8 Alternative Auto Raises The Marauder Performance Bar

We’ve been working with the standard Trilogy-Marauder blower kit for most of 2003 summer. With the standard kit and our base level tune, our test Marauder we went a best of 12.95 in the 1/4 mile. Very respectable for the only bolt-on installed on the completely stock Marauder power train. Although we found that when the temperature climbed over 80° F the car would slow down and run 13.20’s to 13.30’s. Like most blower applications, it is common to find dramatic differences in performance when you go from 90° heat and humidity down to 50° – 60° F crisp, dry air. We wanted the supercharged Marauder package to run 12.90’s on a bad day and solid mid 12’s in the better cold air.

We decided to do three simple things that made the car feel and respond very positively and yet stay quiet and very, very tame for day to day driving. We started by removing the factory 3.55 gears and replaced them with 4.10’s. This was easily justified because of the weight of the car and our test mule has a pair of Nitto drag-radials that were designed for the Lightning – they are 305/45-18’s and are about 2 wider then the stock rear Marauder tire and about 1/2 “ taller. So the 4.10’s were absolutely necessary in this case and not at all “too much” gear. With the 4.10’s the trap rpms are now closer to the optimal 6000 rpm shift point.

Secondly, we increased the boost from the stock-kit’s 9 psi to 11.8 psi. To help with the increased boost we replaced the stock mufflers with 3-chamber Delta-Flow FlowMaster’s. These mufflers appeared to be worth about 11 hp at the rear wheels after we raised the boost. These mufflers are relatively quiet for a FlowMaster and do not raise the car’s noise level much at all when the catalytic converters were maintained as we did. It actually sounds very good and has a deep throaty V8 sound.

These 3 relatively minor changes did exactly what we were looking for. In the 90° air the car now runs very consistent 12.90’s but the really big news is that in the most recent testing here in Michigan we had a nice cool 55° day and it ran a best ever of 12.42 @ 111.2 mph!

Not bad for a 4500lbs four door sedan! And the car still maintains its stock-like manners and drivability. From the cockpit you don’t even realize you’re driving a souped-up Marauder until you really lay into the throttle.

The Trilogy blower for the Marauder is now available and sells for $5900. We charge $1900 for all the installation labor, which also includes before-and-after dyno time and custom, individual tuning efforts.