New best results from Eaton's Milan Track Day.

[MI2QWK4U]

Things started out well enough, got the kids off to grandma's. Both the Marauder and the Mach ready to have sum fun at the track, tuned and ready to run. My wife joined me and followed me in the Mach 1. Traffic was heavy, but it thined out and things were smooth, till she radioed me to tell me that every once and a while she could see a puff of smoke come from the Marauder. She confirmed that the smoke WAS NOT coming from the tailpipes, rather from underneath the body. At the track, we determined that the tailshaft seal was leaking a little bit, and directly below the leak was the X-pipe, so it would drip on the pipe, vaporize or atomize and look like smoke. My rear bumper, tail lights, spoiler and deck lid were speckeled with tiny microscopic drops of trans fluid...wonderful eh? Of course the front of the Mach was covered as well...she was following me afterall! I decided to park the Marauder, in fear of blowing out the seal completely, and loosing my fluid on the track. Jerry had his trailer there, but who wants to trailer it back? Lidio kept bugging me to run it anyway, but I resisted. I was having fun running the Mach and hanging with the crew. Finally Lidio asked me one last time if he could run it at least one time, he was anxious to see what the added horsepower and torque did for me at the track. I said WTF....bang out a nice run! He did a great burnout, and my Marauder hooked up like i have never seen before, and it was gone....11.96 @114.78 MPH! I was stoked. Lid came back to the pits and was already tweaking the program, shifts werent where he wanted, and made the corrections in the program. He told me that he didnt ever go as hard as he could have on the run, then the biggest complement about the Marauder ever....he said it felt and pulled better, stronger than his own Marauder. We ended up not risking blowing trans fluid out the seal and ruining the track, but he said with a couple of tweaks and some cool weather, expect 11.5's easily...

Made it back to the shop and the seal held. Upon inspection and a special high speed balancing and corrections to the drive shaft, it was decided that the shaft wasnt balanced right, and was lopsided or something. The specialist corrected and balanced it and said that would never cause this again. New seal, some trans fluid and it was back together. Word of warning to any supercharged owner, either replace or have balanced correctly your stock shaft. I never felt any vibrations, ever...even at MIS on the oval doing 150+MPH for 15 minutes. Fortunately its a cheap thing to fix and done right will eliminate this from happening again.

The Mach 1 also ran a new best time..13.26 @ 102.43 MPH

A few pics from the day....

Mach 1 and her new widened rubber...hooked real nice too...
http://www.mercurymarauder.net/gallery/data/500/medium/Marauder_2653.JPG

http://www.mercurymarauder.net/gallery/data/500/medium/Marauder_2660.JPG

http://www.mercurymarauder.net/gallery/data/500/medium/Marauder_2659.JPG

http://www.mercurymarauder.net/gallery/data/500/medium/Marauder_2652.JPG

Mach 1 vs Caddilac STS He lost bigtime!
http://www.mercurymarauder.net/gallery/data/500/medium/Marauder_2656.JPG

[Tallboy]

Congratulations, Dave! An 11-second car is something to be quite proud of!:burnout:

[bigslim]

Cars run good. Nice times posted.

[CRUZTAKER]

mmmmm.....11's......:rolleyes:

Leave a trail of jelly beans so I don't get lost.;)

Nice job man. :up:

[stevengerard]

yeah baby - sub 12 congrats!

[MikesMerc]

Considering the less than optimal conditions, those times are even more impressive. Although I added significant rear wheel hp and tq this spring with some upgrades, I was still 2 tenths off my best times posted last fall. With better condtions, you'll easily be mid 11s.

Congrats :beer:

[MI2QWK4U]

It did feel good to see the car run in the 11's. makes the work and planning pay off! Now im not sure what to do with it. Dipping into the 11's was my biggest goal. Time to pick something else to play with i think.

[Smokie]

It did feel good to see the car run in the 11's..
Dave congratulations, you have a really fast car.:bows: But wouldn't mean more to you when you drive into the 11's???....then you can go play with your Mustang.:lol:

[MI2QWK4U]

Dave congratulations, you have a really fast car.:bows: But wouldn't mean more to you when you drive into the 11's???....then you can go play with your Mustang.:lol:


Absolutely, It was killing me to let it sit, but I didnt see any reason to push things, possibly hurt it more, and more importantly, mess up the track for other drivers. Its obvious to me that if Lidio didnt even run it 100% that there is more left in it, we will work to fine tune it more and get to some lower times. I have learned how to launch the car, and that is the hard thing to do with a hotter tuned trilogy car. I already know this, I was the only one to run the Trilogy #1 car to its all time best time on street tires, 12.4. Hanging around Lidio has its good points, I learn something about driving every time we go to the track! So while I am nowhere near the driver that Lid is, I am good enough to launch my beast and pull down a lower number in the 11's.

PS...The Mach 1 began its "go crazy fast" mods today. She wants to run 10's like another local Mach 1!

[STLR FN]

Great times on the Merc. Still don't see what all the hoopla is. :rolleyes: