Sorry to hear of your loss.

More importantly, I'm highly impressed with your maturity in saying that it was your own fault - NOT Mitsu's fault.

If we had more people who took responsibility for thrashing their EVO's like you, we'd have a fourth of the "whine" posts this board gets every day.

Good luck with repairing your ride! I'll look forward to hearing more from your future runs and fun with your Evolution!

 

I don't know if it will make you feel any better, but I have seen countless RWD FD RX7's destroy there torsen diffs at the drag strip, mainly due to wheel hop. The issue was resolved by a combination of the methods already mentioned in this thread:

heavy duty race diff, stiffer suspension/mounts, etc.

Good luck, we all feel your pain.

Blonde, I am sure we would all be interested to hear about what options are available regarding the front diff. Thanks

 

well,

i am sorry to say that there are many options out there but non of them will fit inside the usdm evo without serious mods due to a different transfer case. like i told chris on the phone, the best bet would be to check some places in the UK for used transfer cases from evo 5-8 which SHOULD bolt in without major mods. all this info was recieved from talking to a few different tuners both from the us and japan but i might be wrong...

 

Jesus Christ guys!!!!! Do you read this website and can you understand what you read????? 80% of the people you see modifying their EVOs are adding huge amounts of horsepower for generally one thing - drag racing Do you think those mods are for your local SCCA or parking lot gymkhana's??? The EVO is a fantastic car with incredible handling. We all love to show that off, but in most of the high performance communities at our spending level, the name of the game is quarter mile times. I have not seen one lap time listed on this site. Saying you should not drag race EVO's is like saying you buy Playboys for the articles!!! Plus if you pay $30,000 thousand for a performance car, it should be your choice of how you utilize that performance.

 

well,

i don't mean to start a flame war with you or anything like that but take a step back and think about what you are saying. just because 90% of the owners drag race their cars does not mean that the car was built for drag race. i am not inventing the wheel by saying that when you drag a AWD car, most of the beating goes on the drivetrain becuase you don't have the tires to take some of it off. i agree with you that it is the OWNER choice of what to do with his car but on the same note, using the car for something that is not good for it and them blame the car or when it brakes is just plain STUPID. at least Chris had the ***** to step up to the plate and take the blame for what happend which is more than i can say for 90% of the members here. also, how come you don't see a lot of porsches on the drag strip but you do see **** load of them on the SCCA front and at you local autox? its not like their cars are cheaper.

bottom line,

if you want to play you got to pay.

 

Blonde,

I don't entirely disagree with you about people not taking responsibility for what you do when they drag race the EVO. It is just the fact that you can buy a $30,000 car spend $3000 additional and run door handle for door handle with a $56,000 ZO6 or dust off a Cobra Mustang. Your handling and brakes are as good as or better and of the Porsches you could kill any model except a recent turbo. The reason you don't generally see Porsches at the drag strip is most are owned by Yuppies who only try to humiliate people at stoplights. They don't generally hang out with the drag strip crowd and the few that might don't want to risk a $20,000 engine or transmission instead of a $2500 transfer case. With the exception of the turbo, they don't even perform that well in the quarter - usually mid 13's.

We are running a car that has phenomenal performance either on the strip or on the track, but in the states you see a heck of a lot more drag racing than road racing in our price range.

 

Hey Avatar, I am guessing the dealer is doing the work for you?
Since this already cost you one diff, you may want to look into the "shim" thing on the new diff. If it is not set correctly it will not last again. Someone said above they are on their second one already. Most shops have at least one good tranny/diff guy that could check it before it is installed. May be worth it in the long run.

I am starting to think that when the day comes to replace the clutch, I will have the diff setup checked. Fortunately, my friend who has a lift also happens to have a father that is a guru of diff setup. Probably worth the time to check it while it's out.
Also, the one that is broken probably broke teeth and still could be checked for it's setup to see if it was out of spec.

 

Well I would tend to disagree with you here, from what I have read (especially in the suspension section), a lot of EVO owners like myself spend a great deal of time on road courses. I have posted lap times FWIW, but since every road course is different, lap times don't mean much to the majority of people, so.... My best lap time at MSR when my EVO was bone stock is 1:29.3, does that mean anything to you?
I don't think many here have any beef with people drag racing these cars, it's kind of cool to see what is possible. I think they were commenting more about people who abuse the hell out of these cars (stock or modified) and then are shocked, amazed, and angry when something breaks. Especially when they jump on these forums and start blaming the manufacturer for all there troubles.

