With twenty feet of personal luxury, the Mercury Marauder X-100 is one of the rare, cool rides that still rule hearts. The Marauder name started as a Mercury trim package midway through the 1963 model year. Being a subsidiary of Ford, there were Marauder badges applied to the Park Lane, Monterey, Montclair, and the short-lived S-55 coupe. Cars built as per Marauder spec had hardtop or notchback roofs, bucket seats, and a center console. Generally, the X-100 brought the more relaxed Mercury offerings in line with the Ford’s Galaxie models. However, the first set of Marauders didn’t last very long as the consumers demanded more luxury than sporting features. After 1965 Marauder offerings vanished from Mercury, only to reappear four years later for a limited run of 2 years.

This car holds some peculiar and exciting features that make it stylish and a thrilling drive, and here’s a look at how the Mercury Marauder X100 rose to fame and became one of the best automobiles of its time. RELATED: Here's What You Need To Know Before Buying A Classic Mercury Marauder

A History of Divided Opinions

1969-Mercury-Marauder-X100
Via: Google/Hemmings

The Mercury Marauder was launched in 1963 and had a production run of barely three years. The car’s failure in the market was its split focus on providing both luxury and sporty attributes for an expected perfect experience. It wasn’t difficult for the consumer and critics to decipher that Ford had taken this decision due to an overpowering influence of their marketing team in aspects like design. This resulted in the car being taken off the production line in 1965 due to decreasing sales figures. Although many consider this a failure for the automaker, it turns out that it was just the testing ground for the ultimate automobile that was yet to come. In 1969, Mercury had just rolled out the new Marquis, bigger, bolder, and more slab-sided than ever. This was also the year the Ford Torino Talladega and Mercury Cyclone Spoiler dominated in NASCAR. Ford’s ‘Total Performance’ advertising and product strategy trickled down to the Lincoln-Mercury Division, and the Marquis, which inherited most specs of the Ford Galaxie 500XL except its new grille, wasn’t up to the mark. This was when Marauder rolled out their X-100, which had a powerful engine but kept its primary focus on the luxury and comfort of the passengers. The car garnered a lot of praise and attention for its all-new look and design, and performance upgrades.

The Bold And Beautiful Design

The-New-Marauder-X100
Via: Google/Reddit

The new Marauder was a loosely inspired two-door version of the Marquis with many stylish nips and tucks. However, this 2-door four-seater was 3 inches shorter in wheelbase and 5 inches shorter in length. Besides, with 121 inches between the wheels, it was still massive. At 4,500 pounds, this car adorned all the pizazz of the 60s because of its lowered fender skirts, red-leather bucket seats, swanky center console, 3-spoke steering wheel, and Goodyear bias-belted white sidewall tires on 5-spoke aluminum wheels. The X-100 model also included a rear trunk lid and deck painted in matte black, with an option on another contrasting color. The buttresses down to the taillights, a shade that Mercury named ‘Sport-Tone.’ For the costlier upgrade, one could add two more options, namely, the four-wheel disc brakes and ‘competition’ suspensions. The style quotient was enhanced by the pop-out headlights fitted at the front of the hood and gave the car a Cadillac-ish look. The front and rear fenders were chrome-plated to make the X-100 look like a ‘battlecruiser menacing your way’ through the traffic. Despite having its focus on style, the automaker did not compromise on safety. With heavy-duty wheels, upgraded Goodyear tires, and stiffer shocks, the control of the X-100 was much superior to its siblings. Even the performance the X-100 delivered was comparable to the cruiser standards of its era. RELATED: These Are Some Of The Best Cars Designed By Ian Callum

The Powerful Mercury Engine

Mercury Marauder X100s Engine
Via: Google/ Flickr

The Marauder X-100’s 7-liter V8 was equipped with a four-barrel carburetor and had an astonishing 10.5:1 compression ratio. In addition, the car was equipped with a three-speed SelectShift automatic transmission mounted on the floor console with a hoop-like shifter. This drivetrain combination enabled the vehicle to produce a fantastic power output of 360 HP and 480 lb-ft of torque. This ‘land-yacht' could accelerate from 0-60 mph in just 7.8 seconds. The top speed trained by the Marauder X100 was 126 mph which wasn’t the highest by any means but still provided a considerably high speed with utmost levels of luxury, unlike many other vehicles back then. There is hardly any vehicle that can be compared to the Mercury Marauder X-100 as anything put beside it may look average in most aspects, especially style. Today, the X-100 can be found chiefly in restoration garages or the garages of classic collectors. The car has a price tag that ranges from $15,000 to $16,000 in today’s date. NEXT: 10 Rare '70s Cars We'd Totally Blow Our Savings On