I picked up my 2nd Evo with the intent of road racing it, non-competitively. It will be driven primarily on the street and ideally 3-4 road race events per year.

I was curious if people have road raced with big turbos and what's their experiences with it.

Relevant car specs: (800 MD hp)
2.3 (bullet crank, HLA)
6466
4.11 gear
stock weight
Apex N1 coilovers
built: trans, TC, rear diff.

I really like the set up for the street so if I can avoid swapping parts, that'd be nice. My plan was to have a conservative e85 tune with the current set up for road racing. Thoughts?

Any other tips, maintenance suggestions, etc would also be greatly appreciated.

 

Uhh...lots of useless power unless you can put it down. Lack of Aero and those n1's makes this more of a drag car then a track car. If you REALLY don't want to swap turbos then you'll have to spend some mula on pretty wide and sticky tires, full aero, maybe also upgrade axels and hubs while your at it. The ProAwesome car doesn't even have 800. Come to think of it I don't think the Tilton one did either. Also a serious think on the brakes because you'll be slowing down from 160+mph...

 

Going to be laggy and prob not much fun. I would swap the turbo for something smaller. If you have a Vband manifold, a precision 5858 or Gen2 5558 would probably work well.

 

6466 shouldnt be a hard turbo to sell and swap to something with a bigger powerband. Its at least what I'd do.

 

Thanks for the input guys!

It seems like swapping turbos makes the most sense.

 

I assume things like cooling (radiator, oil cooler) and fuel (starvation issue EVO X only) have already been addressed?

If not, that would be #1 priority in my book.

~Jaraxle

 

It has stock radiator and stock oil cooler. Is that not sufficient?

It's an evo 8.

 

As others have said, ditch the turbo and get something smaller with a better powerband. I'd ditch the coils as well and get something more track oriented. Also I'd get track or track/street pads and basic brake cooling.

Once the radiator is in good condition you are probably ok. Upgrading the oil cooler would depend on what temps you are seeing with your oil after you run it on the track for a bit. TBH if you just do the 1st paragraph above and get some seat time then you can look into what else may/may not need changing.

 

run what ever you want to run.
I run a 2.0 7:1 comp at 30 psi on a borg 7670 t4 with a .83 ar i dont see boost till 5k. It works well streets of willows was a bit to small to open it up but it managed

 

You cannot expect the stock radiator and oil cooler to dump the heat made by that kind of high power setup. The OEM radiator and oil cooler were designed for HP numbers no where near that. Gasoline engines are very inefficient and therefore produce proportional heat with power levels. I wouldn't want to spend a few hundred bucks for a road/race event and then have over heating problems. Been there, done that. Not fun. Having a car that you GUN on the street now and then is not that same as WOT for long durations on a track. Anything that is going to overheat or melt will.

You will need to bleed the brakes completely and replace with a high-temp brake fluid.
I use:
http://www.ate-brakes.com/products/brake-fluids/

You will also need high temperature track pads. I had good luck with carbotech XP12 pads which I swapped in at the track (no good for the street).

I would dial down the boost, and you CAN run with what you have. While a smaller turbo would be better, there is no reason you cannot use the turbo you have.

I did HPDE track events for 6 years at Watkins Glen.


~Jaraxle

 

Regardless of turbo, my goal would be in the 500awhp range on the track. I think the oem radiator would be sufficient.

Jaraxle, thanks for the brake fluid and pad recommendation. I'll look into it. Any pad recommendations that are suitable for the street and track?

 

I tried pads that were "in between" so that I could drive to the track and not have to change to track only pads.... Basically they sucked on the street and sucked on the track. You cannot have your cake and eat it too. If your going to be starting out with 500 hp at the wheels, I don't think you want to compromise on your brakes. Swapping to track pads doesn't take long. The track pads are designed to work under high heat. First couple of laps they will squeal like crazy as they warm up. Then they will stop you like you threw out a boat anchor


~Jaraxle

 

500whp is a LOT for road course fun. You will need to upgrade quite a bit of other things, as mentioned above.
If you are okay with less power, you will save a ton of money, get away with doing a lot less, and possibly, actually have more fun.

 

Last time I will mention it... The stock cooling system was not designed for 500hp at the wheels. Depending on the ambient temperature, and the type of track you may overheat your coolant or oil. I know from experience (Eclipse turbo). I added a larger radiator, fans, and earls oil cooler; but not before having a miserable track event of running the HEAT on full blast and having to back off the power as coolant temps rose.

 

I only had 450whp, but I ran the stock radiator (can't find anything that works better) and went to waterless coolant, since the rad has plastic end tanks. I runs right around 5-7psi and kept my car cool during 100* temps. My temp gauge hasn't moved, since I bought the car.
It's not for everyone, but another option for someone looking to keep coolant temps in check

I also noticed better oil temps with my Setrab cooler vs OEM. I didn't find myself having to take cool-down laps in order to avoid 300* oil temps LOL