Travel Stories Gas Logs 1964 MERCURY Park Lane Marauder 390 4bbl MPG= 9.3 City / 16.7 Hwy/ Overall average 10.8
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| 1964 MERCURY Park Lane Marauder 390 4bbl MPG= 9.3 City / 16.7 Hwy/ Overall average 10.8 |
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Written by Double Dragon
Monday, 27 December 2010 14:00
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1964 MERCURY Park Lane Marauder 390 4bbl MPG= 9.3 City / 16.7 Hwy/ Overall average 10.8 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- All writing and photography by and copyright D. S. Brown, except for the owner's manual pages which are copyright Mercury/ Ford. This two door Marauder was a one owner car for over 20 years until the first owner was no longer able to drive. The engine was rebuilt at about 150,000 miles. Otherwise, the car has received no more than necessary maintenance. To see a story and photos of the history of this car see the 20 YEARS + section in this website in the CAR STORIES department. True MPG figures for this car are elusive. Years earlier, the Marauder was ticketed for speeding. In preparation for the court case, an independent speedometer calibration company was hired to check the speedometer which they pronounced to be reading low. They performed an adjustment on the speedometer which seems to have pushed the readings too high.
Cruising speeds may be slower than indicated. MPG at 60 vs. 70 MPH is going to be much different, so the highway figures should be taken with a grain of salt. Comparing the odometer to milepost markers suggests that the odometer is marginally accurate, but speedometer and odometer readings are frequently not aligned. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1964 MERCURY PARK LANE MARAUDER 390 MPG READINGS WHEN NEW= 12-15 MPG. The June, 1964 issue of CAR LIFE tested a Mercury Park Lane 390 similar to the OOCC Marauder. The CAR LIFE test car was a four door instead of a two door, and it probably created air drag with its strange looking reverse rear window named "The Breezeway". The Breezeway could be lowered a crack to circulate air through the car via the front vent windows. The system looked weird, but provided noiseless airflow. The Marauder had a much better looking and more aerodynamic fixed fastback rear window. The CAR LIFE test car curb weight was 4,360 pounds. Testers and equipment swelled the number to 4,660 pounds. The tires were bias ply 8.00x14. With an automatic transmission, 3.00:1 axle ratio and the same 300 HP power plant as the OOCC Marauder, the CAR LIFE Park Lane was capable of 0-60 in 9.3 seconds with a top end of 116 MPH and test average of 12-15 MPG. CAR LIFE calculated the frontal area of the Park Lane which has the same nose as the Marauder. It came to 25.2 square feet. Weight and frontal area are the two big factors in MPG. In the exact same issue of CAR LIFE the cover story 1964 Tempest GTO has a frontal area of 21.8 square feet and curb weight of 3,470 pounds, test weight of 3,800 pounds. Since these tests were performed at the same time we can assume that the weather and criteria used for calculations were similar. The full size Marauder is pushing 4 square feet more area through the air than an intermediate with a similar shaped front end as well as hauling an additional 860 pounds. Both cars have engines about 390 cubic inches. The GTO was rated at exactly the same 12-15 MPG despite less weight and frontal area. Possibly the high performance camshaft or the 3.23 rear axle in the GTO ate up the margin. A MOTOR TREND test done the previous year in October, 1963 tested a lesser Marauder which produced better MPG figures. The 1964 Marauder tested was built on the Montclair platform which normally came with a 250 HP version of the 390 with only single exhaust and a 2 barrel carburetor. This four door Marauder had the optional 266 HP version of the 2 barrel, still less than the Park Lane standard 300 HP engine. The test weight was 4,800 pounds, while the curb was 4,390 pounds- just 30 more than the CAR LIFE test car. This car was much slower but posted a steady HWY 16-18 MPG and heavy stop and go figures were still a respectable 11- 13 MPG. The Marauder came out during Mercury's 25th Anniversary, a fact that is celebrated with this logo embossed into the center of the steering wheel.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1964 MERCURY PARK LANE MARAUDER 390-4 BARREL CITY MPG=8.9 The OOCC Marauder was used as a daily driver for short trips in cold to mild weather averaging 10 degrees C (40 degrees F). The car was garaged for short periods in an unheated garage, but usually parked outside. The trunk was usually empty, with a 200 pound driver and the gas tank at or below one quarter which sets the gas log weight around 4,450 lbs. The Marauder was driven gently in short trip stop and go traffic conditions. Oil changes were performed frequently despite light use. The OOCC Marauder's standard diet was 10W30 Quaker state oil and Chevron unleaded gasoline. Below is an excerpt from the original owner's manual. And we thought no one cared about gas mileage back in 1964!
