I'm sorry to be so thick, but being a Mercury fan since the late 50's, not putting your best product out the door with job 1 just bugs me, especially when we see how the foreign manufacturers are doing a job on us.
I can't see any sizeable cost difference had Mercury performed the basic mods before the car was offered for sale. (Of course, a SC would be a big cost factor.)
4:10 vs 3:55 should not be a cost issue to Ford; creating a performance chip for an initial 18,000 car run doesn't seem to be a big deal (if it were, how could the independant speed shops do it and still make a profit?), and the market that the Marauder is geared towards would welcome firm, not harsh, shifts.
Nobody with a 4:10 rear is complaining that the MPG dropped dramatically. (I replaced the 3:00 with 3:50s in my 1964 Galaxie with hardly any mileage change; car does tach up quite a bit above 70, though.)
Last, but not least, when the Mercury engineers initially tested these cars, couldn't they determine that a bit more go from a standing start would be icing on the cake?
I can't believe that Mercury built a vehicle with the goal in mind to give the independant speed shops more business.
Just doesn't make sense.