Personally my goal is to make my car competetive on at least tight road courses with cars like the ZO6. On my local track (road course), Bone stock, I am about 2 seconds behind a similiarly skilled driver in a ZO6. I figure around low/mid 300WHP and a few suspension tweaks, maybe a little more rubber, and I should be there. If done properly, I think this can be achieved with a reasonable amount of reliability, but irregardless;
People like us who modify and/or race cars (any car), can fit into two groups: Those who have already damaged there car in one way or another and probably will again, and those who are about too.
Hence the saying "if you play you pay"

I have personally seen bone stock Vetts/ZO6's, Vipers, and even Supra's pop motors, tranny's, etc, road and/or drag racing. There is just no such thing as a truly bullet proof machine. Before any one jumps on here and starts spouting about how they have XXXXX and it never had a problem, well consider your self lucky, you fall into the latter group.

 

i agree with the above statment

 

Couldn't say it better

 

Did buy the transfer case already? if not I can get you an almost brand new unit for much less. Call the shop tomorrow and talk to me or Kris if you're interested. BTW what kind of tire pressure where you running at the track when it broke.

Martin

 

HaHaHaHa......The things people do to get their car down the 1/4 faster and faster. But in the end what do you get...Money? NO...Fame? Not really...Girls? Never heard that one...Hmmm...Oh yes! you get the feeling of "I turned a high 13 second car into a low 12 second beast because the factory couldn't and I enjoy tuning my car like I used to play with LEGO's, building and building for countless hours to build better and better." Too bad, it's an expensive hobby to build a fast car. But it's fun till the car breaks. Well time to build it better so next time it won't break.

 

Funny comments coming from alot of different point of views.

I have a few myself.

"The EVO is not a drag car". "Get a RWD if you want to drag race." I have an EVO, WRX, quite a few powerful RWD's and countless DSM's over the years.

I was told my Centerforce Clutches that the DSM was not a drag car back when I started with them in 1989. I was trying to get them to build a better clutch for me. Eventually they built a killer combo for the car.

I am glad I didn't listen to their theory about AWD not being for drag racing. Had I done that I would still be busting my *** in a steel mill.

I will gaurantee you all one thing. There will be more EVO's taken to drag strips across this country than will ever be taken to autocross's and road courses. Why? Number one, dragstrips are open 3-4 times per week. Cheap, easy and great fun. Another reason is all dragstrips are a 1/4 mile and straight. You say, "So what?" Well you can quote your times from Sears Point all day. Problem is it is fairly impossible for other guys to compare their times to what you have. How do you compare your road course times with someone else's that lives somewhere else? You don't. Until there are identical road courses for people to compete at across the country there is not way for a wide group of people to compare times/driver skill etc. This brings us to the drag strip being straight and the same length. We can all compare what we have accomplished since the tracks are all the same.

This car compared to the old DSM's are no comparison. The build quality is far superior, the strength of the drivetrain is MUCH better.

As for the RWD thing. NO factory production RWD car currently built is going to hold up any better than the EVO does. As soon as you add the traction the EVO has (slicks on a RWD) and then up the power as much as you have on the EVO (50%) in our case you are going to be breaking axles, posi units, tranmissions, rear gears etc. I know this for a fact, I have been racing RWD's now for 21 years. My Firebird has 6,000 miles on it. New it made 286 hp to the wheels, it now makes 341. I have been through 2 sets of gears and one posi unit in that car. I have now installed a $2,000 aftermarket 12 bolt rear end in it. The transmission was also rebuilt once. I also have a turbo Buick, this car was built to run from the factory. Problem is the trans in this won't hold up either. In order to get it to really hold up it will cost you about $2500, I have done this....twice. The rear end in the car is super strong though. I have seen quite a few break along with driveshafts, it is rare and takes alot of power.

Anyway, bottom line is this. If you are going to race anything it is going to break it. Even the my tube chassis race car breaks and it has the best parts you can buy in it. Go out and race your EVO however you want to. You want to get dizzy driving the car in circles...........DO IT! You want to launch it from 7500 rpm DO IT!!

You bought it, you have the exclusive right to drive it however you damn well please.

David Buschur
www.buschurracing.com

 

 

Nice post, David.

Go to any normal domestic board and you'll see drag racers breaking drivetrain parts left and right. I personally know 3 or 4 people that have shattered their spider gears in their F-Body's 10-bolt. I've watched plenty of IRS Cobra guys snap half-shafts like twigs. Let's not even begin to talk about all of the people I've seen break shifter forks or just plain dump their T-45/T5 trannies.

You've got to pay to play. For some reason, the less initiated and drag-experienced Import crowd (Not a flame, just a general observation) gets much more upset when parts start to go "BOOM."