Confusion on MM 0-60 times

[Heavy D.]

Hi all,
My apologies if this has been asked already, but I did a search in the forum and came up empty...

My question is, almost all of the reviews come up with a 0-60 time of 7.5 seconds, but Mercury claims this in 6.5 seconds. Why the difference?

My hypothesis is that when reviewers drive them, they are not broken in yet. Also, I suspect if you turn off the traction control and brake torque to 2700 rpm you'll get a better launch (haven't tried this yet...).

What do you all think?

[jgc61sr2002]

Heavy - I would agree that the cars are probably not broken in and you are correct to turn off the traction control for a better launch. John

[MAD-3R]

Most of the cars that would have been used did not have Traction Control. also a lot of the "tests" were with stop watches. Not a very reliable way,

[SergntMac]

Right now, I've got a 6.03 on the record, in .6 of a mile. This Saturday, a bunch of us here around Chicago are heading out to the drag strip. With the mods stretching from bone stock to supercharged, you should have a better idea of real world performance after Saturday.

[Heavy D.]

Cool, thanks Mac. Mine's completely stock so I'm very curious what you guys shake out at on a dragstrip. With 700 miles on the odometer, I"m definately closer to 7.5 than 6.5. Looking forward to the results!

[Directedby]

Wasn't the 6.5 time from Mercury on the prototype which had a super charger on it?

[SergntMac]

Originally posted by Directedby
Wasn't the 6.5 time from Mercury on the prototype which had a super charger on it?

Well, I could be wrong on this Paul, but I don't recall that the prototype ever ran at all. Never heard it that way anyway. The 6.5 would be a N/A figure, when I got my 6.03, all I had was Stage I mods. Today, I would expect a significantly lower 0-60 times. Mensrea's supercharged sled is closer to 4.5/4.7 or something in that area. It's posted somewhere around here, but I know for sure it's in the mid 4s. We'll know more after Saturday, eh? Wish you join us...

[RCSignals]

What magazine revews, other than Car and Driver, have said the time is 7.5 seconds? That is the time for a plain old Grand Marquis/Crown Victoria, and suggest to me they got the time not by driving a Marauder, but by looking at the wrong spec sheet.

[Marauder57]

Man 4.5 in a 4 door sedan is hauling arse in a major way!!! :D

Whooooo that is sweet!

Mac, I am looking forward to hearing how the times turn out......try not to shame anyone too bad.... ;)

[Heavy D.]

Hi RCSignals,
I read that figure in these articles:

http://www.modernracer.com/mercurymarauder.html

http://www.theautochannel.com/news/2003/04/10/159092.html?FEATURES

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/718687/posts

The middle one does say it's an estimate, so you may be on to something with the CV/GM spec sheet. If it's anything like my truck's 5.4, I expect to pick up about a half second improvement once she's broken in, so my estimated 0-60 time would be closer to 6.5. I've never timed it, but right now it feels a hair over 7.0 using the "stoplight turns green, pedal to floor, one thousand one, one thousand two... etc." method. Not very scientific, so I'll be waiting to see how Team Marauder does this weekend...

[cyclone03]

I don't have a hard number for 0-60,but I can tell you I ran 0-72.32 in 10.04secs.That was my best 1/8 mile time,that came on my best run last night.15.36 @93.18mph. 86deg stock Marauder.

[RCSignals]

I just saw in that Canadian Article posted they said 7.5 sec as well. ( again the Ford stated time for 0-100kph is "mid six seconds")

Many of theses articles have info taken directly from the Ford press release, then there seems to be content that is very similar across articles, as though it comes from plagarising someone's earlier article, so some sort of Press Only" critical opinion release. (who knows from where)
I know many of the articles say the same thing about seats being too soft, and passengers slip sliding too much. the driver only having the steering wheel to brace themselves with. Slippery seats hasn't been my experience with this car.

[SergntMac]

Originally posted by RCSignals
I just saw in that Canadian Article posted they said 7.5 sec as well. ( again the Ford stated time for 0-100kph is "mid six seconds") Many of theses articles have info taken directly from the Ford press release, then there seems to be content that is very similar across articles, as though it comes from plagarising someone's earlier article, so some sort of Press Only" critical opinion release. (who knows from where) I know many of the articles say the same thing about seats being too soft, and passengers slip sliding too much. the driver only having the steering wheel to brace themselves with. Slippery seats hasn't been my experience with this car.

The word you to seek to explain this phenomenon, RC, is not "plagarising." The correct word is "boilerplate." One source copies another source, and the copy/source thingy goes on, and on, and on, and so forth...You should look for a pink bunny playing a bass drum!

Boilerplate text, passed around, passed down, passed around again, and so on, so on and so forth...

Boilerplate text is useful, but should not be confused with "BoilerMaker," a popular heavy duty drink, a copy of which has been passed my way and I am not passing it on, or passing on it...

[RCSignals]

yes, and if the "boilerplate text", unlike your Boilermaker, contains a grievous error, it goes on and on and on, until it simply gets accepted as "fact"

Say something enough times.....

Interesting phenomenon. Getting paid to put one's name to a boilerplate piece.

[JamesHecker]

I wanna know where I can get the bolt on supercharger from Paxton or Vortech for about $1800 that the third article mentions!

[JLHARVEY1]

When vehicles are tested in Magazines, many factors come into play. Number of miles on the vehicle, location of test (altitude is a huge factor), production variations (not all Marauders perform equally), and weather. That's why you may see a huge difference in performance from one test to another even when performed by the same magazine. They don't even use the same track for every test. One Motor Trend test Marauder ran 6.89 seconds, while another Motor Trend test ran 7.7. You can assume that possible the car that ran 6.89 was broken in and was tested on a cool day, while the car running 7.7 was a slug or possibly just wasn't broken in. Maybe they tested it in 110 degree weather. Who knows...

Remember that most Impala SS tests ran aprox. 7.3. The best examples ran 6.5. So even all of it's test didn't coincide.




Jason

[amerikan]

thats good insite. thanks for the post.. i have a tundra which is supposedly 8 0-60 the marauder is much faster at least by a second