Even if you are limiting this to the critical mods for a street-driven Evo X, you may have to be even more specific before you get the feedback you want.

Most of all (to me): What kind of streets? If you stay on paved roads, then many people will suggest good lowering springs (Swift, GTWorks) or decent coilovers that are slightly stiff than OE, plus at least a new rear bar, all because the car rolls way too much when it has good cornering grip. But if you want to be able to take unpaved roads without batting an eye, then the suggestion will be completely different, starting with a replacement undertray.

I'm in that latter group. I have had a real skidplate for a year, but still have OE shocks and springs. I also shrank my brakes to put on smaller wheels. I like that I don't have to slow down when the pavement ends. But that might not be what you're looking for.

 

^^^ That's really interesting. I'm a fan of smaller wheels. Love the look of meaty rubber - specially on a Rally-bred car. My '95 NA is running on RPF-1's 14's. Looks sick.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/rallyways/8466164975/http://www.flickr.com/photos/rallyways/8466164975/ by http://www.flickr.com/people/rallyways/, on Flickr

However, do you feel you lost braking performance with the smaller brakes? Again, I'm sure it's different on gravel. You don't need grabby brakes on gravel like you need on sticky asphalt. Right?

I'll be on good paved roads 99.9% of the time. I'm on back roads and town roads 70% of the time. My freeway driving is limited. I also don't generally drive very long distances or rack up the miles either. But I love driving. Just not because I HAVE to.

 

I don't think you need to do anything to improve the X in factory form for street driving. The car is meant to go from the showroom floor to the track or the street. If you're talking '11 and up, the exhaust is fine, it breathes fine, brakes are amazing, tires do great.

Only gripe I have, and it's a small one, is body roll on factory springs. Change the springs and enjoy. Beyond that, maybe a tune for throttle response, but even then it's not necessary to improve drivability. These cars are in a pure form from the manufacturer.

There really isn't a need to talk about mods unless you start talking performance centric.

 

I lost something like 5% in braking distance on pavement switching from OE Brembos to TRF Wilwoods, based on controlled back-to-back testing, and that was with -10 pads. When I put -20s on the front (for a better pavement bias), the car stopped even sooner, probably tied with the Brembos; I just didn't have my tape-measure with me that day. Even more, as you suggested, pedal control is now better; they don't grab unless I want them to.

 

Why would you wanna swap out the factory brembos?! they're a really good brake set-up and very well matched for the car. Just add some more aggressive and some slotted rotors and you're good to go in the braking department. ANything smaller won't benefit you and anything bigger wil just be overkill, at least for the kind of driving you doing.

And based off of your "small rim, meaty tire" comment are you saying you're considering running a smaller brake set-up to accomodate a smaller rim?!

 

Hi, no, not at all. This was just a slightly off-topic discussion with Iowa999 about his setup.

I was just saying I like the look of meaty tires like on my '95 Miata. But I'm not going to change the factory Brembos.

This thread is about basic mods. Let's stick to that then.

 

I think you hit the nail on the head. It seems this car needs less mods to satisfy than the NC Miata. Which is a good thing.

 

Ok just making sure you statement had me confused but we're all good now

 

I completely disagree. I look at it this way: any set of brakes that are larger and/or heavier than they need to be for what you are doing is hurting performance. They are adding rotational mass, which hurts both acceleration and braking; they are adding unsprung weight, which hurts ride quality and grip on bumpy surfaces. They limit your choice of wheels.

The OE Brembos are overkill for what 99% of all Evo X owners do with their cars. They are too big and too heavy for anything less than road-course driving. They are terrible for a daily driver that drag-races or rallycrosses. They are sub-optimal for a daily driver that autocrosses.

It is easy to create a set of brakes that are as matched to an Evo X as the OE Brembos. It's five minutes of high-school math. Yes, you need a good fabricator to install said brakes on the car, but that doesn't change anything about what I have just written.

 

I get what you're saying and it makes sense. I guess i'm mainly talking from my experience with TA and TT.

And i'm envious of you man. I sure wish there were rallycross events in AZ. I'm a huge fan of WRC and rallycross. too bad there's not much of it out here

 

There's a rallycross in Tucson on May 25th. That is closer to you than any rallycross will be to me in the next five years. In other words, I see your envy and raise you a ... ah, never mind.

tee hee

 

interesting, i'll have to look that up

 

There is Rallycross here in SoCal somewhere. Not that I have the ***** to RC a newer Evo. I might pick up a beater Miata later on for that. But I'm gonna do it eventually for sure.

 

I have ADD today, so if someone said this already, I apologize.

Most rally wheel set ups are 15" wheels, because most rally tires are of that size. So it's sometimes necessary to swap to a smaller caliper in order to fit those wheels. I have been out of the scene for a few years though, perhaps > 15" tires are more common now.

 

Nope. It's still true that you cannot get real gravel tires in sizes larger than 15". It is also true that you can't get gravel tires that are wider than 215 or taller than 25.6". We have FIA to thank for this.

If you run snow tires for rallycross, then you only need to shrink the front brakes and then get 16" wheels. But if you want gravel tires, you must shrink the front and rear brakes and get 15"s.