2008-9, thoughts, ideas and a goal or two.
2008 has come and gone very quickly. It was our best year as far as performance goes, probably ever. It was also a record year for sales at the shop. Even in these hard times we continue to grow, so contrary to what a few haters believe, we must be doing something right. We celebrated 20 years of building, tuning, modifying, racing and blowing up 4G63's in November.
We've had plenty of years in the past where the fastest cars have come out of our shop or we've built a bunch of fast DSM's or more recently EVO's. Nothing can really compete with this year. Of the top 25 EVO's this year 14 of them were powered by Buschur Racing. 2 of those ran 8's.
We sidelined our black drag EVO out of frustration and a general lack of interest. Instead we were completely obsessed with building the baddest street EVO's we could. I became fairly obsessed at the beginning of the year at having the first 9 second pump gas EVO and we built about 15 EVO's that made 500+ whp on straight pump gas. We had 5 or more EVO's run 10's on pump gas! As most of you know the hard work and dedication to making some super fast real street EVO's paid off. 12 EVO's that ran 9's and were driven to and from the track, most of those with air conditioning still in the cars and all of them. My personal RS ran 9.04 at 159.64 mph in full street trim with the exception of the slicks. Unfortunately the tracks closed here for the year the next week and we never got another shot at breaking into the 8's. Luckily though, Mike from AWDMotorsports, using a LOT of our parts put his RS into the 8's running 8.98 at 154 mph and it is also still a street driven car.
The tracks here don't even re-open until around April. We have a ton of work to do between now and then and the time is going to go by fast. When my RS ran the 9.04 it was only making around 635 whp. It is now making 685 whp and sitting waiting for my next round of idea. My thoughts for my RS for 2009..............well of course I want to get that 8 second run and that is the first priority. I may try to run one more time on just straight pump gas too as I am fairly certain the car will go 9.50's on 93-94 octane pump fuel. After that I want to go try the standing mile with the car. I am not going to try to set some crazy record. I want to take the car just like it is driven, just like it ran the 8 second pass (when it does it) and just see what it will do. Honestly, if it would just hit 200 mph even I'd be a very happy dude. I think that would finally, maybe, for a short time, make me think the car was completed.
The other goal I have for 2009 is to get the EVO X to run some impressive numbers. Up until two weeks ago the car has sat. It sat because I was disgusted with it, the clutch was shot, the turbo that was on it was not making any power, the car did not run well. It sat for months. I recently spent some time on it, we put in a new Exedy clutch, Bouch turbo and spent many hours on the dyno. The car is now worthy of being called an Evolution and making 407 whp on pump gas at 24 psi. I have another goal, that is to not stray from the factory ECU on this car this time. I am going to try to make as much power as possible and stick with the stock ECU. 10's are obviously the goal with the car for 2009. Running 12.26 at 112 mph on the stock turbo with only 297 whp, I think the goal will be reached without a lot of trouble. The EVO X has my full attention at this point in time.
I have another project I will be starting on in the near future. Not all of you know but I own a 2008 Shelby GT. The car is slower than I can stand. As soon as we finish up this Bonneville Salt Flats Mighty Max truck the Mustang is coming in for a custom turbo kit. These will make it to market. I am leaving the entire car stock except for the turbo kit, fuel pump and injectors, shooting for a 200 whp improvement at 8-10 psi of boost. I'd like to produce a kit that is so good these Mustang owners quit thinking about superchargers.
Also in the next few months the new Hyundai Genesis Coupe is coming. Jarrod is buying one as soon as they are available and this is going to be a great car. We will be hitting it full speed when it arrives here. I expect really big things from it, same engine as the EVO X and RWD, that is going to be fun.
Last and sadly least, our black drag EVO. The car has sat since September (I think that's the last time it was out). It proved to run consistent 8's this year with a small T3 turbo on it, actually ran 166.xx mph with just the T3 on it. It has sat, nobody has looked at it, dusted it off or cared about. Daniel, my brother, no longer wants to drive it, all him and I do is argue when we take it to the track, not enjoyable. Ideally, I'd like to just sell it and see someone who has the drive to take it over. If anyone with half a brain looks back on our history they will see a pattern. We build a full race car, run it for 2-3 years at the most and just flat out get tired of it and move on. That is what has happened with this car. None of us can stay motivated on a car that you only use once a month to go and try to set a record. It honestly isn't much fun at all. It is so much more fun to drive the car and enjoy it and then when you get the time and desire take it out and see what it runs. Trent has an EVO, I have 3 EVO's, my brother has 2 EVO's. We love the cars but all love the street car part of it the most. I don't know if the car will even move this coming year. Who knows, maybe we will get motivated but just being driven by "So and So ran X.XX" doesn't do anything for me. I don't care what anyone else is/was doing. I think building one record setting car is impressive but I got 1,000 times more gratification this year out of seeing 12 guys drive their cars to and from the race tracks and go 9's than I ever did from watching our black car set a record. Even running the first 8 second pass with an EVO8 or still holding the fastest MPH ever with our EVO doesn't measure up to watching all these customers run 9's in their daily drivers this year.
Looking forward to this year, 2009. I can only hope and pray it is as successful as 2008 was.
Thank you to all that supported us for the last 20 years. This is just the begining!!
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Originally Posted by SPIN2GST
