Good luck dave .

 

Stock turbo huh? Im sure you read the article (and im sure you have more info than that) But Vishnu put down an 11.6 1/4 and the car kicked a$$ in the road course but the Evo's time got SCRAPED by the "real" sports cars on the overall lap times if you look at it. I know they broke it down into 2 seperate classes but i know we would all like to see our lil evo win hands down. Don't know if that is a real possibiltiy, but id like to think a Bushur EVo could be the one to do it!! Good luck!!! (Do some top end work!!)

 

The Evo will never run with the "big dogs" on the top end, and still have a chance to come out a class winner. They will have to choose their battles for the win.

 

Shiv is invited, not sure if he will show up. The event is in Michigan this time.

The RS has a ported and clipped 10.5, ti/al turbo on it right now. I am going back on the dyno next week I hope with some ideas on this boost issue. IF I can maintain higher boost to redline I will more than likely keep this turbo on the car for the event.

David Buschur
www.buschurracing.com

 

I saw the event Shiv ran the 11.6 at. I have read it time and time again in the last few weeks since being invited to this.

I am looking at this event as I should, as a business man/car builder. There are ALOT of rules for running this event. I believe the sheet they sent me with the rules is about 6 pages if I remember right. Spec tires, spec 93 OCTANE fuel, how much fuel is allowed to be in the fuel tank when you show up with the car, when the car has to be put into compound, what is allowed for suspension adjustments etc.

Some interesting things that I see. (Deleted my first big thing as I have no proof)

C&D take each car out the day before the event and drive it. Judge how it rides, driveability, handling etc., all seat of the pants.

The car has to show up with less than a 1/4 tank of fuel. They fill it with 93 octane from there. End of the ride and drive portion it is then locked up at the track for the night and refilled the next day with 93 octane again.

NO alky, NO water, NO race gas allowed. Was not allowed in ANY of the past events either. (my belief is there has been some cheating going on in the past).

A few other things I want to interject here. This year they want cats on the cars. They want to be able to atleast say to the readers that the car has some chance of passing an emmision test. They are going to do a tail pipe IM240 test on the cars.

Must run a spec tire with a brand in the sidewall from Tire Rack also. The cars will have a decibel reading done on them too. If you fail it you get a penatly on your time too.

I asked about "cheating" and was told that there is no checking of fuel or hidden go fast parts. The magazine considers this event a gentlemen's challenge and feels everyone should follow the rules. I agree 100%. Looking at some of the types of cars that have run in the past events and times that were turned and boost levels that were run..........I feel some guys don't stick to what is expected of them.

They told me, go ahead and cheat (basically) just remember when a customer calls you and says I want to go 10's on pump gas that they are going to expect to be able to duplicate what you did. Completely understandable to me. That is why what we advertise for times on our Staged upgrades have been beaten in every single Stage by our own customers.

Anyway. I would love to go there and take home the win on this. Be the number one car. Do I think it is possible. Sure it is. Problem I see is when it is all done you are going to have a purpose built race EVO that would cost a customer $25,000+ to build and duplicate. I'm not sure how many sales calls I am going to get from something like that. My thought is to build a car that does everything really well and nothing absolutely perfectly.

With all of this said if your car absolutely SUCKS on the ride and drive it makes no difference on your times or if you win or loose the event. The event winner is the quickest guy to complete the course.

The smart thing to do to win is build a race car that passes the decibel test. The hell with everything else. Maybe not.....who wants to drive a race car everday on the street?

My plan is kind of this:

Stage 4 is $3900 retail.
AEM EMS is $2400.
Our throttlebody, ported exhaust parts, ceramic coating and turbo mods are $750.

With the car like this on 94 octane I made 387 whp. Our '03 EVO on race gas made 390 and was absolutely full weight other than the front bumper, spare tire and the weight you save with our Stage 4, the car ran 11.65 at 117.8 mph. The RS is already lighter than our '03 was. I am working hard at finding what weight I can without destroying the car or cutting any part on it. Wheels, our parts etc. I am thinking the performance will be about the same on pump gas as our old '03 turned on race gas.

Part of the event includes hitting 150 mph and then braking to 0. If all the cars can't hit 150 they drop the top speed down to 140 or 130. I know for a fact the EVO with Stage 4 can hit 150 mph with ease but can it do it fast enough? Something I need to time and see with the datalogger.

Can we win with a stock turbo'd EVO? I don't know. Would I like to go in with a fairly lightly modded EVO and win? Of course. Would I be happy with even 2nd or 3rd with a lightly modded EVO? I am going to say yes. I believe it would sell more parts.

You guys give me some input. Think of it from the side of a reader who doesn't own an EVO or has one and wants to modify it. Is a low cost of mods and placing 2nd or 3rd more appealing than a fortune spent for 1st place?

Looking forward to hearing what you have to say.

