Back when Mercury was still around, it used the Marauder nameplate not just for the most powerful engines it received from the Ford stable, but also for its high-performance full-size flagship automobiles. While these mostly flew under the radar, they still have their fans even today.
Naturally, people will remember the latest production run a bit easier. Compared to the first couple of distinct incarnations that lived and died way back during the 1960s, the Marauder revival of 2003-2004 was contemporary with the beloved Ford Crown Victoria. Of course, Mercury’s Marauder was marketed as a high-performance version of the “grandpa-looking” Grand Marquis instead of being labeled as the cooler Crown Vic brother from a different corporate “mother.” Which, along with the styling, was considered part of the reason behind its dismal sales. There is one virtual artist that does not believe the design was actually that bland. Marouane Bembli, the pixel master better known as thesketchmonkey on social media, also mentions the marketing issues, but, of course, he focuses on the styling more than anything else during the first part of his behind-the-scenes redesign presentation. Anyone looking to get on with the second revival action might want to skip to the 7:35 mark. But do take a moment to also pause at the 5:55 timestamp. That is when the CGI expert mentions something crazy. He is going to refresh this sedan icon with help from a high-performance pickup truck. No need to guess which one. The artist expressly indicates that he is going to “steal” the 2021 Ram 1500 TRX headlights for this virtual project. Now that got our adrenaline spiking and for what it’s worth, it mostly did not disappoint. The modernized Mercury Marauder hides in plain sight the TRX goodies and anyone would be hard-pressed to pinpoint the exact model inspiration without prior knowledge. Before the end of the video embedded below, he also comes with possible motivation for this retro-modern revival: this Marauder may very well be a performance EV…
Keyword: Mercury Marauder Gets Second Revival, Unofficial Redesign Steals Ram TRX Goodies