I'm new here.
 

Hey everybody. I'm Tai from Indiana. I'm looking for an Evo 9. I was told that this is the best Evo forum on the web so I figured its a good place to start looking.
A bit about myself:

I started with this 2g Talon that a friend help me build. It was my first project car, first turbocharged vehicle, first AWD vehicle, first everything.
http://i498.photobucket.com/albums/r...c77e0da03c.jpg

I had a big 16 and 75 shot and it was perfect. Then I got greedy and moved to a 50trim. 1st run down the strip and it blew the head gasket. Repaired that and was street tuning it in with the n2o and found the limit of the stock block. Boom. Done.
It was rebuilt over the course of two years. It had this in it:
http://i498.photobucket.com/albums/r...d1cc4941da.jpg

I blew up the trans shortly after and at the same time got laid off so it had to either sit or be sold. I chose the latter and it was gone to a friend.

A couple years later things turned around and I got this TT. Auto X was a blast and I finished with awards a few times
http://i498.photobucket.com/albums/r...r/a1599717.jpg

It was time for the big maintenance on the car so naturally I used that as an excuse to have a friend help me build it with rods, 50 trim, and all necessary supporting mods. It turned into this:
http://i498.photobucket.com/albums/r...r/IMAG0154.jpg

I bought a house and I wanted my fiancé to have a better vehicle than her 96 Eagle Vision. The TT went to a friend and I got her an A4. I went to something more practical for a DD along with a secondary project car:
http://i498.photobucket.com/albums/r...905_170952.jpg

Auto X and road course just don't seem to fit into my life anymore so the Miata wasn't being used for its intended purpose. It was too slow so I did this:
http://i498.photobucket.com/albums/r...130416_001.jpg

This was the first time I built a car by myself. It was running a 2560r on 630cc injectors controlled by a MegaSquirt stand alone. I learned to tune a car and have it run reliably. It ran great for a year but it wasn't exactly what I wanted. I just sold it a week ago.

My fiancé now drives this FXT so I'm back in the A4
http://i498.photobucket.com/albums/r...r/IMAG0056.jpg
The A4 isn't bad but it's not what I want to drive every day. It's the slowest of the cars that I've had and it's an automatic :(

I'm now on the hunt for an Evo, I guess getting back to my roots from 10 yrs ago haha. I'm looking for a DD that is quick and can be lived with on the street year round.

Without a doubt the Talon was my favorite car it of the few that I've had. It was quick, reliable (until I got greedy), had a ton of midrange power, sounded great, and wasn't too hard for a newb to understand.

I guess I'm looking for the same feeling that I had in my DSM with the 16g setup. I've not been in a stock Evo before. I've only had a couple guys I know with 8s, one of which claims to make about 50 more hp than stock. Cars for sale around here are few and far between. The majority of them come out of Chicago.

I'm busy combing thru the FAQ and newb info threads at the moment. If anybody has any tips (read: Evo owners would be more keen on specifics) on what to look for in an Evo they would be appreciated.

I while back I found this IX in the classified section here at evom. The seller had just relisted it and adjusted the price. I jumped on it, called him up, struck a deal and (to make an extremely long and eventful story much shorter) a week later I drove it back home to Indiana from Florida.

http://i498.photobucket.com/albums/r...31473c679e.jpg

It runs well but has a couple issues that are most likely boost leak related. I just got it on the road recently after selling my previous DD. The car came with no aftermarket gauges for monitoring the health of the car, plus as a colorblind guy I found the stock gauge cluster difficult to see, so that was my first project.


http://i498.photobucket.com/albums/r...310_224259.jpg

An older thread helped me narrow down leaky TB shaft seals so I'll get those replaced and then see what else pops up after that leak is fixed.