I know a lot of people have been talking about the Sierra Sierra Enterprises Evo time attack car. Just look at the thing though. It really has quite the presence between the awesome graphics scheme and that menacing aero. To me this car looks JDM. That statement probably makes no sense to most of you, but for those who kind of see it too, you’ll understand what I’m saying. I love it when race cars can be fashionable and blow away the competition at the same time.

I think Voltex body kits should be considered art rather than performance aero. The facelift the Voltex front end gives to the Unlimited Works Evo is epic. I was also wondering what’s up with the terrible pictures on Japanese shop sites and car blogs? I’m sure you’ve all noticed how bad the pictures are and the low level of quality. You would think the country that designs and builds the world’s leading cameras would be able to have sufficient photographs on their car websites. Those bronze CE28N’s are perfect by the way.

The Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution, colloquially known as the Lancer Evo or Evo[1] ,is a car manufactured by Mitsubishi Motors. There have been ten official versions to date, and the designation of each model is most commonly a roman numeral. All of them share a two litre, turbocharged engine and four-wheel drive system. Evolution models prior to version VII were the homologation models for Mitsubishi’s efforts in the World Rally Championship. In order to follow these rules, the Evolution was based on the same unibody as the Lancer.

There’s alot of nice evos at this yr’s spocom…Too bad my car didnt make it in time..

While there have been few entries for a while we have been quite busy getting the “new” Evo fitted out with more goodies.  One Saturday we laid out just about all the suspension pieces that we wanted to equip the car with.

That includes the Swift Spec R springs that we found to be such an advantage on the track.  Also a 25mm adjustable anti-roll bar (a.k.a, anti-sway) from Road Race Engineering.  The folks from Whiteline make an essential pair of kits to restore the roll center in the front suspension after lowering and a bump-steer fix for the rear suspension.  It was also time to install the front fender braces and upgrade the front anti-roll bar bushings.

There is nothing like having a garage and a lift at your disposal when executing a project like this and the first thing to do was to remove the wheels and tires from the car. This allowed easy access to the suspension pieces.

I started on the fender braces while a couple of friends tackled the rear anti-roll bar.

The first thing to do when installing the braces is to remove the front fenders and the first thing you have to do is remove the fender liner.  This consists of removing many push pins, a couple of scrivets (screw rivets), and one bolt.  Then you pull the liner out from under the wheel well.

From there you unbolt the bolts on the top of the fender and loosen the fasteners holding the headlight assembly. 

You also have to pop off the J-panel by the rear view mirror in order to get to one of the fender’s bolts.

Another bolt is accessible by opening the door.

Finally there are two bolts at the bottom of the fender as you pry back the rocker panel.

After all those fasteners are taken care of you should be able to pull off the fender.  It helps to have some extra hands so that things don’t get scratched or bent.  The fender is very light since it is made from aluminum.

That exposes the area behind the fender and that is where the fender braces are mounted. 

It is best to keep the car’s door closed as you must remove three bolts on the door’s hinge and then bolt the brace using those bolts.  Later you should test how the door latches and adjust the hinges if necessary.

Then you need to drill two holes for the two Allen-head bolts at the front of the brace.  You can also install the single Allen-head bolt using an existing hole in the subframe. 

With the holes drilled you install and tighten the bolts.  The result is a brace that will hide behind the fender and provide excellent stiffness to the chassis.

Meanwhile my friends were making progress with the rear bar.  We had to unbolt the shocks and rear hub so that the new bar could be exchanged with the factory bar. 

The new 25mm bar has stops welded in so that the bar won’t slide back and forth.

It also has a new mount that accommodates the added diameter and provides a strong anchor to deal with all the torque the new bar will have to sustain.

The bar is adjustable with three positions to choose from.  I am starting with the softest setting since my other modifications will provide the rotation I need.  That leaves plenty of roll stiffness I can add in later if I need it.

With the new bar in place it was time to replace the stock springs with the Swift Spec R springs.  I had found these springs to be just fantastic on the road course.  They may not be as exotic as coil-overs, but they worked exceptionally well to keep the tires planted and transferring power to the track surface.  They really complemented the factory Bilsteins.

