As many of you are aware, the EVO comes stock with the import tuner look (that is the clear tail lights, the wing, the grille parts everywhere, the in your face intercooler, etc.). I guess some would term this the 'rice' look.

Some of you prefer this look, but there are quite a few owners who just hate this look. I have been trying to de-importunize my EVO over the summer. My test was to go to the local car wash place, wash my car and see how many people stop what they are doing to look at the EVO. I finally failed my test, no one noticed me!!! SUCCESS!!!! Not even the kids next to me licking their mustang clean.

My Evo now blends in as just another regular Joe Shmoe car. I'd take some pics but my digital camera broke (but you can find pics in previous posts of the on-going project). The list of visual mods are as follows:

- ditched the clear tail lights
- screen mesh over the front grille parts
- painted the intercooler black
- painted the hood vents & grille car color (silver)
- replaced trunk lid with a no-wing regular lancer trunk lid
- changed interior radio, buttons & climate controls lighting from green to red to match the instrument cluster

The total cost for these mods were $1100 + my time. That is quite expensive to get the car looking normal. I wish it came like that from the factory and people could spend their money ricing it up instead of me having to de-rice it.

Anyway, now that that the EVO tuning is no longer in its infancy, I can make my sleeper EVO go faster... Next projects will be power related...

 

You painted your intercooler .

I am no expert, but you may have decreased the cooling efficiency.
You may want to research this. There is a valid reason why it was bare metal...

 

post pix!

 

Should have bought an audi :P I plan to remove the tails for something less flashy but painting the intercooler c'mon!

 

You must realize that you are in a very small minority here. Most people who buy the Evo also like the Evo's styling the way it is. In that regard it should be easy to see why it would be a waste of time for them to offer a car prepped similarly to yours.

What you did was suit your Evo to your tastes. Thats a perfectly fine thing to do. But please don't, for even a second, think that you are de-ricing it by what you have done to it.

You put in an aftermarket radio to de-rice the Evo? Seems odd. How do you rationalize that changing the radio de-rices the car? Many people could argue that installing a stereo because it has matching button coloring is a ricey mod. Many people could argue that if you focus on the stereo before the hp, you are a ricer.

Painting the intercooler black decreases the performance of the intercooler. Putting a mesh screen in front of the intercooler will decrease the performance of the Evo even more.. Many think that putting mesh screen inserts into the front grill is waay ricier than the big cf wing could ever be. Afterall, the look is more important than the performance to you if you are knowingly decreasing the efficiency of a system for the sake of how it appears on your car.

Painting body parts that aren't painted from the factory? Lots of people would see that as a useless body mod. Useless body mods are sometimes considered rice too.

No matter what you do to the car, car guys are always going to stop and ask questions. They will still be able to tell it is an Evo from a mile away. You just happened to go to the car wash when no other import enthusiasts were around.

SC~

 

You realize we have a mesh screen stock right? He was talking about REMOVING the mesh from the front bumper openings.

Painting the FMIC was a big mistake. If you want a stealthed FMIC get it ANODIZED black, not painted.

Keith

 

The only thing I consider rice from the factory is the altezza tailights

Everything else just screams EVO

 

my thoughts exactly

 

-screen mesh over the front grille parts

$1100 could have gone into performance.

 

SC: You must of mis-read my post. I changed the bulb colors for the stock radio, I did not swap it out. I agree with you that radio changing has nothing to do with what I tried to accomplish. I agree that the stock EVO interior light colors have nothing to do with 'rice", but I just added it to the list as it is one of things I did and it looks much better in my opinion.

Please look up previous posts regarding intercooler painting discussion, I don't really want to get into it again over here. Everyone assumes stuff without any proof. You may want to consider a few related facts:
- there are companies that paint their IC's black
- your oil cooler on your EVO is black
- the IC is not exposed to direct sunlight, it is hidden under and inside the bumper
- the amount of painted surface is insignificant. If you think about it, the surface area in the first row of the blades is insignificant to the rest of the 2" worth of blades in the core. I could work out the percentage of the IC that I painted, but it is not worth my time. It's not like I dipped the whole IC in a paint bucket. I just sprayed the front visible frontal surface.
- my dyno testing showed no performance loss due to paint.

Please look up previous posts regarding the screen mesh. All the "you're a looser" comments are there. You may also want to consider a few related facts:
- my dyno testing showed no performance loss due to the mesh.
- no temps differences from stock
- screen mash may protect your IC from road debris.

Regarding the hood grille painting. A black EVO has a black grille and it looks good. Why is it so bad to have a silver EVO have a silver grille, or a red car have a red grille? The concept is taked from the a stock black evo.

I know that a true car enthusiast will still spot my EVO from a mile away, and that is cool. My goal was to reduce the "look at me, I'm over here, I want to race you" attitude of the car.

 

Of course I know we have a screen there. It's black and is only there to keep stuff from smashing into the intercooler.

The way I understand xtnct's writing, he inserted a different screen into the front openings...It was my extrapolation of his writing that leads me to believe that his newly added screen was to likely baffle a persons view of the intercooler...but as a side effect it also likely baffles the movement of air to that intercooler.

But I could be wrong. He could well have just not added the words 'ditched the' in front of 'screen mesh over the front grille parts'.

 

hey if thats how you like your evo, more power to you. However mine will remain untouched...

 

I wasn't trying to give you a hard time nor was I trying to cal you a loser. I was just trying to make sure the other side of the coin was seen.

I am all for people customizing their Evo's in any way that makes them happy.

I just thought that if you were really doing it in the name of de-ricing, it was a fruitless effort. But since you seem to be doing these mods in the name of 'stealth' it changes things a bit. Your mods will accomplish this to an extent.

btw, dyno time is known be a fruitless place to test intercooler effectiveness. You just can't get enough air movement over the ic to realistically test it's benefit in most cases...

SC~

 

I would love to see this...

 

I dug up some old pics for all of you requesting pics.
- black IC + mesh:



- red interior lighting:


Don't have pics of the other stuff as my digi cam broke.