Remember- Boost low, timing higher, 10.5-10.8 AFR. Doesnt make the best power but it keeps it together the longest. I typically tune my stock bottom end road racers for a little closer to the 320whp range (assuming the car was lets say 360whp capable). So thats what, 8/9's?

I think the bottom end is honestly more expensive by the time you do machine work if needed. Rods and pistons are probably in the 900-1000 range for the economy off the shelf stuff + gaskets and all the little things.

 

Just watched "Love the Beast" on speed channel, made me think "Hey, I know that guy, just doing it to an Evo!" (and with 1/100000 of the budget but who's counting)

 

spot welds are no joke

 

Subscribed! An amazing thread! Best of luck with your build! You are an inspiration for craftmanship! Keep up the great work! How does your wife feel when she sees the car in it's current condition and that it will be a full-time racer?

 

My wife was pretty upset the first 12-18 months, because the car was just a hacked up shell. There was literally not a bolt left on it, and it had copped quite a hiding from the angle grinder and welding torch...

But she's been supportive (and patient) the whole time. My god has she been patient! If there was any doubt before (there wasn't), then I know now that my girl is a special one

It's starting to look a bit more like a car now though. Still just a shell, but a few bits and pieces are starting to go on for trial fitting, and it makes it at least look like a real car again!

More pics in a few days

 

I hope you are making Bathurst your #1 goal to drive her! A friend of mine has a Tarmac rally Evo 8 that was tempted to enter in the 12 hours of Bathurst. I was invited to be a driver on the team but plans did not materialize. I spent hours viewing in car videos and after my research I understand that track is one of the worlds best! Please post your in car video when you finally drive Australia's bravest race track! The 2007 Australian V8 super car race there is an incredible race video. Can't imagine having an Evo prepared like yours on that track. Up the mountain over through the canyon of esses and down hill with that 155mph right kink before the last turn. Yahooo!! Keep workin hard to finish and share your accomplishments with us. Thanks Dave Fazzino NASA super touring Evolution driver.

 

The "kink" at the bottom of mountain straight is taken flat stick guys... that's about 296km/h in a V8 Supercar (168mph!!!).

But yes, I will be driving Bathurst in 2010 - there is a club motorsport competition called "Sprint Bathurst" that's been running the last couple of years. A couple of mates have competed there the last two years.

I can't wait to get out on such an iconic Aussie race track In fact, I can't wait to get out on ANY track!!! It's been way too long!

 

This is an in-car video of me driving at Wakefield Park, NSW, Australia in the 2007 Evo vs STI event. It rained all day. Only the last session was dry. I think I ended up 3rd fastest overall. This was probably the 2nd last event before I broke the gearbox.

There are quite a few slides, and one major off-track excursion! Only my 2nd time driving on a wet track anywhere, and we all expected the day to be dry, so I had a dry setup in the car, and worst of all, had brand new (i.e. green) semi-slicks - very slippery!!

Excuse the poor video quality - I had to shift the gamma quite a long way so that you could see any of the track, as it was extremely glary and bright outside the car from the wet track reflections. Hope you enjoy

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z8tFubg8tkg

 

I mentioned that I didn't like the idea of bonding fibreglass guards onto the OEM metal, so I decided to do my own widebody panel work. First step was to establish where to make the extensions.


I used a 1mm cutting wheel on the angle grinder, and carefully cut the factory guard off. My idea was to re-use the section of guard that I cut off. Unfortunately the passenger side guard copped a whack with the engine hoist when I was lifting it up onto the rotisserie. Thankfully it's the only damage I've done to the car, and I was able to panel beat it out with a hammer and dolly.


This is the guard removed on the drivers side.


Remember this pic? Well...


I could never bear to look at how ugly the metal work was in this area, nor how non-functional the rear leg(s) of the roll cage were. So out it came.



And this is what I was left with.


Merry Christmas everybody. Have an enjoyable and safe holiday.

 

Def need a final weight when the car is done! this thing is lookin amazing!

 

Merry Christmas everyone

 

After ending up with the car looking like this, I had to do something about it...


So I had these rolled...


Notched one side to sit in/on the chassis rail...


Made up some custom strut towers and tops...


Welded it all together...


And ended up looking somewhat like this! BTW this is all TIG welded too. Sounds so easy, but took me a very long time to design and build.

 

Outstanding build!

 

Did you do any racing in another car in the mean time?

Looks like a ton of work is going into this. Good luck.

 

Great welds!