The rear springs were mounted over the shocks so they were unbolted from the shock towers from inside the trunk.  Fortunately I had not fastened the trim panels and they just pulled out of the way allowing access to the top bolts.

With the shocks unbolted from the car they were put in the spring compressor and the new springs were exchanged.

With a little help from a suspension screw jack the lower arm was held up high enough to secure the shock bolt.

Before the front struts went through the same process a couple of other steps took place.

First, since the new rear bar now had Energy bushings to rotate on the front bar was unbolted so that new Energy bushing could be swapped out for the factory rubber bushings.

The front bar did not have to be removed to get the new bushings installed.  The Energy bushings were liberally coated with synthetic grease and popped into place and then the bushing clamps were bolted into place. 

The description above makes this process sound trivial, but believe me it was not.  The guys installing the entire new rear bar had a much easier time.  The front bar is best tackled using a lift in order to have access to everything and even then it is difficult.  The bar has to be unbolted from the control arms as well and here is where it was discovered that the optional brake deflectors were missing and the mounting brackets were bent.  Hmm, I wonder what happened to this car? 

Fortunately I had a nice set of carbon fiber brake deflectors that came with new brackets.  They fit and worked just as the factory ones had, just a lot more bling.

After getting the new roll bar bushings installed I pulled the lower control arms so I could fit a new set of arms that had the Whiteline ball joints installed.  Normally it would have been some extra steps to press out the factory ball joints and press in the Whiteline ball joints, but I had an extra set of control arms that I had done all that work to already.  That made it a simple job to swap out the lower control arms and attach the ball joint to the front hub. 

All the bolts were tightened to proper torque and the anti-roll bar was connected to the arms.  Then the new brake duct and brackets were installed.

The struts were unbolted and the Swift Spec R springs were installed using the shop spring compressor.

Finally the new Whiteline tie rod ends were swapped with the factory ones completing the roll center correction kit.

Next it was time for an alignment since everything was new or had been unbolted.  I also purchased new eccentric bolts, washers, lock washers, and nuts for the key suspension links in the rear.  The old ones were okay, but didn’t feel right was the nuts were loosened and tightened.  I didn’t want to save a few bucks only to end up like I did last fall with a stripped bolt.

The initial alignment went well.  I had ground the rear toe links just a little so that they had plenty of room for me to minimize toe. 

The new front tie rod ends were easy to adjust, as well.  Later I would work on perfecting the camber settings, but it was fine for now.

Today I took the first step in the transformation of the 2006 Evolution MR SE into something that will really show what an Evo can be.

Today I installed a trunk bar. 

It may not seem like much, but adding bracing to this already stiff chassis pays off dividends on the street as well as the road racing track.  Bracing means that dimensions stay consistent and that helps handling to be predictable and repeatable.

The trunk bar was a Mitsubishi part that came on the Evolution RS version.  The RS was a stripped down Evolution that had no air conditioning, no electric windows, etc.  It had the aluminum roof of the MR and added the trunk bar bracing.  That means that I can get a trunk bar from Mitsubishi parts and there are threaded holes just waiting to accept bolts to secure it in the trunk.

First I had to take out the trunk’s grey mat as well as the board that covers the spare tire well.  Then I had to pop off the plastic panel that covers the rear of the trunk.  This is where a trim tool comes in handy.  Luckily they are easy to find at auto parts stores and tool stores as well.  With the rear cover off I had to loosen the fuzzy panels that cover the sides of the trunk.  These are held in with push pins that are a little tricky to get out.  In the center is a pin that you need to push on.  The trick is to push it just enough to loosen the pin clip and not push the center pin all the way through.  Chances are that you will push the center pin all the way through so you may want to order a handful of those fasteners when you order the trunk bar and bolts from Mitsubishi.

With those out of the way you will find two plastic disks covering the threaded bolt holes in the trunk.  Peal them off and throw them away.  Then lay down your trunk bar and add the bolts.  Tighten it down firmly.

Now you need to trim the spare tire cover since it is too long to drop past the trunk bar.  I used a scroll saw and copied the hand hold of the original just moving everything back from the bar.

