Mercury has always been associated with an affordable upscale luxury liner label because it offered all three components to their customers.
However, there was also a wild side to Mercury because the Blue Oval brand also competed in Ford’s race programs over the years.
Jim Sutherland
In fact, Mercury introduced a 1963-½ Marauder model with a fastback roof design borrowed from its Ford Galaxie counterpart because the sleeker roof made it faster on racetracks. Mercury was fully immersed in stock car racing and wanted a car that could compete with Chrysler and General Motors on the track.
This Merc was called a 1963-½ Marauder because it was introduced as a limited-edition model after the start of 1963 to compete in stock car racing with a new fastback roof to give it a “racer’s edge”, so to speak.
The top dog in the 1963-½ Marauder lineup was its S55 model, a rare combination of raw power and luxury.
Marcell Dalinga is the proud owner of a 1963-½ Mercury Marauder S55 resto mod that he purchased in Albuquerque, New Mexico back in 2013. Marcell was searching for one of these limited production Mercs and found this one in a state that was almost 24 hours driving time from his home in Alberta, Canada.
Fortunately, Marcell is a long-haul trucker, so he was no stranger to lengthy road trips. He told the former owner “Don’t sell it to anybody else-I’ll be there in a day”. Then he and a trucker buddy hit the road and picked up the car the next day.
The ’63 Marauder was in decent shape because the car had spent its life in a dry climate and did not have major rust issues. The car was originally white with a red interior, but Marcell was a bigger fan of a black car with a red interior, along with a new black vinyl roof because of the new paint job.
Marcell noted two-tone features and factory bucket seats were a part of the upscale side of an S55 interior and he stayed true to that element of his car’s interior.
The Merc was equipped with a factory 390-cubic-inch big block, but Marcell decided to pull the engine, rebuild another 390, and upgrade it along the way. Now it’s a bored and stroked 445 monster big block with a massive twin fuel delivery system that Marcell nicknamed an “8-pack”.
A big car with huge horsepower requires solid stopping power, so Marcell added front disc brakes and a dual master brake cylinder to make his ‘63 Mercury Marauder slow down in a hurry.
Marcell also took his Merc apart and replaced any mechanical component that showed any signs of wear and tear because he wants no issues whenever he hits the road in it. He also added aftermarket gauges to accurately monitor his new engine.
He added a hidden stereo system with plenty of power so Marcell joking said he could “turn up the volume if he heard a mechanical noise”.
Marcell drives his ’63 Marauder at every opportunity when “it’s not raining”, in his words. No wonder, his car is one of the coolest 62-year-old Mercs on the planet.
Jim Sutherland
BY: Jim Sutherland
Jim Sutherland is a veteran automotive writer whose work has been published by many major print and online publications. The list includes Calgary Herald, The Truth About Cars, Red Deer Advocate, RPM Magazine, Edmonton Journal, Montreal Gazette, Windsor Star, Vancouver Province, and Post Media Wheels Section.
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