Interesting Read on a rare Merc: http://www.musclecarreport.com/muscle-cars.The%20Biggest%20M.001.php
nice read, thanks
Tell me that’s not the coolest factory breather ever. That is maybe the coolest 50’s car out there, just because of how sleeper it is.
I must have one.
I’m not sure I could bolt that on a car. I think I would hang it on the wall in my living room. Or maybe put it in the middle of the table for holiday meals.
Cool car. I agree that breather is a work of art. You don’t see stuff like this on today’s cars. The horsepower numbers on this Super Marauder are awesome, blowing away a Chevelle… Priceless!
Steven
You know that Chevelle guy was going, “WTH just happened??”
Cool car, thanks for sharing, MD!!
4.56 gears??? I wonder what that MEL was cranking through the finish line!!!.. 8.00-14 tire is about 26.7" diameter… works out to about 5700rpm at 100mph. Not bad for 50s technology!!
I am in love with this:
Just imagine this engine resting in a Cougar engine bay…
naahh… I’d rather have the _next-_generation stone-age motor and drop a 428CJ in there… 
Naaahhh…
If I really wanted power/weight, it’d be an all-aluminum 11.5:1 427Windsor, with a solid roller cam all topped with Dart CNC Pro 1 225s… 600hp easy! 
Drop that into a Factory Five with a WR-AOD (slush-box? sacrilege!) and 3.91s…
I worked on a few Lincolns with MEL 430 and 462 engines years ago and they were torque monsters. When I was going to school for auto mechanics at Dunwoody Industrial institute back in the early 80’s we blew up the chassis dynamometer testing a 462 in a Lincoln Continental . These engines are as massive in size as they are in torque. A Cadillac big block is smaller by comparison. An old friend of my fathers raced sprints and modifieds in the mid west back in the day and the MEL engines ruled the tracks for many years. The big downside to MEL engines is they are fire hazards as the fuel pump is next to the distributor. Story goes many caught on fire and this may have been the reason Ford stopped making them as soon as they did.
Bill
yeah, they were a precursor for the 385 series, or so I’ve heard.
The first time I worked on one, the fuel pump location made do a double take. But, you see a lot of oddball engineering in that era of American cars.
They’re practically in the same ranks as the A-model engine, with hot rodders. There are a core few who know how to make them fast and how to tune them. Everyone else is just setting the points and adjusting the carb(s). But, they are really stout engines.
The guy that built my 67 Shelby motor ran one in his 77 F250. He loved it. He didnt have that breather though.
I own a few 58 Merc’s. Unfortunately none are Super Marauders. The 58 Parklane is a 430 4v car. As I was looking for parts to ake the engine a 6v Super Marauder I came across a closed E-Bay auction for an NOS air cleaner assembly. The final price was $6500. I then decided to keep the 4 barrel.
Here is my 58 Monterey which has a 383 under the hood. It’s been to Carlisle and usually makes it’s way to being parked in the Cougar section.
Mark
That’s super cool, man. I love those old Mercs from that period.
This side of my shop was quite a mess. There are five cars in this picture. The top left is a 58 Mercury Parklane. Under it is a 69 XR-7 S code, top right is a 68 Monterey convertible, below that is a 70 XR-7 convertible M code, ugly color, lots of options. The foreground is a 70 XR-7 which I put a 460 back in the mid 90’s. The rest is transmission parts, milling machine dirtbikes—Husqvarna and Husaberg.
Here is another view. My plan is to get all this stuff put somewhere else so I can actually have a place to set up a rotisorry to get another project going. Neither convertible is going to end up being gold. Since this picture the area is cleaned up a bit. We threw away a couple dump truck loads of transmissions this year.
If you still like big Mercs, here is a car I bought last year and still haven’t picked up. It’s a 64 Mntclair Marauder with a 390 and Merc-o-matic. The car is in Illinois and I plan to bring it back in a few weeks I hope. These are pics the guy sent me. I am not sure why he could’t get the whole car in one picture.
Ths Marauder is going to be dark blue metallic with Torq Thrust wheels.
Mark
One more. Here is a scene from the movie Taking Woodstock. It was filmed about 25 miles from where I live.
It’s my 68 Monterey. A gosh-darned deer jumped out in front of me while on I-91 near Holyoke, MA.
Mark
That Marauder is freakin’ sweet. Go get it! 