October 17, 2004
Lidio's Marauder 2004 Season Recap
Well the season has wound down for 2004 and I spent a lot of time with my Marauder on the dyno and the drag strip, with some very exciting 1/4 mile times.
In a nutshell, the best my Marauder has run is an 11.47 at over 122mph! The average 60 ft times have been 1.65 to 1.70’s. These are some very impressive numbers from a big four door that weighs in at over 4400lbs with a driver.
As a refresher, I’ll mention what’s been done to the car for power and traction - I’ll also remind you what hasn’t been done which is equally impressive for the performance and reliability this car has. Everything is happening with the Marauder’s completely stock factory exhaust system from front to back, and bits and pieces of the stock exhaust are 2” diameter not 2 1/4” like many other Fords. The transmission and torque converter are totally stock… no loose, slippy, heat producing after market converter is used, or needed.
For traction all that’s been done is widening the stock rear rims to 18 X 9.5” and I run Nitto drag radials that are 305/45/18 meant for the Lightning trucks. No other efforts have been made to increase traction at all - no suspension pieces have been changed nor is it necessary to do so.
The completely stock motor has performed and stayed together very well and is still going strong. Remember, the stock Marauder motor has the weak cast pistons and powdered metal rods! As I’ve said before “Don’t spark knock or detonate it and it will live.” - and live it has. My Marauder has had the Trilogy blower making 14psi for over 20,000 miles now with not one sign of trouble. But on top of that I also hit it with a little shot of a dry flow Nitrous. The NOS hit is about 80HP and has been working very well all summer. In order to use the NOS on top of the supercharging it’s necessary to run 100 octane, unleaded fuel. This has proven to prevent detonation in this 10:1 compression motor while it ingests the 14 psi of boost and the shot of NOS. Without the Nitrous, I’ve run a best of 11.83 @ 116mph. So the NOS hit is worth about 4 tenths.
For now this is all I plan on doing with the Marauder. Even with this level of mods and performance it’s proven to be a very, very daily drivable car with no compromise to its ability to get in it in the morning, take the kids to school and go to work. You’d never know what this thing can do until you put the pedal down. With its stock exhaust and no blower noise until under heavy load, it simply sounds and behaves stock under normal driving conditions.
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