You will also need to trim the plastic panel since it is too long to go on.  I cut mine down with a jig saw.  Trim a little at a time and you will get it just right.  Whack off a bunch all at once and you will either get lucky or end up buying another panel from Mitsubishi.  The fuzzy panels can be trimmed with a good pair of scissors.  Again, go slowly since it is easier to take away than to put back. 

When you are done it will look like something the factory did and you will have added some important stiffness to the chassis.

Next I’ll work on the rear strut brace.

I’m sorry but regardless of how the Evo X looks, the Evo IX with Voltex aero will remain king.

Y que mejor estampa que la madrileña Plaza de Toros de las Ventas para culminar con la edición de 2009. Una gran cantidad de vehículos se dieron cita a los aledaños de las Ventas para poner el broche final a esta fiesta del automovilismo madrileño. Si alguno pudísteis acudir ayer por la tarde, entenderéis de lo que hablo.

En tercera posición quedaron José Marbán e Iñaki Paez con su Peugeot 206 WRC. En el segundo puesto del podio se situaron Israel García y Vanesa Valle con su Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution VII. Los vencedores, a más de un minuto de distancia del Evo, fueron Alberto Monarri y Alberto Chamorro con un flamante Opel Corsa S1600. Enhorabuena a los campeones, y enhorabuena al resto de participantes y a la organización por lograr mantener viva la llama del automovilismo dentro de nuestra comunidad.

Lo prometido es deuda, así que aquí os dejo unas fotografías y un vídeo de la estampa que tuvo lugar ayer a escasos minutos del pleno centro de Madrid.

Coche frente a Las Ventas. Fotografía: Carlos Ruiz

Rallye + Toros. Fotografía: Carlos Ruiz

Audi S1 Quattro. Fotografía: Carlos Ruiz

Peugeot 206 y Porsche. Fotografía: Carlos Ruiz

Mitsubishi Lancer Evo VII que obtuvo la segunda posición. Fotografía: Carlos Ruiz

Evo IX Vs. Evo VII. Fotografía: Carlos Ruiz

Alfa Romeo y Porsche. Fotografía: Carlos Ruiz

Good evening and welcome to my blog. I will be using this as means to post news regarding the tuning industry, to feature cars and events, posting information about my team/crew I roll with,  things I think are cool that I find related to tuning and thoughts about certain things tuning related, and other stuff along those lines.

Here is a video that I found from a JDM Insider episode that really gets my adrenaline pumping.

Be on the look out for two big posts coming within the next week. This coming weekend is packed with VIP Access to the AJC Int’l Auto Show and a feature on a local’s stealthy Evo IX MR.

Until next time…

I wanted to look at some Evo’s tonight so I decided the browse EvolutionM. Here’s one of the nice ones that I came across. It’s a Evo IX RS that belongs to board member “DannyIx”. Sometimes it’s nice to enjoy the simplicity of things and that’s the case here. Nothing much going on on the outside because stance and wheels are more important than fancy exterior mods. The wheels are CCW C14, 18×10, and tires are Bridgestone 265/35/18 RE-01R. I think the wingless look fits this particular car very well and makes it even more simple and clean.

Mitsubishi Evo’s are one of the greatest rally cars that have been adapted for road use. Not only do a large amount of them have 2 L engines but they are usually bought by the boy racer types! In the first video it shows a prime example of how to do a U-turn… NOT.

I suppose if you wanted to try and look cool this would be the perfect way to do a U-turn. But with the wheel spin and over turn on the U-turn I really do not think this is cool at all! Oh well maybe when you try it again it will look better. But wait it does get better. I am unsure if these guys are the same people but they choose to race another Evo IX, big mistake.

Not only were they speeding but they were stupid enough to race on a main road. Lets just say they got shown up as the other racer who did not go as fast as he probably saw the cop car behind them. Wonder how much they got fined? They did however execute a better U-turn!

911 (997) GT3 vs Nismo Z380RS vs Mine’s Z vs Evo IX vs NSX-R is another great line up of racing here. Again Euro vs JDM cars. Enjoy!