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Hey All. (post 1 contains info and pics of the car as a street weapon, post 2 is the motorsport evolution)
Not sure where to start with this thread. Please bear with me. i will compress 9 years as much as i can into 1 post! Ill also do a mega photo dump at the end. Feel free to save or use any of the photos for private use. if you wish to use them anywhere publicly please credit either my instagram and facebook or the photographer that has been watermarked. Ill endeavour to keep this updated as we continue to modify! Starting With the installation of our Modena Sequential gearbox!
Also feel free to float over to my instagram and facebook and flick me a like or a follow:
I guess ill start from the beginning, This will probably end up super long so bear with me, hope u all like reading! Hopefully my experiences and mistakes can be of use to some of you in the future.
Hopefully this also provides some of you with inspiration to carry on with your builds!
So where to begin,
I purchased my Evo as a near standard immaculate Japanese import here in new zealand in may 2009. It had 107,000km on the clock, Some 18" Advanti vortec wheels, Tein super street adjustable suspension, HKS SSQV BOV, Walbro intank fuel pump and and evo 8 rear spoiler. Was retuned to 200kw ATW on stock ECU.
Pretty perfect street car really!
Unfortunately 1 week after buying the car i decided to give it a birthday with mobil 1 full synthetic 5w40 oil as recommended from factory. Immediately after doing the oil change the engine began to make the all too familiar nugga nugga of a spun big end bearing. I never figured out if the previous owner had noticed the bearing and masked it with very thick oil (it was like glue coming out when drained) or wether it was just bad luck.
This is where the fun began, We purchased a standard evo 7 engine block and installed it into the car so i had a car to drive and i begun researching the best ways to build an evo engine. After hours of research mainly on this forum and lancer register.com i settled on building a 2.3L stroker engine (bearing in mind this was 2009 and nobody had really developed a 2.2 or 2.4l engine yet!) I set about sourcing the best parts and settled on JE 2.3l Pistons and eagle rods and crank.
I am fortunate enough to have a fiercely supportive Dad with extensive motorsport knowledge so we begun about preparing the new block to be converted to 2.3l
We begun by doing a massive porting and flowing of the intake and exhaust chambers, We then slapped the block together and threw in a set of kelford 272 cams to match. Also had a wicked pair of kicker 12" subs and dual custom amp install!
We finally got around to installing the new 2.3l block ourselves. We added a link G4 plug n play ECU and sent it off for a tune! 220kw ATW. This was big power for an evo in new zealand back in 2009 which netted us our first national magazine feature!
The modifying bug had well and truely stuck and we continued to steadily modify the vehicle. Eventually Adding a Garrett GT3582R turbo and sinco turbo manifold along with a long list of other modifications.
Fast forward a few years and i begun using the car in car shows competitively and drag racing. making a healthy 350kw at the wheels at this stage and a best quarter mile time of 11.4 ( i was never very good at drag racing)
I begun to focus on modifying the exterior of the car next. I added on a pair of Rexpeed side skirt extensions and evo 9 front and rear bumpers. then followed the evo 9 hood and on and on from there as u can see in the pictures.
Once i was bored with drag racing and car shows i begun tracking and racing the evo competitively. 3 years ago i took the plunge and started racing in the NZ time attack series. We even went out and won our class in our first ever outing! Unfortunately a few reliability issues at 2 of the rounds and a strong points emphasis on consistancy rather than outright pace meant we finished 2nd in class that year.
During the season the main modifications we did to the car were to put larger 295 tyres on the car, Added a Norris Designs drysump system and Kaps Dogbox. in addition to aero upgrades such as the voltex wing and larger front splitter
The racing bug had well and truely bitten and i felt unsatisfied by the lack of track time and professionalism available in the nz superlap series so i took things a step further and joined the GTRNZ Series.
GTRNZ is a Teir 1 national race club which means we race as part of the top level of competition in New Zealand motorsport. We are regularly invited to be a main support class for the likes of the australian V8 Supercars series and the Toyota Racing Series which is an open wheeler class which has seen the likes of Lance Stroll, Daniil Kvyat, Josh Hill, Artem Markelov, Mitch Evans, Pedro Piquet and many more.
GTRNZ is split into 4 classes across 2 grids, GT1 and GT2 race in 1 grid and GT3, GT4 race on another grid.
GT1 being the fastest class with the likes of spec GT3 cars, Daytona prototypes, Tranz-ams, V8 supercars and supertourers and other amazingly fast machinery,
GT2 is home to the fastest road derived and home built race cars, Such as my own and other evos, WRX's, GTRS V8s Rotaries etc.
GT3 is a slower version of GT2 with less modified and occasionally road registered cars and GT4 is an entry level class of which the likes of a standard evo could compete in.
GTRNZ has virtually no rules. your car must comply to Motorsport NZ safety schedules and be a closed cockpit car with an offset seat. Classes are split on lap time and penalties imposed if u go faster than your classes allocated laptime for each track.
The first year of competition we entered in GT3 class. The car was still road legal at the time which was always a good laugh and we were very competitive. Unfortunately reliability and teething issues let us down over the season. of the races we completed our worst result was 5th place, we had 1 pole position, 2 race wins and a bunch of podiums.
