When you think of someone saying that they are taking their car to the track, you might not think of it being a Trailblazer. Then again you might not think of a Trailblazer to have a 400 hp LS2 wedged under the hood. But this is a Trailblazer SS model. And as we do with all of our projects, we took this one to get some passes down the track.
It's one thing to be taking a new car to the track for the first time. That was the case for our Creative Director, Eric Schumacher. Eric was piloting his Trailblazer SS down the track for the first time and pulled up to the line with confidence that wouldn’t be matched...
Eric's Trailblazer isn't stock. It's got Kooks headers, a Kooks Y-pipe, and a Corsa Touring exhaust system. An HP Tuners tune gets it all to work together at maximum horsepower and gets rid of the check engine light. We've also installed a full blown NOS LS2 nitrous sytem, and we will use these runs as a baseline.
The downside. It was 105+ degrees heat. Not optimum conditions for any performance.
The first run didn't go so well, and included a horrible reaction time. When .100-.200 is good, Eric's R/T of 1.006 showed he isn't going to be driving Pro Stock any time soon. The 60’ time of 2.139 was followed by a 9.40 at 77.74 mph on the eighth mile. Eric left pretty easy and this equated to a 14.57.
Not bad for a part-throttle run in 100+ degree temperatures. “It went as planned,” Eric said, “it's got more in it though.”
After the first run it became hard to keep him off the track. It was like watching a kid play at the playground. Eric made 5 more passes in the SS trying different setups and driving techniques. After adjusting tire pressure and working down his R/T, Eric ran a personal best of 9.008 at 79.97 just missing the eight-second mark, about a 13.90 in the 1/4 mile. We estimate the DA correction to be at just over 3000 feet with that kind of heat. That correction factor values in at an 8.67 E.T at 82.95 MPH which equates to a 13.4 ET. Not bad for a 4500+ pound truck with only exhaust and a tune!
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