Hey guys - I have been hunting for a '14 or '13 Evo, But then I came across a few modified cars in my price range. I would use the car as a daily driver and at the drag strip occasionally.

I have never owned a modded car before so I just had a couple questions:
Is there any added maintenance with a highly modded car?
Would there be any problems with daily driving? I was planning on trading my current car in and driving an Evo year round.

I feel like I am in over my head looking at such highly modified cars, but it is appealing to me to buy a well built, highly modified Evo so I wouldn't have to put that same money into mods myself.

If you have any advice to give me about my situation, please do!

Here are a few I was considering to buy:
Evo X: https://www.evolutionm.net/forums/sa...nce-built.html

Evo 8: https://www.evolutionm.net/forums/sa...ar-750whp.html

 

I wouldn't suggest a modded car for a DD

 

Because of this "I feel like I am in over my head looking at such highly modified cars" I would start small and work your way up.

 

DD'ing Evos modded to that point is going to be a bit annoying. Additionally, with that kind of power, parts are more susceptible to breaking (or at least needing replacement earlier and/or more frequently), unless everything has been reinforced with far more durable parts.

It's not to say that modded Evos can't be well built, but you do sacrifice a bit of drivability.

 

This. And the fact you want to just jump in one and go thats already built is kind of You're better off building one yourself so you know how it was built, and how to fix it when, not if, when it breaks. Rather then taking on someone elses project that you have no idea if corners were cut and what they did or didnt do correctly when building it.

I dont know what your price range is, but if you want a performance car out of the box, you should probably look into a GTR and leave it stock.

 

i would never buy a completed built car. what is the fun in that. you can buy it and never have a clue about it. ie... how it runs, normal patterns, just how the car should feel. in my honest opinion you should not buy one if you dont want to put any effort to do it yourself and learn the proper way. plus, if you start with a fairly close to stock/lightly modded i am willing to bet when you do achieve higher horsepower you would appreciate the car more. im just saying that i would never buy one like those.

 

I bought mine stock and drove it like that for about 3 months... Then slowly made my way to 365whp on the stock 8 turbo, then 500+ whp on the black. My favorite configuration was the 365whp one. It's a good amount of power for the streets, and most importantly, you can run a "driver-friendly" clutch. I got tired of driving the Evo after a certain point. It's nice to just be able to get in, turn a key, and be off.

As far as maintenance, my twin disc clutch has a life span of roughly 15,000 miles, costing about $800 to rebuild each time. Besides that, you have the bearings to keep in mind, fuel will go fast, turbos don't last forever, re-tunes, etc.

My advice, buy a slightly modded Evo that's been tuned recently, preferably off this forum. Almost every Evo has been modified at one point, so might as well get one that you know what has been done to it.

Good luck!

 

No matter how much care you take researching, installing, and tuning mods, things go wrong. Even if you play it safe and have a good shop do everything, issues arise. They just do, and don't believe anyone who tells you otherwise. And that's if you know exactly what mods are on the car. If someone else installed it all and didn't give you a complete breakdown or point you to a shop that is familiar with the car, walk the other way.

This. There will come a day when your 500+ whp (in theory) Evo that has tens of thousands of dollars "invested" (read: blown) in it will have a hard time keeping up with traffic because there is an issue. Trust me, that day will come. Probably multiple times. And you'll realize it's better to have the stock 300 hp at your disposal all the time than a million hp less than 50% of the time.

 

Very well said

 

The maintenance would be the same, but gas would go faster and repair bills will be higher. The price you pay for the smile on your face.