sorry, repost.

 

great responses. So what i'm understanding is that the brakes are the only big concern and they are partaily fixable. stock suspensions are never good for real track duty.

Otherwise the evo does not need things like oil coolers, tranny cooler, transfer case cooling, or rear diff cooling?? sounds great!!! I'm really suprised that oil temps and tranny temps stay w/in reason even with the turbo.

Wheel bearing and CV joints can handle the track as well??



brute speed is relative, i'd rather be the great driver in the "slow" car than the idiot in the ferrari. (seen plenty of this...)

 

Not to be argumentative...but I think it might be you who is missing the point. The Evo is FAR better suited for track use than just about any street car short of a Porsche in stock form. How many cars do you know that are "perfect" for the track without ANY mods?

Sure the Evo understeers (as do 99% of all passenger cars in the world). But, with proper alignment, careful tire pressures, and (most important) proper technique, that understeer can be minimzed to the point where it's a non-issue. A modern BMW, for example, needs many mods to be as quick around the track as a stock Evo.


Duh. Show me one street car that wouldn't benefit from well designed, properly set-up coilovers. To me, coilovers, big brake kits, massive engine mods and the like are all great...if the goal is to be fast. But if you just want to have fun at an HPDE (and still be one of the fast guys) with minimal fuss or expense, a stock Evo is still formidable.


Again, that hold true for ANY car. Add Penske coilovers to a Z06 and see what you can do! I just don't get the point of this argument.

I'm an instructor and run in a chapter with a VERY aggressive and quick instructor group. I have no problem beating race prepped M3's and the like. Even GT3's don't exactly run away from me. And this is with a stock suspension and very conservative tune (barely 300 whp). Sure, I would be much faster on coilovers. I would also be much faster on Hoosiers instead of RA-1's, or running a massive 6-piston Alcon brake kit, or by stripping the car down to nothing, or by running 30 lbs of boost with 114 octane race fuel. But that's not the point of HPDE's.

Emre

 

Correct. Unlike most cars, none of these things need to be upgraded unless you get extreme with mods. The cooling system is adequate. The drivetain is bulletproof (provided you're careful about routine maintenance). I'm even running my stock clutch, despite some power mods and 30,000 miles of street use plus dozens of days on the track. And we have yet to hear about any suspension failures.

Emre

 

The Evo in stock form is more capable than most cars for track use. Most of us would be hard pressed to push a 'stock' Evo to it's limits, but there are exceptions.

And for the coil-over comments, yes, coil-overs, when dialed in, make a HUGE difference. And when the coil-overs are matched with the correct swaybars and chassis braces, the result is more than orgasmic.

But, if you don't have a vast understanding of suspension dynamics, then go with a good tuner, insert your roadrace tuner here, to help you along the way. Just running to the store, and buying a set of Ohlins won't guarantee better lap times. In fact, it took me 3 events to tune my car to what it could do stock. Now, however, the car is considerably faster, doesn't abuse tires anymore, and doesn't fade with the length of runs. In fact, the last run I made at NASA, I ran @ 10 laps within 3 thousands of a second, and 3 of those were witihin 1 thousand of a second. It simply doesn't get much better.

As for the stock brakes, the only thing I would do to a 'stock' track evo is braided lines and Motul. That will suffice most of you for some time. However, when I went to c/o, I added racingbrake rotors, and this helped substaintally with feel and fade issues I had with the stock rotors.

As for improvements in lap times, I am roughly, 2-3 seconds quicker per lap at most tracks, with the same tires. However, now that the suspension is dialed in, R compounds are going on, and I am adding an additional 100-150whp. This will be my setup for Timetrails next year, and for some SCCA hill climbs.

 

I'm begining to like your style, Kayaalp!

I've been down the slippery slope of Porsche with Leda double adjustables, really high spring rates, huge sways, 80% lockup LSD's... It took me more than a season to get the car back to where laptimes were at the begining of the slippery slope.

As for an education - Did I learn what adjustments to make on bump or rebound when getting push only on corner entry and oversteer on exit - yes! As a mater of fact Carrol Smith and I got to be good friends! And that's all well and good. I'm smarter now.

But did I have any more fun than when I had a bone stock suspension?

One could argue - that it was much more frustration than fun... But I did have some sucess and that was fun.

I have to smile sometimes at DE's - we have a couple of instructors - one has a bone stock early VW GTI - Great guy, soft spoken. Drives Drives Drives. Everyone comments that around corner, he's on only 3 wheels. I feel guily following him, it's like I'm looking up his skirt or something. He's so far off the ground for soo long, his wheel stops spinning, and is like a aircraft landing gear touching down at apex.

Another guy is in a SPEC Miata - Hoosiers. Both run very cleanly and are momentum drivers. They have to be! But they run all day long..

Do they _need_ to add tons of mods??

Tune the driver - not the car.... Let me repeat - Spend you money on the fun part - Driving....

I'm in a stock BR350 EVO MR now... The EVO needs nothing.

Deetz.

 

I am still on stock clutch too.

I agree with Emre, IMO, the evo is fantastic out of the box. Fix the sloppy brakes and get an aggressive alignment and it is defenitely fun to track.

But then again, I am one of those guys that would have fun in a Yugo at the track...

n

 

Totally. I've done track days with my girlfriend's Pontiac Sunfire on WalMart 4-seasons (no joke). Last winter, my buddy and I drove all the way from Montreal, Quebec to Sebring, Florida in the Evo only to have the transfer case die on the way down because my dealer put in the wrong gear lube! (They used generic GL4 non-LSD lube instead of the DiaQueen.)

You can read about it here: Road Diary -- Evo 8 at Sebring Winterfest '05

Anway, we rented a Mustang V6 auto (no LSD!) and had a blast. So what if we were passed 50 times per session? We were out there. And we loved evbery minute of it.

Emre

 

^^^

Been there! Done that!

Deetz

 

need username / login

 

Well,

My motorsport pedigree obviously cannot match yours, or your infinite wisdom on a variety of racing/open tracking related subjects as evidenced by your many posts that indicate just that...so, you've earned my silence on the issue.

Percy

 

Try here:

http://bmwquebec.ca/forum/showthread.php?t=13

This is just a summary without all the comments from the Mitsu Club of Canada members.

Emre