Let’s go back in time  little, way back to October 1992.  John Major was Prime Minister in the UK, nobody had even heard of Barack Obama, and your dear website owner had just started secondary school life.  But elsewhere, in lands foreign to… well anyone who’s not from there(!), there was was an evolution taking place.  But I’m not talking about a theory of evolution, the likes of which were put forward by Charles Darwin in the Galapagos Islands.  This evolution was taking place in the Far East, and was a Lancer Evolution, designed by the people at Mitsubishi.

The sole reason the Lancer Evolution was mass-produced at all was so that Mitsubishi could enter it into the World Rally Championship (rules demanded that a model entering the WRC should have at least 5,000 cars available to the general public).  Hence the 244-hp Lancer Evolution I was born, and was to start a series of cars based on what will go down as one of the most successful and capable engines of all time; the 4G63.

So now let’s scoot forward to February 2007.  I’d just spent almost all of the previous day in the car.  About 7-8 hours of driving and fighting traffic had tired me (and unknown to me at the time, my car) out.  Went to pull out of my apartment parking area and heard a grinding noise and the car lurched forward a little.  Got out and was horrified to see the front passenger side wheel of my car hanging off, and the driveshaft had become separated completely.  This, despite my mechanical ineptitude, I determined to not be a good sign.  This was confirmed when mechanics looked at my car and said I had better get a new car as this one was basically written off.

So, out with the old 660cc Mazda Carol and in with the new, a 2000cc turbocharged Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution GSR.  This was the first time I had driven any sort of performance car (my previous ones being a 1973 VW Beetle and a 1979 MG Midget), and it did feel fun.  It was already upgraded with Cusco coilover suspension, a 1.5-way differential, 16G/18B hybrid turbo and HKS air filter and was very quick.  But what I didn’t realise at this time was that the  buying of a car like this wouldn’t be the end of things.  It would just be the beginning of a long and very expensive pathway to make my car more fun and even quicker.

Two years have passed since then and my car is almost a completely different beast to what it was when I bought it.  I’ll give you a brief guide to the flow of the car and will then give its full specs at the end of this page.  So we’ll start with air.  Cars, as humans, need a good supply of clean air to be able to live.  Clean air here is provided by 2 cold air intakes going into an Apexi Power Intake.  This then flows down a Forced Performance 4″ intake and into the Bullseye Power T04B 50-creating 1.6bar of boost (see right).  The T04B was chosen over the T04E just because it fits into the engine bay that little bit easier.  The compressing of the air that the turbo does means it is now getting very hot.  To cool the temperatures and therefore increase the power my engine can make (like me, the heat makes the car lose a lot of power) the next thing the air hits is a Treadstone TRV185 vertical flow intercooler (see below).

The air, nice and cool once again, heads off to mix with a 75% methanol mix being sprayed in from a Devils Own Stage 2 alcohol injection kit (see left).  The methanol helps both cool the intake temperature a little as well as adding octane to the engine (think of it as having race gas on tap, ready whenever you need it).  This then hits the engine where it meets fuel provided by 7FIC 750cc injectors.  The air/fuel/methanol combination is then greeted by a pair of Serious Street cams made by Comp Cams.  The engine is making a fair bit of power and so has a set of ARP headstuds and a HKS 1.2mm headgasket to help keep things together.

Once all the black magic inside the engine has gone on, the gases then pass through a Punishment Racing tubular manifold manifold and through a decat-ed exhaust system, exiting via a HKS Hi-Power muffler.  Power is nothing without control as one of the major sports companies say, and so to help control the power I am putting down I’m using Project Mu B-Spec pads all around, and Project Mu SCR Pure Plus 6 rotors at the front.  Cusco coilovers and strut bars (front upper & lower, and rear) help to stabilize the car in corners.  And to get all the power and responsiveness from the car to the road I have a set of 255/50/R16 Bridgestone Poteza RE-01 tyres.

Controlling all of this is an Ostrich chip emulator hooked up to my stock ECU.  This in turn is controlled by a laptop running the Tunerpro RT software, which allows me to change almost any aspect of the ECU.  And to help tune and monitor the car’s health, I am using the Pocketlogger software along with Boost, oil pressure, oil temperature, water temperature and exhaust gas temperature gauges (from Defi, Autometer and Greddy).  And then finally to make me a little more comfortable when I’m driving I have a Recaro Millennium seat and a Sabelt 4-point harness.

The car has done me pretty well so far, although it has had a few problems (not surprising with a performance car that is now 17 years old. ), but when it runs it runs quickly!  I’ve taken part in 3 drag race tournaments so far in Okinawa, my best performance to date coming in the Zetalube Drags in October 2008 at Nago Circuit, where I came 2nd in class.  Not bad considering the other cars and the money put into them.  My Apexi Rev/Speed meter has peaked at 452ps/446whp which is pretty impressive.  Even if that isn’t accurate, since that has been in the car I’ve gained over 150ps in power through upgrades and tuning, which should give you an idea of the power I’m making over a stock Evo.  I’ve also clocked a best 1/4 mile time of 11.68s.  I can definitely go quicker than that though and feel that an 11.5s pass is only a matter of time.

I’ve also had my car featured in the Readers’ Rides section of Super Street magazine which I was pretty pleased with too as they seemed to like it (see below).

And that’s about it for now.  No huge upgrades are planned for now as I’m happy with the way it’s running and how quick it is.  Many thanks must go Speed Factory and Jade Performance here in Okinawa for helping to make me a damn quick car.  If you’ve any comments or questions about my setup, let me know

Car specs

1992 Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution GSR (AWD)

Intake

Apexi Power Intake
Forced Performance 4″ intake
Bullseye T04B 50-trim turbo
Custom-made intercooler piping (60mm to intercooler, 70mm to intake manifold)
Treadstone vertical flow intercooler
Greddy Type S BOV

Engine

Fuel Injector Clinic 750cc injectors
Devils’ Own Stage 2 methanol injection system
Comp Cams 264
HKS 1.2mm headgasket
ARP headstuds
Battery relocation kit

Exhaust

Puishment Racing manifold
Evo III ported O2 housing
Mitsubishi Eclipse downpipe
Decat
HKS Hi-power muffler

Drivetrain

Centerforce Dual Friction clutch
Fidanza lightened flywheel
Stainless steel clutchline

Electronics

Blitz Dual SBC Spec S boost controller
Ostrich 1.0 chip emulator connected to standard ECU (using Tunerpro software)
Defi gauges (oil temperature, EGT, boost)
Greddy water temperature gauge
Autometer oil pressure gauge
Summit Racing shift light
UEM Uego Wideband
Pocketlogger datalogging system

Handling

Cusco Zero-2R coilover suspension
Project Mu SCR Pure Plus 6 front brake discs
Project Mu B-Spec pads (front & rear)
Cusco Brake Stopper
Strut bars (front & rear, upper & lower)
Bridgestone Potenza RE-01 tyres
Ralliart engine mounts