OK gang, today is a little more significant, because 50 years ago today was Mercury Marauder Job 1. This is the day they started building production Marauders for the very first time. They were being built in at least 2 different plants. Most of them (more than 80% of the ones I've seen) came out of the St. Louis assembly plant. The rest that I have seen were built in the Wayne assembly plant. I have seen a handful of Monterey's built in Mahwah, but never a Marauder, but it is possible that a few Marauders were built there.
9,617 Marauders were built between January and August of 1963. 7,298 of them were bench seat Marauders, and 2,319 were bucket seat Marauder S-55s.
The Marauder S-55 was NOT an option. It was a separate model with a distinct VIN.