By the way, the Park Lane pictured below in the illustration is not a Marauder, because it has the Breezeway back window.
The OOCC Marauder retains original equipment 390 4 barrel and original configuration dual exhaust. The car has new springs, alternator, radiator and battery. The radial tires mounted on the original rims were set to 35 PSI. The extra weight of the radial tires vs. bias plies is probably offset by the fact that the hubcaps were left off the car. The puny 195R70x14 tires have significantly smaller diameter than the original factory tires. Read the Tires story in this GAS LOGS section for more detail on bias ply vs radial tires and how this affects MPG. This first section of gas logs below covers from 198,000 to 199,000 miles and reveal unsurprisingly low MPG of 9.3 for city short trips. MILEAGE GAL OCT FILLUP? MPG A second section of logs lack fill up to fill up entires which creates difficulty in pinpointing exact MPG figures. However, the gas tank stayed consistently between 1/4 full and empty. The Marauder used 66 gallons to maintain about 1/4 tank of gas over 616 miles which equals the precise same 9.3 CITY MPG figure obtained from measuring fill to fill earlier. MILEAGE GAL OCT FILLUP? MPG After this there is a gap in the logs of about 900 miles and a change to some decent sized tires. The new 225R70x14 tires have a diameter similar to the original issue 78 profile sidewall 8.00x14 tires. This last set of city mileage figures below cover 200,000 to 201,000 miles. The fill to fill measurements produce 8.3 MPG CITY average. Interestingly, the first fill to fill produced the exact same 9.3 MPG reading as always, but subsequent fills indicate diminishing MPG. The car was taken in for a tune-up. The first fill after the tune-up provoked a rebound to 10 MPG. 201,203 3.9 87 X (tune-up) -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1964 MERCURY PARK LANE MARAUDER 390 4 BBL HWY MPG= 16.7 The OOCC Marauder was driven at an indicated 70 to 80 MPH with about 230 pounds aboard and a full tank most of the time pushing the weight up around 4,600 lbs. As mentioned in the introduction, it's likely that the speedometer reads high. Average speed was probably about 60 to 70 MPH. The trip was made in summer heat using interstates with some slow city exploration and secondary roads in the mix. Windows were rolled down for a large percentage of the time with the radio and other electrical usually off. The trip was made on a new set of 225R70x14 radials, similar in diameter to factory issue tires and set at 35 PSI. The trip was 4,671 miles. The Marauder used 290.8 gallons of gas over this distance which converts to 16 MPG HWY at an average indicated speed of 70 MPH. One factor that depressed the MPG was the Midwest's use of ethanol in gasoline which has lower energy content. To obtain more accuracy, the first fill up gas entry that produced 10 MPG back at 201,257 miles was allocated back to city miles. Much of the first section of the trip was done in major city gridlock that extended for miles down the interstate. Tracking only pure highway driving creates a revised total of 16.7 MPG HWY. Neither this figure nor the city figure has been corrected for possible speedometer error. A rough guess places speedometer and odometer error at 10% exaggeration. This puts the actual stats probably around 15 MPG at 60 MPH which tallies with the highest figure CAR LIFE gave for their Park Lane test car. MILEAGE GAL OCT FILLUP? MPG The Marauder used 661 gallons of gas to cover 7,166 miles. Minus first fill of 2.8 leaves an overall average MPG of 10.8.
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