David Buschur
www.buschurracing.com

 

Dave you make a really good point especially from a business point of view. Most of the time I see these kinds of things in the mainstream car mags R&T, C&D, ect. you wind up with really cool civic that you would like to have if it didn't cost you $44k. I would definately package it in stages with the top stage being your entry. To get the most bang for the buck if there was some way that you could get a consistent top 3 finisher with between $10-$20k in mods or less. Right around $10k would be awesome. The other key to the philosphy is getting it done in a way that gives off livablity and reliablity to the judges. For the reader of the article its like why pay $65K for an M3 when for $37-$40k or less you can have a car that just flat out kicks *** and has four doors. Keep the car super clean looking just nice racing rims a kick *** sleeper. Best of luck man.

 

well here's one for you david.i had my evo modded to the the same mods as your stage 4 kit using your typical HKS/Greddy and other big name companys.another evo owner here in vegas has the BR stage 4.i've spent at least 2k more than him for the same mods as him.where the same!here i am with more money spent for nothing,just to say the crap was HKS buschur products rock,and i think they look alot better.i've parted the whole car out,and i'm ready to invest in buschur products 1-4 with alky kit.best bang for the buck in my opinion ,and that's what i really want when i spend my hard earn cash

 

The major appeal of the Evo is Bang for the Buck. With this in mind, I feel that you should enter your RS with the budget build. If you go with the "Ultimate Evo" mentality, you could probably count on 1 hand how many of those kits you'll sell. The fact is people with money to burn will buy a more expensive, faster car with "racing heritage", and build up from there. Even if your car wins outright, it will still be seen by the majority as "just some riced-out, POS Mitsubishi". Heck, MOST don't even know what an Evo is, let alone its racing heritage.

My vote is for your Stage 4 with flash, no EMS. Use the money from the EMS to get a good suspension setup. Consider some sort of rear diffuser for under the bumper cover to clean up the aerodynamics at higher speed. Slap on some lightweight wheels and maybe some 2 piece rotors for additional weight savings.

 

David quick question. As you know my manifold and stiff is on it's way. What are your turbo mods you are referencing above? I don't see it on your site and was looking when I was putting together my order. I saw you reference it earlier in this thread too and am interested in possibly doing it before I put the turbo back on. Let me know what my options are. Thanks


I agree with everyone above. I think the stage 4 approach is the way to go. Everytime you read these articles it's ***** to the walls mods that the average owner is not going to do. I think the Flash approach is a good idea because it lowers your mod cost significantly. If you think the AEM will maximize your mods and gain you that little bit extra then I would keep it. But if you can do without and still be happy with what it will run then I go flash. There are a lot of people who don't want to play around with the AEM or need it's capabilities. People see stuff like that in a magazine and think it is necessary to achieve what you achieved.
Just my opinion but I think a stage 4 with lightweight wheels, possibly rotors, JIC coilover suspension properly set up with a rear bar and you should be pretty well rounded going in.
C&D is not a like SCC, it has older readers and they are looking more for the clean package that is reliable. To sell to that crowd an 11.6 is very impressive if the car is well mannered to boot.

When is the test and when is the issue?

 

I have to agree on the Flash vs. AEM also... 90% of your target customer base is not going to opt. for the EMS... and when your talking about $2500, your average owner is going to see that blowing their entire (most will never even spend that much) suspension budget (or other mods).

 

I agree with the flash as well. Your stage 4 with a nice coilover setup and some wheels would be perfect. I can't speak for everyone, but most Evo owners will probably spend between 5 and 10K on mods when they are all done and do not need the AEM EMS. An affordable and reliable 11 second daily driver would be a great sell to most people. Good luck with your decisions!

 

I would say do stage 4 skip the aem and upgrade the turbo. This is the plan for my car, most people dont want to make the jump to a standalone ecu.

 

Dave,
Could you explain again why you are not going to bring your "A" game to this event? You have three different affordable turbo kits and you are not going to use them? Even if you did put $25,000 grand in mods in your car, your car's total cost would still be less than $53,000. That would still make your car the most affordable car in the event by FAR. You should show up to win not to sell parts. I'm sure the people that buy your parts would like to see what Buschur can do when placed in the national spotlight. We ALREADY know what the stage 4 can do. Just bringing a stage four seems almost like a copout. Sort of like: "We knew we couldn't win, so we just brought out a typical customer setup to sell parts."

The stock turbo is great for everything but ONE event: 0 - 150 miles per hour. It seems in that event you will lose so many seconds, that you will simply get eaten alive out there by the 700 to 800hp monsters that fill this event. This is not the Superfour Challenge, these are the big boys. I'm sure Car & Driver expects you to bring the fastest car you can develop under the rules established.

 

If you are sticking with the AEM EMS, get the GM boost solenoid, and use the AEM to control the boost. It is hands down the best "raw" electronic boost control out there.... with the worst feedback system out there if you don't get the raw base map set up correctly.

Personally I think you should go with the flash and the BR 500 with ball bearing option since this is a pump gas event. Think about it.... same cost as the EMS, but more power..... who can argue with that?

Keith

 

Swap the AEM EMS out for the BR 500 with ball bearing option with a flash and I would also do every suspension tweak that you sell as well as the stage 4 power upgrades.....

Keith