Vintage Road Test: 1971 Mercury Marquis, Get Your Dramamine Ready!
YouTube user Bajabusta has done us quite a service by uploading so many old Car & Track road tests from the late 1960s and early 1970s. We watched the ’72 Volkswagen 412 exhibit some scary trailing throttle oversteer last week, and now it’s time to watch a classic Detroit land yacht make its stately way around a test track.
Murilee Martin is the pen name of Phil Greden, a writer who has lived in Minnesota, California, Georgia and (now) Colorado. He has toiled at copywriting, technical writing, junkmail writing, fiction writing and now automotive writing. He has owned many terrible vehicles and some good ones. He spends a great deal of time in self-service junkyards. These days, he writes for publications including Autoweek, Autoblog, Hagerty, The Truth About Cars and Capital One.
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What the hell was up with car colours in the 70s anyway?
@86er Sounds to me like you saw the offered-for-1997-only Vermont Green. It could be had with the Willow Green interior. Can you tell I worked at an L-M dealer back then??? :)
I remember whan I was about 5 my Dad, who was a police officer, had a city take home car. It was a 1975 Dodge Monaco four door with a 440. It was brown with white painted top. I'll never forget the joy of climbing onto that brown vinyl bench seat in the summer only to end up with third degree burns on my thighs. Or the absolute awesome growl as the secondaries on the four barrel would open up at full throttle. This early experience had it's affect on me. In high school I drove a 1969 four door Malibu light green with green vinyl interrior. I currently own a 1971 Mercury Marquis like the one above, only mine is a two door, brown with brown vinyl top and parchment brown interrior. The 429 is a beast of a motor and I am currently in the process of installing an intake, cam, and 770 holley carb. I love the stares I get when cruising down the freeway. I think the best feature of the car is the '70s Dukes of Hazard style CB antenna on the trunk. It really compliments the 800 pounds of factory chrome.
I know this is an old post but I have to throw my 2 cents worth in as I sit here watching the Blues Brothers. I grew up around old Galaxie's and LTD's and hated them, then in the mid eighties I got my first taste of real power in the form of a 73 Merc Monterey, (former Iowa state trooper car, 429 Interceptor) what an awesome car - cop motor, cop suspension - you get it!!! Fast forward many years and I get the chance to buy a super clean plain 72 Merc Marquis 2 door. What an awesome car, yes by today's standards the handling sucks but think about it they all sucked back then compared to today, a new Corvette and a 2nd gen f body were top notch and today they are highly modified to handle. The 72 Marquis 2dr hrdtp cool factor is off the charts in green on green on green, that's right green paint, green top, green interior. No it's not going to burn through the quarter or the slalom but parked next to a Scaremaro, Mustang, or numerous other (rare, quote-unquote) rides it blows them away, oh and cruising down the highway where belongs brings constant thumbs up from euro luxury car drivers. Enough said.