The Mercury S-55 is one of the Mercury entries the open record knows by name and by date — in 1962, and by little else. That is not nothing: a name in the catalogue is where a car's story starts to be recoverable.
The background
The Mercury S-55 is a car that was marketed by Mercury from the 1962 to 1963 model years and again from 1966 to 1967. The full-size version of the Mercury "S" (Special) range, the S-55 was a performance-oriented variant of the Mercury Monterey, serving as a divisional counterpart of the Ford Galaxie 500XL.
Offered only as a two-door hardtop and convertible, the S-55 was marketed as an alternative to the Chrysler 300 "letter series". At the end of the 1960s, the form factor for high-performance vehicles shifted away from full-size sedans, with model lines such as the S-55 falling out of favor as buyers shifted towards personal luxury coupes and muscle cars. Following the 1967 model year, Mercury discontinued the S-55, largely replacing it with the Mercury Marauder, which was produced through 1970.
Under the skin
The record carries the layout — and the layout: a front engine drives the rear wheels, the classic proportion — long bonnet, cabin set back — that most people picture when they picture a sports saloon or a grand tourer. The engine, output and weight have not yet reached the open record, and MotorJury does not guess at them.
Where it sits
In the Mercury line-up the Mercury S-55 has a clear place: the factory was Main plant. The cars a buyer would have weighed it against include the Alfa Romeo Giulia, the Ferrari 250 GTO, the Maserati Quattroporte. Its Mercury stablemates include the Mercury Bobcat and the Mercury Capri.
Owning one today
There is no federal ownership record for the Mercury S-55 — it predates the complaint database or was never sold in the United States — so MotorJury publishes no running-cost figure for it. For a car of this age the price is set by the collector market and the condition of the individual example, not by a formula.