One thing we learnt is that the stresses on the car even compared to the likes of time attack are impossible to replicate until u actually put the car into a competition environment and we quickly learnt that things such as the drivetrain and brakes simply werent up to the task of competition level for 10 laps straight.
So we spent most of the year developing the car to where it is now and we have found to be very competitive in GT2 this year.
The car has evolved to what you see in the most current pictures of the car in its gold and black livery.
The 2.3l engine remains as does the garrett gt3582r turbo. We have added the norris designs drysump system. cut a heap of weight out of the car. Added a full flat floor. widebodied the aero. And most recently we currently are awaiting arrival of a modena sequential transmission.
As it stands the car has 3 power levels and is run on E85 Ethanol fuel. 420kw atw on 15Psi boost. 480kw on 28Psi boost and 515kw on 32Psi boost.
We are currently one of the 3 fastest evos in the country. We hope to solidify our place as the 2nd fastest circuit evo in NZ over the next year as comparitive times are on medium slicks vs super soft semi slicks of the time attack evos. We hope to return to time attack next year aswell as GTRNZ to try topple some of these records. The fastest Evo in NZ is still the Triple 6 racing evo 8 owned by Scott Kreyl and team Revolutionz which some of you may have seen at world time attack challenge recently driven by Garth Walden.
Its amazing to look back and think from humble mildly modified street car to now having probably one of the top 100 most/highly modified evos in the world.
We have 2 rounds to go this year out of 5. We have managed 1 race win. 2 second places and a 3rd place. We are currently sitting in 4th place overall right behind 3rd. Im hoping to get to at least 2nd place by the end of the season. we had a rough start and have fought transmission issues at every round but hopefully the sequential will fix all of that!
I hope this wasnt too much of a snooze fest and if you have any questions about anything you see or anything ive written feel free to ask and i will answer the best i can. Chances are ive attempted the mods your considering or have researched them or succesfully implemented them.
ENHANCEMENTS: Genuine Evo IX rear bumper, Varis front lip, Genuine Voltex Wide front guards, voltex carbon fibre double overfender, APR Widebody rear guards smoothed and shaved into original bodywork, Gutted doors of crash beams and electric windows etc, Varis carbon rear diffuser Modified and extended, carbon-fibre bonnet, front canards x4, front and rear racetech tow straps, FIA Spec LED Rain lightp, Carbon fibre bootlid, Carbon fibre Voltex Type 5 rear wing, Custom dry carbon uprights, Chassis mounted wing struts in boot, Boot floor area and double skin cut out, Full flat bottom floor honeycomb foam + fibreglass from front splitter to diffuser, Evo 9 front bumper modified with 4x quik latch latches, custom front splitter to match bumper, 2x headlight blanks with air feeds for brake ducting, Varis sideskirts and carbon fibre underboards, Voltex Time attack front bumper and splitter when not using evo 9 front bumper and custom splitter
Interior:
Lexan windows all round except windscreen with 3” ducting custom smoked LED tail lights, Cool As coolsuit systems coolsuit box, Billet automotive buttons button panel, MSNZ 8 Point Rollcage homologated and custom painted, Schroth 6 point FIA Hans Race belts, Sparco Racing Wheel with custom button kit, NRG V1 Quick release and boss kit, Modena Custom Shifter, Aim MXS Strada Race Dash system, Mylaps x2 wireless transponder system, Shorai Lithium battery, Bride Passengers seat, Sparco 5pt harness, Custom rear interior divider, gutted dash with no Air conditioning etc. Removed handbrake, Motorola Incar intercom System
Very cool build.
Nice to see that "horrible rod:stroke ratio" 2.3 holding up to the rigour of real racing.
What were the weak points the you found during development? You mention a lot of reliability issues, interesting to know what those were. And finally... what´s the current weight?
Congrats to you and your dad!
Mr. Norris insists it has to be in the front right corner, by the oil pump, for short lines.
You run yours behind "passenger seat".
APT in UK, Gary Hayward, who run some of the fastest Evos in EU, APT Ross field at least 4 super successful Evos at once including Barbour's winning car this year.
Gary often puts tank in the trunk, and other times in passenger footwell.
My question is, do you notice any issue with having the tank so far - contrary to Mr. Norris advice?
What line size do you use, -16?
The reason I ask is that I would prefer to run the tank in the trunk, but venting is a bit of an issue also, because the valve cover vent is supposed to be run to the top of the dry sump tank.
It's a road car, so cannot run a nasty oil-vent through the cockpit.
Hey bro. I believe when i spoke to simon he said as long as i use dash16 fittings and lines it was fine. Maybe hes changd his mind about that.
Weve never had any issues with our setup. We actually have the oil pressure relief on the pump wound right out and still get 100psi.
The rocker cover breathers are fed back and they follow the rollcage up the a pillar and down to the tank. Then we mounted the vent can in the boot and put a hose out into the bumper area to prevent fumes in the cabin.
Not sure how ud do the vent lines in a road car if u want them hidden cause they need to stay above the tank height to prevent pooling in the lines. But u could just duct the vent can like we did to stop the fumes.
I guess u could get some nice black braided hose and run it up along the roof liner but yea be hard to do cleanly.
Ur other option is to put the tank down in the bumper area like where the intercooler spray tank was but i dont like that idea esp for motorsport. Works on drag cars tho.
Feb 21, 2018, 04:49 AM
