What a wild ride it has been.
I saw my first Marauder outside local L/M dealership at night, all prepped and ready for delivery. I was driving a '00 GM HPP at the time and my jaw dropped when I laid eyes it. I knew I was never going to be able to touch a new one, but then I found out the sales manager at the same L/M was selling his 300A, 18 months in service with 17k miles on it. I was hooked.
First mods were pretty typical, just to pep it up a bit: 4.10's, Addco solid rear bar, Denso plugs, stat and an SCT tune. One of my co-worker buddies is seriously into autocross and talked me into getting the Marauder on the short course to see what she would do:
I got into it and went out a few more times, upgrading the front brakes and rear control arms for better handling:
Then I signed me and the wife up to go to mm.net's national meet, Marauderville II in Indianapolis. That was going to be the first time I've ever been drag racing and I new I needed something more to be competitive so I had a 3000 stall Precision Industries Stallion torque converter installed. I had a blast while putting down 14.4's naturally aspirated:
I also got spanked pretty good that day by a Kenny Brown Marauder S. But it just happened that my wife was also in the car on that fateful run down the track. She saw how much quicker the other Marauder was and asked me what that one had done to it. Supercharger I replied. How much is one of those she asked. Fast forward a little less than a year later and see a Diablo custom tuned ProCharger kit in all its glory:
With Marauderville III coming up soon in Detroit and sure to be drag racing, I put in a little practice and found that lack of traction had become my nemesis. A quick call to Discounttiredirect.com and I had some new meats to put the power properly to the ground. Now I was ready to drag race:
Anybody that knows Marauders also knows that going into Detroit is going into Trilogy's back yard. I was hoping to put a good showing in for ProCharger at Milan, the drag racing venue at Marauderville III, and I wasn't disappointed with running in the high 12's.
The Trilogy guys didn't turn out to be too bad at all. Once you get past the online rhetoric and just plain get out and have some fun everything turns out to be all good. At the car show during the Woodward Dream Cruiser, which Marauderville III centered around, they made sure I had a nice spot on the grass for the passersby to see:
Once the meet was over I came back home and started itching for a little more drag racing action. As the weather started to cool I went out to visit the local track along with a buddy. The track announcer flipped when he saw me in the staging lanes. I guess he has something for Marauders. I ran 12.4's that day. Two weeks later, I met up with a buddy from St. Louis who wanted to get some late action in:
A nice cool, crisp fall day and enough practice to know kinda what I was doing yielded the best timeslip to date, a 12.2 sec run at 111 mph:
I've got over 40,800 miles on my MM now and every one has been a pleasure. This one is no garage queen, although she sleeps during the winter except for a cruise the occasional nice winter day. I just had her out this weekend and handed a guy in a Crossfire SRT-whatever his ass in a greasy paper bag. God I love this car and spring can't get here quick enough.
Autocrossing and drag racing n/a the first year, drag racing s/c the second year, what's in store for year three? I think I'd like to try a road course. That means more suspension mods and totally different mindset on tires. Owning a Marauder has become quite the adventure for me... and what a wild ride it has been.
I saw my first Marauder outside local L/M dealership at night, all prepped and ready for delivery. I was driving a '00 GM HPP at the time and my jaw dropped when I laid eyes it. I knew I was never going to be able to touch a new one, but then I found out the sales manager at the same L/M was selling his 300A, 18 months in service with 17k miles on it. I was hooked.
First mods were pretty typical, just to pep it up a bit: 4.10's, Addco solid rear bar, Denso plugs, stat and an SCT tune. One of my co-worker buddies is seriously into autocross and talked me into getting the Marauder on the short course to see what she would do:
I got into it and went out a few more times, upgrading the front brakes and rear control arms for better handling:
Then I signed me and the wife up to go to mm.net's national meet, Marauderville II in Indianapolis. That was going to be the first time I've ever been drag racing and I new I needed something more to be competitive so I had a 3000 stall Precision Industries Stallion torque converter installed. I had a blast while putting down 14.4's naturally aspirated:
I also got spanked pretty good that day by a Kenny Brown Marauder S. But it just happened that my wife was also in the car on that fateful run down the track. She saw how much quicker the other Marauder was and asked me what that one had done to it. Supercharger I replied. How much is one of those she asked. Fast forward a little less than a year later and see a Diablo custom tuned ProCharger kit in all its glory:
With Marauderville III coming up soon in Detroit and sure to be drag racing, I put in a little practice and found that lack of traction had become my nemesis. A quick call to Discounttiredirect.com and I had some new meats to put the power properly to the ground. Now I was ready to drag race:
Anybody that knows Marauders also knows that going into Detroit is going into Trilogy's back yard. I was hoping to put a good showing in for ProCharger at Milan, the drag racing venue at Marauderville III, and I wasn't disappointed with running in the high 12's.
The Trilogy guys didn't turn out to be too bad at all. Once you get past the online rhetoric and just plain get out and have some fun everything turns out to be all good. At the car show during the Woodward Dream Cruiser, which Marauderville III centered around, they made sure I had a nice spot on the grass for the passersby to see:
Once the meet was over I came back home and started itching for a little more drag racing action. As the weather started to cool I went out to visit the local track along with a buddy. The track announcer flipped when he saw me in the staging lanes. I guess he has something for Marauders. I ran 12.4's that day. Two weeks later, I met up with a buddy from St. Louis who wanted to get some late action in:
A nice cool, crisp fall day and enough practice to know kinda what I was doing yielded the best timeslip to date, a 12.2 sec run at 111 mph:
I've got over 40,800 miles on my MM now and every one has been a pleasure. This one is no garage queen, although she sleeps during the winter except for a cruise the occasional nice winter day. I just had her out this weekend and handed a guy in a Crossfire SRT-whatever his ass in a greasy paper bag. God I love this car and spring can't get here quick enough.
Autocrossing and drag racing n/a the first year, drag racing s/c the second year, what's in store for year three? I think I'd like to try a road course. That means more suspension mods and totally different mindset on tires. Owning a Marauder has become quite the adventure for me... and what a wild ride it has been.
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