still cool.

I think Merkur is German for Mercury... ah well. Still a riot to drive at the time. :)

We had a 1970 model one of these, and with an 11:1 429, it was plenty decent. 4x8 sheet of plywood fit in the back. Pre Van and SUV haulers.

No hate for Mercury at all, I was just following behind one and was trying to think if Mercury ever had a performance model that was 100% unique to them that enthusiasts respected. Most Buicks for example were marketed as a poor-man's Cadillac and were usually soft and semi-luxurious. But if you call Buick an old-peoples car, someone will jump up and remind you of the GNX. I was just trying to think of a similar car from Mercury.

The Marauder certainly qualifies as unique to Mercury...but do you see them stock at the track? The early Capris had tuning from Lotus and motors from Cosworth, and later ones had input form McClaren so they were certainly cool, but again they are not exactly a performance icon like the Mustang. I mean, do GRM types seek out old Mercurys...or old Fords? So I will acknowledge that crap was a bit harsh (although the Capri and Marauder were both killed off due to slow sales...) but I still think they did not have a unique model that is a performance benchmark.

pinchvalve wrote: The Marauder certainly qualifies as unique to Mercury...but do you see them stock at the track?

How "stock" is "stock"?

60's NASCAR stock?

or Pike's Peak stock?

codrus wrote: The SVT Contour was definitely a decent car.

...being a Ford, and all.

slantvaliant wrote:

pinchvalve wrote: The Marauder certainly qualifies as unique to Mercury...but do you see them stock at the track?

How "stock" is "stock"? 60's NASCAR stock? or Pike's Peak stock?

Now THATS a convincing argument...

And if I can't have the real one, I want one of these!

Always liked the early fined Comets

My dad had a 1968 Cougar XR7-G (Dan Gurney Special) it was far from being a slouch and dad had quite a bit of fun in that car. A very nice car indeed.

His looked like this (same color and all)

Duke wrote:

codrus wrote: The SVT Contour was definitely a decent car.

...being a Ford, and all.

Oh, Duh.

There was a Mercury version of the Contour, though, right? I guess they probably didn't have the SVT tuning though.

codrus wrote: Oh, Duh. There was a Mercury version of the Contour, though, right? I guess they probably didn't have the SVT tuning though.

The Mystique. My only experience with one was being a passenger in a head-on wreck on the freeway. That sucked...but I'm still here, so thumbs up for the Mystique.

I've always been a fan of the 49 Merc.

stuart in mn wrote: It appears you're only talking about late model cars - remember, the Mercury brand started in 1939 and they had a lot of neat cars in the interim (including the original Cougars of the 1960s.) As for late models, the 2003-2004 Marauder was pretty cool.

I always liked the original cougars better than the comparable mustangs