10 Lidios Own Marauder Runs 11 Second ETs

I just couldn’t help my self any longer – after working with “Trilogy International” out of Dearborn, MI and the Eaton intercooled supercharger kit they developed for the ’03-‘04 Marauder, I caved in like a little boy in a candy store.

When the ’03 Marauder began to surface in early 2002 I knew I wanted one, when I started to test drive the Marauder with the prototype Trilogy blower, I knew I needed one!

The Trilogy blower kit for the Marauder packages an Eaton M-112 supercharger (same as ’99 lightning and ’03 Cobra) with an intercooler on top of the Marauder’s 302 HP 4.6L 32-valve like Ford would have done. It all fits neatly under the hood and adds an impressive amount of low & mid range torque to this 4 door heavy-weight.

The trilogy kit was designed almost entirely from scratch just for the Marauder instead of being a repackaged centrifugal like some others offer. Even with the tight, stock torque converter and stock exhaust, substantial gains are noticed with 9.5 psi of boost from the Trilogy kit.

When only the stock 9.5 psi of boost Trilogy blower is added to a completely stock Marauder, it takes it from 239 RWHP up to about 380-390 RWHP. And they go from about mid 15’s in the quarter mile to very low 13’s and even high 12’s with cool temperatures and adequate traction.

For my own Marauder, I wanted to take it a few notches above and beyond the standard kit’s performance. My goal was to go mid to low 12’s in the 1/4 mile with additional boost and better gears (4.10’s) using drag radials. A little 30-50 shot of NOS was thought necessary to guarantee high 11’s in the 1/4 mile. So far I’ve left the entire Marauder exhaust alone (which sounds very good but, not like a common Mustang) and the trans internals are all stock, only a Bauman shift kit.

To take it up a few notches above a normal stock Trilogy blower install, I knew I needed greater boost and efficiency from the blower. The Eaton on my car has been ported by Apten (known for porting the Eatons on the Cobra and Lightnings). The blower pulley was changed from a supplied stock 3.4” down to a 2.8” and the MAF was replaced with an 80mm Pro-M. This all added up to 13.6 psi of boost, and bumped the RWHP up to over 445. The stock rear 3.55 gears were replaced with 4.10’s and I use the Nitto 305 drag radials on the 1.5” widened stock wheels which are now 18 X 9.5”. The entire exhaust system has so far been left alone as has the trans and torque converter with the exception of a Bauman shift kit.

After countless hours on our DynoJet through the winter, I took the car to the 2004, NMRA event in Bradenton Florida for its first visit to the quarter mile. To my surprise in the 80 degree heat the car ran a series of mid 12’s at about 111mph. After tweaking shift points, tire pressure, launches and the tune a little, by the end of the day on Sunday my Marauder clicked off a 12.11 and a 12.05 @ 113.5mph! Not bad for a 4500lbs 4-door.

Once we returned to the colder Michigan temps and Milan Drag way in mid April, I was able to squeeze several high 11 second passes out of the car and a very best of 11.86 at 113.9. Although its best m.p.h. is over 114.5.

Since running the 11.86 the car is now equipped with a very small NOS system to guarantee that it will run mid 11’s in the quarter mile very soon. I have begun initial baseline testing with the nitrous on the dyno and at the track but am not yet happy with the combination.

Stay tuned to see what this combo can do with another 50 HP from the NOS! – Lidio

UPDATE June 1, 2004

Lidio spent some time tuning the small 30 – 50 hp nitrous system on the car and on May 15th at Milan Dragway it ran an unbelievable 11.63 @ 117.20 with an even more impressive 1.65 60 ft. time!