How bout you tell every1 how to keep the pump from failing?? lol - I think we all want to know!!

 

The cover is great because the gtr really did only win by default.

 

Its funny they seemed to favor the APR car, wanted to see more pics of Tommy's car.

 

Dman, Tommy dude, you are my new Hero!!

You did really well. Come back next year, you have everyone's hope on your shoulder!!

The minute I read that your engine broke down, I almost jumped! I knew so well that John will slaughter everyone there on the road course!!

Anyway, but I am still curious on how the f**k did you make 30mpg on your gas economy with a sh*t load of horsepower???!!! Tell me the secret!!!

 

Seems far more previlent in Mitsubishi's though.


I dont have the DEC issue yet out here, so I cant wait to read it and see what happened.

 

Tommy's car had a few things that we prefer not to run for road course duty on our Evos:
Full tread tires, shaved tires work _much_ better.

Different wheel widths and offset front versus rear, this hurt us on the skid pad.

Damaged LF axle, the car had a big vibration on the skid pad, which limited how many laps that Dave Coleman could run. This problem was a major concern for us, and is the reason why we made every effort to put up a winning number on the first lap of the road course, as we were concerned that the axle would fail. The amount of vibration at 125+ mph was insane, and I was really surprised when the motor broke, as I was expecting the LF to have some sort of problem because it was shaking so bad, the LF is the loaded corner at the Streets of Willow, it is not a lot of fun pedaling an Evo as fast as one can waiting for impending doom...

Power delivery is like being hit in the back of the head with a shovel, drivability and throttle modulation could use improvement for road course duty, but I am still impressed with Martin's work at the drag strip. For a street car, all of Tommy P's hard work really shines, I am proud to be associated with his team.

 

I probably have pages of stories to tell from the event, I'll post them one at a time. I'll first start off by saying that is was great working with Tommy and John. I've been following Tommy's car and helping him along the way. The car is amazing and the attention to detail is incredible.

I had so much fun out there that I can't wait untill next year. We ran into problems and we all put our heads together and solved them, that was the best part of it all. Some highlights where tuning Tommy's car in LA highway traffic, following the 'Monster Truck' support vehicle down steep and curvy mountain roads on our mileage test, and the emotional breakdown/fix at the dragstrip. All of our hearts sank when the engine let go, and John did a great job bringing it back in one piece.

As far as the oil pump failure goes, there is nothing Tommy or his machinist did wrong. They took great measure in assembly of this motor and did everything correctly. There are some other factors that come into play to help prevent this and next time Tommy will be prepared. The ultimate fix is an external oil pump (dry sump), but there are some things like keeping the balance shaft (oil pump side) and not using thin oil that will help keep the oil pump live at high rpm's. Most of you don't have to worry about this as you will keep RPM's below 9K rpm's.
I'll save my first story for my next post


Long live CHOCODILES!!!

-Martin

 

We gotta talk about this next time I come in to the shop...

l8r)

 

Here is one, we had one of the stub shafts (driver's side) get stuck in the trans because the front diff had _shattered_ this left us unable to remove the remains of the transfer case ring gear and what was left of the front diff. Martin is under the car working feverishly (as our entire team was) and is so wrapped up in blasting Tommy's Evo apart he shouted at Tommy, "Whose f**king downpipe is on this damn car?!" Tommy replied,"Its _yours_ I got it from you!" Martin did not miss a beat,"Ohh, OK, it is no problem now, this downpipe comes right off like this..." and had it on the ground in minutes. Then Martin identifies the problem with the stub shaft, and proceeds to use my big hammer and drift to attempt to beat the stub shaft out of the remains of the diff. Martin is not a small guy, and he wailed on it for at least 5 minutes continuous, with our entire team shouting, take a break give someone else a try, but Martin would have none of it, and continued hammering. Finally it became clear we needed to rotate new people on the hammering detail, as we were getting nowhere fast, and our window of opportunity of getting back into the event was shrinking by the second. Finally our entire team beat the thing so hard the ring gear and diff just fell out on the ground, and we never got the stub shaft completely out. Then we installed the spare ring gear with stock front diff, and had to beat the freaking stub shaft back into the transfer case. As soon as we were pouring oil back into it I told the editors of the magazine that we were ready to go, and we ran the braking test with no downpipe and beat the Skyline. Then Martin saddled up and kicked everyone's *** with an amazing last chance pass down the 1/4 mile.

As we staffed that event with my personel from my road racing team, and we transported the Evo in our hauler and brought all of our normal spares and equipment that we use to support Kent Jordan, we were able to turn the entire job around in 45 minutes. Having the people and pieces in place with clear and concise communication within the team is the key to getting back on track when things go wrong. I can't wait till next year.

 

Congrats on your impressive performance. I was amazed that even though you didn't compete in the last 2 events, you still came in second! Your car has definitely given me, if not all Evo owners, some great incite and ideas of what our cars have the potential to be. I look forward to seeing you dominate the USCC next year!

 

I don't think you dissappointed anyone here. Your car looks awesome and apparently runs well too....minus the engine problems. I think you represented the Evo's well...and good luck for next year. I will be pulling for you.

Losing to a GTR-34...is not that bad......you didn't lose to a civic.....right

 

holy crap i didnt' know that happened.... you guys did the best quarter time with a stock diff and grindy bits plus a had to be messed up stub shaft?

 

What was the EVO's best quarter mile pass?

 

11.2 won in rolling start too, which means the response must be pretty good on this thing, which means the response on the skyline must have sucked *****.

 

Just picked up a copy of SCC. Great show. Good read.