I am very pleased to announce that I and my child bride have adopted SergntMac's first MM. I must be dreaming...please, don't wake me up!
The rest of this is more my personal therapy session, so you can skip it if you want.
How did it come to this...buying Mac's first MM?
A little history:
I've been nuts about Fox body mustangs since 1989 when I bought my first...the '86 GT. What a blast! Cheap and very fast. (Would you believe I traded in a diesel VW rabbit?) I and my son (now 25) have owned 3 others since then but still have the '86 GT.
In the mid 90's I got interested in the Lincoln Mk 7, what I call an uppity mustang because it has the same drive train as the mustang but a "luxury sports coupe" (LSC) body and interior. So almost all the go fast and handle better mods for mustangs can be done to the Mk7. At that time Child Bride was driving a manual trans '82 Mercedes 300, not turbo. It had 150K, was getting even slower, and she was tired of shifting gears. So it seemed like a good idea to find a cherry Mk 7 to replace it and begin to make the LSC into a hot rod Lincoln. In June '96 we found our '92 which had 55K miles at the time. In the last 65K miles and 7 years some things have been done towards making it a hot rod and I have a long list of others to do.
I never thought I would be willing to replace our Mk7. It has served long and well and is lots 'o fun. Not to mention what it would be when/if I finished the job! Then last fall I read an article about the MM in one of the Mustang magazines I take. Reminded me of the early 90's Impala SS, but I liked it better. And my child bride liked the idea of the big trunk and 4 doors. (The LSC has heavy doors and not much trunk, as you likely already know.)
In December I saw one for sale on EBay that had been fixed up with chip, gears, exhaust, etc. I'm fairly sure it is/was Logan's. (Yes, Logan?) I almost drove up to Dallas to check it out, but I wasn't really ready to dive in yet and time was too short. That was also when I discovered mercurymarauder.net.
Since then, I had been waiting for the '04s to come out (they will, won't they?) so I could find a low mile used '03 at a much better price than new, maybe in the fall. Meantime, I test drove a couple and had my child bride try one out. She liked it and I love the potential. The Mk 7 was going to have to be replaced.
The big decision:
Then last month I noticed everyone raving about Mac's first MM being for sale and found it on CarMax a couple of days later. That's when I began reconsidering waiting.
So I called the CarMax dealer to get the VIN etc. and a little info about getting it transferred down here to Texas (we're in Austin). The sales guy said "it is all stock, no mods". He didn't know what they really had. Such a shame.
Mac was kind enough to tell me all about it...especially how it's the fastest N/A MM out there and why. Enuf for me. And MartyO backed him up. (Child Bride overheard both conversations and said it sounded like brothers who had not seen each other for years.)
Took 'em 2 weeks to get the car down here and by then it was too late. We were committed.
Wow, what a great car!!Child bride loves it, she can leave 'em in the dust much better than with the Mk 7.
Wait, there is more! Mac has proven to be a PRINCE with his friendly helpful ways and has been working overtime in making us feel like we're the original owners...he sent me all the original parts and docs. Thanks MAC!!!
I guess that's it for now. If you read this far, hope you feel as good as I do.
P.S. BTW, The Mk 7 is going up for sale when I get the '66 running (by Oct, I hope). If you're interested, you know who to call...rice buster!
P.P.S. I notice the mustang mags are reporting tons more stuff available and articles on how to get more power from the mod motors, such as the 4.6 DOHC in our Marauders. If you want to do some serious work on the engine, check 'em out. (Because of that, I considered getting a used Grand Marquis and doing some mods. But IMO it would cost way to much to get it to match the stock MM in both appearance AND performance.)
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Good job!!
