The Mercury marketing mavens who were standing nearby looked at me as if I were psychic. It turns out that, when the big screen version of Hawaii Five-0 comes out next year, it's likely that the McGarrett character will indeed be driving a Mercury Marauder.
This did not require any psychic ability, as anyone who can da-da-da-da-da-daaa their way through the most exciting theme music ever written for a TV show will tell you. This is simply as it should be.
It was Mercury, after all, that provided the Hawaii-based cop show with its big sedans, including a triple-black Mercury Parklane Brougham 4-door driven my McGarrett himself.
But the Mercury I always wanted to drive was the one that most memorably raced through the streets of Honolulu over the opening credits and that thumping theme music.
This long-held wish was in my brain when I climbed into a Marauder at Ford's handling course here recently, and it seemed like the TV and automotive gods were bestowing their blessing upon me to go for it.
Right off the bat, it seemed to me that Marauder's launch speed was a little less than thrilling. Absolutely it was good and certainly it will be better than most, but it was not thrilling.
Once the Marauder was moving and I started da-dahing my way through the Hawaii Five-O theme (it really is one of THE best drive-fast songs of all time), the car began to show its true value.
