TripleTransAm
07-12-2003, 01:52 PM
So, if I hadn't had that extra pancake in the morning... or that third glass of water... or if I didn't have my camera equipment in the car... or had a full tank of gas....
if... if... if... if....
... I might have actually broken into the 14s with my totally bone stock Marauder.
For now, I'll have to be content with a 15.096 @ 94.943 mph, at exactly 1:30 pm this afternoon. Almost 95 mph in this huge barge. Damn! That's haulin'! I hot lapped that car for hours, and 15.1x times came spitting out of the timing printer like it was a Xerox. Honestly, most of the time, there was no more than 3 minutes between my runs, it was that empty.
And the best part is that my best MPH of the day came on my first run: 95.503 mph. Doing a quick calculation based on the mph, I'm getting a result of 303-305 hp. I think all horsies are present and accounted for on this car!
Best 60' time was 2.320. Not great. I tried variations on launching... torquing up the converter while holding the brakes, nailing it out of the hole from idle, deep staging, shallow staging, you name it... the soft bottom end on stock Marauders is most evident at WOT from a complete stop, which is disappointing because in 99.9% of normal city stop-and-go situations, this lack of low end is not that apparent at all! It actually moves quite nicely. So, a little more bottom end oomph would most likely shave at least a tenth off that 60' time.
My technique:
(disclaimer: not saying this IS the best way to launch a Marauder on the track, it just happened to be how I got MY best run. Track conditions may vary, atmospheric conditions may vary, etc.etc.)
My best run came just after a short break in the hot lapping, where I let the car sit with the hood up for about 20 minutes. I left the OD on, A/C off, radio off, T/C off, punching it from idle, manually shifting to 2nd such that it shifted at about 5800 RPM, then putting it in 'D' after the 1-2 shift. A hint of wheelspin off the line, and a VERY cool BARK on the 1-2 shift...
The 1-2 bark from the rear happened on EVERY run. Way cool. I had a bunch of spectators come up and make a note of that consistent 1-2 upshift!
Most fun run of the day: beating a late model Mustang GT all done up with a monster tachometer + shift light, tons of racing stickers, etc. by 4 hundredths of a second. It was also on that run that I got my best reaction time: .682 (or .182 off a redlight). Other than that, the Marauder was tough to launch on time... it seemed to take forever to settle back on its rear suspension and GO! Traction was also occasionally a problem until I started heating up the BFGs a little before each run, then it was just a hint of hazing.
Overall, a very impressive machine. Mercury gets 4 thumbs up for the execution of this machine, and if the 2004s are going to be better, well that's just unbelievable for a sedan this size and this loaded. I'm at about 7300 miles, and with a little more break-in I'm sure I'll see 14s soon. (and still stock!)
if... if... if... if....
... I might have actually broken into the 14s with my totally bone stock Marauder.
For now, I'll have to be content with a 15.096 @ 94.943 mph, at exactly 1:30 pm this afternoon. Almost 95 mph in this huge barge. Damn! That's haulin'! I hot lapped that car for hours, and 15.1x times came spitting out of the timing printer like it was a Xerox. Honestly, most of the time, there was no more than 3 minutes between my runs, it was that empty.
And the best part is that my best MPH of the day came on my first run: 95.503 mph. Doing a quick calculation based on the mph, I'm getting a result of 303-305 hp. I think all horsies are present and accounted for on this car!
Best 60' time was 2.320. Not great. I tried variations on launching... torquing up the converter while holding the brakes, nailing it out of the hole from idle, deep staging, shallow staging, you name it... the soft bottom end on stock Marauders is most evident at WOT from a complete stop, which is disappointing because in 99.9% of normal city stop-and-go situations, this lack of low end is not that apparent at all! It actually moves quite nicely. So, a little more bottom end oomph would most likely shave at least a tenth off that 60' time.
My technique:
(disclaimer: not saying this IS the best way to launch a Marauder on the track, it just happened to be how I got MY best run. Track conditions may vary, atmospheric conditions may vary, etc.etc.)
My best run came just after a short break in the hot lapping, where I let the car sit with the hood up for about 20 minutes. I left the OD on, A/C off, radio off, T/C off, punching it from idle, manually shifting to 2nd such that it shifted at about 5800 RPM, then putting it in 'D' after the 1-2 shift. A hint of wheelspin off the line, and a VERY cool BARK on the 1-2 shift...
The 1-2 bark from the rear happened on EVERY run. Way cool. I had a bunch of spectators come up and make a note of that consistent 1-2 upshift!
Most fun run of the day: beating a late model Mustang GT all done up with a monster tachometer + shift light, tons of racing stickers, etc. by 4 hundredths of a second. It was also on that run that I got my best reaction time: .682 (or .182 off a redlight). Other than that, the Marauder was tough to launch on time... it seemed to take forever to settle back on its rear suspension and GO! Traction was also occasionally a problem until I started heating up the BFGs a little before each run, then it was just a hint of hazing.
Overall, a very impressive machine. Mercury gets 4 thumbs up for the execution of this machine, and if the 2004s are going to be better, well that's just unbelievable for a sedan this size and this loaded. I'm at about 7300 miles, and with a little more break-in I'm sure I'll see 14s soon. (and still stock!)