Joined
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55 Posts
Hello all! Marauder307 here…I thought I would make a proper introduction.
I’ve actually been a Mopar fan most of my life; still am, to a limited extent. I don’t know about the new stuff coming out these days, but I remember and revere the heyday of Dodge from the late ‘60s, and the Charger in particular, although I like the other Mopar
offerings of the time as well.
I used to own a Charger…well, a Charger in name anyway. It was a 1985 model, and those of you who remember know that those cars were pretty much a disgrace to the Charger name. I didn’t care at the time; I was young and accompanyingly stupid, it was bright red, had two doors and a hatchback, and it was fine for me. Lasted most of my college career.
In January of 1993, my grandfather passed away. When I tried to take the then-95,000-mile Charger on the rush trip home, the engine overheated, the head gasket packed it in, and the car dropped dead. In the preceding 3 months, I’d had that old monster in the shop literally every 2 weeks for something; those cars were not designed to be long-lived, and I’d pushed that old sucker a LOT farther than it should have gone. A friend’s Mustang LX 5.0 picked up the slack that night, and I’ve been a Ford man ever since: my grandfather’s Tempo, a ’94 Ranger XLT, a ’93 Mustang LX 5.0, a brief and disastrous flirtation with a ’68 Torino, which led to a trade-in for an ’01 Mustang V6 Premium coupe. For a while I had both the ’93 and the ’01 in the driveway. In 2003, I traded both away for the car that has defined my screenname: A 2003 Mercury Marauder, big, black, and lots of attitude. That car has since been somewhat enhanced; the brakes and suspension are, um…not exactly stock. I’m waiting on the end of the warranty to get into the more substantial upgrades.
I’m over at mercurymarauder.net. We’ve reviewed the new Charger over there; I will confess, I’ve been among its bigger detractors. Even referred to it as “an abortion” of the Charger’s good name. But I finally saw my first one in the sheetmetal yesterday. For those of you in the St. Louis area, Southtown Dodge has 2 on the lot: Both R/Ts, one crème, one in a dark blue color. I’ll admit it, the dark blue one looks pretty damn good.
I stopped in and looked it over. It was up on raised display area; not a stand or turntable, but still in a spot where I couldn’t get it down and take it for a thrash. The salesguy still let me get in and fire it up tho.
The interior’s not too bad, actually. Fewer gauges than the Marauder; how do you guys tell your oil pressure and volts? Couldn’t find the cruise control at first; the dealer showed it to me, and I don’t like the location; it was blocked from sight completely by the upper left arm of the steering wheel. The only real serious objection I can make to the interior is the trunk; less room than the Marauder, but you guys DO get the split folddown seats…thumbs-up there. Overall, not so bad…I coulda got comfortable in there…
The exterior’s passable, but I still can’t understand why Dodge didn’t simply keep the body from the 1999 concept Charger. Now, THAT was a slick bodystyle…the taillights on this one look too much like a Mitsubishi Galant, but I CAN see a faint passing resemblance to the 1968 Charger Corvette-style lights in the lenses.
It’s hard to be much harder than that on the styling though. The new GTOs don’t look like they used to; the Marauder looks nothing like the last 1970 X-100 to roll off the line.
Hell, even I don’t look like I used to thirty-plus years ago....and I consider that a good thing…!
On to the drivetrain. The Hemi’s coming along well enough, I guess; I’ve heard numerous internet rumors that the Hemi-equipped Rams were having serious problems with connecting rods, pistons, and the rest of the internals. There’s a few guys over on MM.net that grumble that our engines (the Mustang Mach I’s 4.6L DOHC 32V) are hemis too, but we just don’t get the publicity. I personally dunno, and I’m not going to touch off a superheated debate about whether the new Hemi’s really a Hemi, or whether Ford engines are better than Dodge, or whatever direction the debaters want to take it.
Suffice it to say, the new Hemi looks pretty good in the engine compartment, and it looks like most of the stuff you’d want to service yourself is accessible, if a little tight.
I really like the 5-speed Autostick; wish I could graft it onto the Marauder. But you guys are getting badly shortchanged on the rearend gearing! The Marauder comes stock with 3.55s, and a number of folks on the MM.net website have changed theirs out to 4.10s. One guy’s swapped out for 4.56s, but he does a lot of heads-up dragracing with his particular car. So why the hell is Dodge sticking to that 2.82 ratio? Even the SRT-8s are only getting 3.06s…WTF? C’mon Dodge, bring back our old faithful Dana 60 rearend with the Drag Pak gearing!
The bottom line here is this: It’s not as bad as I thought. I’m too far in the hole on my Marauder or I’d seriously consider a trade. It actually looks and sounds like a decently capable car, and us Marauder guys will race you anytime and smile…win, lose, or draw!
Thanks for reading.
I’ve actually been a Mopar fan most of my life; still am, to a limited extent. I don’t know about the new stuff coming out these days, but I remember and revere the heyday of Dodge from the late ‘60s, and the Charger in particular, although I like the other Mopar
offerings of the time as well.
I used to own a Charger…well, a Charger in name anyway. It was a 1985 model, and those of you who remember know that those cars were pretty much a disgrace to the Charger name. I didn’t care at the time; I was young and accompanyingly stupid, it was bright red, had two doors and a hatchback, and it was fine for me. Lasted most of my college career.
In January of 1993, my grandfather passed away. When I tried to take the then-95,000-mile Charger on the rush trip home, the engine overheated, the head gasket packed it in, and the car dropped dead. In the preceding 3 months, I’d had that old monster in the shop literally every 2 weeks for something; those cars were not designed to be long-lived, and I’d pushed that old sucker a LOT farther than it should have gone. A friend’s Mustang LX 5.0 picked up the slack that night, and I’ve been a Ford man ever since: my grandfather’s Tempo, a ’94 Ranger XLT, a ’93 Mustang LX 5.0, a brief and disastrous flirtation with a ’68 Torino, which led to a trade-in for an ’01 Mustang V6 Premium coupe. For a while I had both the ’93 and the ’01 in the driveway. In 2003, I traded both away for the car that has defined my screenname: A 2003 Mercury Marauder, big, black, and lots of attitude. That car has since been somewhat enhanced; the brakes and suspension are, um…not exactly stock. I’m waiting on the end of the warranty to get into the more substantial upgrades.
I’m over at mercurymarauder.net. We’ve reviewed the new Charger over there; I will confess, I’ve been among its bigger detractors. Even referred to it as “an abortion” of the Charger’s good name. But I finally saw my first one in the sheetmetal yesterday. For those of you in the St. Louis area, Southtown Dodge has 2 on the lot: Both R/Ts, one crème, one in a dark blue color. I’ll admit it, the dark blue one looks pretty damn good.
I stopped in and looked it over. It was up on raised display area; not a stand or turntable, but still in a spot where I couldn’t get it down and take it for a thrash. The salesguy still let me get in and fire it up tho.
The interior’s not too bad, actually. Fewer gauges than the Marauder; how do you guys tell your oil pressure and volts? Couldn’t find the cruise control at first; the dealer showed it to me, and I don’t like the location; it was blocked from sight completely by the upper left arm of the steering wheel. The only real serious objection I can make to the interior is the trunk; less room than the Marauder, but you guys DO get the split folddown seats…thumbs-up there. Overall, not so bad…I coulda got comfortable in there…
The exterior’s passable, but I still can’t understand why Dodge didn’t simply keep the body from the 1999 concept Charger. Now, THAT was a slick bodystyle…the taillights on this one look too much like a Mitsubishi Galant, but I CAN see a faint passing resemblance to the 1968 Charger Corvette-style lights in the lenses.
It’s hard to be much harder than that on the styling though. The new GTOs don’t look like they used to; the Marauder looks nothing like the last 1970 X-100 to roll off the line.
Hell, even I don’t look like I used to thirty-plus years ago....and I consider that a good thing…!
On to the drivetrain. The Hemi’s coming along well enough, I guess; I’ve heard numerous internet rumors that the Hemi-equipped Rams were having serious problems with connecting rods, pistons, and the rest of the internals. There’s a few guys over on MM.net that grumble that our engines (the Mustang Mach I’s 4.6L DOHC 32V) are hemis too, but we just don’t get the publicity. I personally dunno, and I’m not going to touch off a superheated debate about whether the new Hemi’s really a Hemi, or whether Ford engines are better than Dodge, or whatever direction the debaters want to take it.
Suffice it to say, the new Hemi looks pretty good in the engine compartment, and it looks like most of the stuff you’d want to service yourself is accessible, if a little tight.
I really like the 5-speed Autostick; wish I could graft it onto the Marauder. But you guys are getting badly shortchanged on the rearend gearing! The Marauder comes stock with 3.55s, and a number of folks on the MM.net website have changed theirs out to 4.10s. One guy’s swapped out for 4.56s, but he does a lot of heads-up dragracing with his particular car. So why the hell is Dodge sticking to that 2.82 ratio? Even the SRT-8s are only getting 3.06s…WTF? C’mon Dodge, bring back our old faithful Dana 60 rearend with the Drag Pak gearing!
The bottom line here is this: It’s not as bad as I thought. I’m too far in the hole on my Marauder or I’d seriously consider a trade. It actually looks and sounds like a decently capable car, and us Marauder guys will race you anytime and smile…win, lose, or draw!
Thanks for reading.
