The building of one Bad Bish.
This thread could turn into a novel of sorts. A "What it takes to build a bad ass EVO" or "How an EVO gave me a list of great memories to last a lifetime". We wanted to do a refresher on the car and how it's progressed over the years. What it's taken to get it to where it is, what we've been through with it. Many people now the car today but weren't around in 2004 to see how it started. I'll make it all as brief as I can, I know I can get long winded when I'm talking about something I love and I do LOVE this car.
I bought a Red 2003 EVO first in March of 2003. Tore right into it, did a lot of our development work on that first car. My brother bought it from me, still owns it and it's a full weight, fully optioned EVO that runs 9.60's at 150 mph today. As clean and nice as it was new. I heard the RS was coming and the news was it was going to be a manual window, no a/c, no sound deadening, no ABS factory race car. I got a tingle in my pants and had to have one! When I picked up the car I was sad to see it came with A/C, all US RS's did but were advertised to not have it. The day I brought it home I was on the hunt to get rid of it. We got the parts from Mitsubishi for the JDM non-A/C version and I pulled it out. Then I removed what little sound deadening the car did have and honest, the quest for a lighter, streetable EVO has never stopped.
I got involved with helping out a not-so-well-known racer at the time, Robert Fuller and our friendship started. Also happy to say it's still going! He found out about an event Car & Driver was doing called the Super Four Challenge and asked me if I wanted to get involved. Hell yes! At the time I was just figuring out the stand alone ECU tuning and my main concern was that the editors of Car and Driver liked how the car drove, idled and performed overall. I thought it was HUGE for the shop to go there and get compliments on the driveability of the car. Robert suggested we use DMS 50mm struts, very expensive at the time. He also suggested the best "approved tire" for the event. There were rules we had to abide by, like tires that were on a list, had to be bought from Tire Rack, all parts used on the car had to be offered to the public. Sadly rules are meant to be bent. At the very last minute a much better "approved" tire became available and "available to the public" meant "Well we are going to release this in the future" to some competitors. We still pulled out a 3rd Place Finish and my tuning got EXCELLENT reviews. The event, to this day, was one of the best events we have competed in and I would absolutely LOVE to be able to do another one. Consider the fact that the car then ran 11.97 on pump gas and now runs 9.72 on pump gas! Things have come a long way! Here are some pictures and some of the article for the Super Four Challenge:
Car & Driver, Super Four Challenge
We had a "20G" on the car for this event. Also note this is far enough back we still had a 2WD Dynojet that we were dyno testing everything on!
20G Dyno Sheet: (430hp or so)
We then got involved with Dr. Kevin Butterfield and the Winged Warrior Event. This has turned out to be my favorite annual event and I refuse to miss it. The event is an all around event where you compete in Autocross, Drag Racing, Slalom and a Car show. Each event is scored individually and the total score of all combined are what determines the winner. This type of event is the back bone of what an EVO is suppose to be and probably why I enjoy the event so much. I have continued to keep a focus on the ENTIRE car and not just building a drag car from my RS. The first Winged Warrior we did our luck wasn't so hot. While we were very quick/fast in the drags, running some low 11's, as soon as we hit the autocross course we dropped a valve from some piss poor valve springs taking the engine out. We were done. It was still fun hanging out and watching the rest of the event. Jeff Oswalt was there (White EVO below) and so was Trent Stanley (silver EVO below). Trent won, one of the skid pad competitions with his car.
Our first Winged Warrior II:
My quest, and I say "my" loosely as I couldn't do it all my myself but it is my passion/project. With Dan my brother doing all the wiring/engine/trans/clutch swaps, Trent and Ted doing the TIG welding, Jarrod and Nick handling sales I couldn't do it all nor get it all done. Anyway, "my" quest to continue to make this car faster, stop better and turn better has never stopped. Before we knew it the car was in the 10.80's in the EVO Stock Appearing Class at the DSM/EVO Shootout. Man there was a lot of shit talking that year from guys who came to the race looking to beat the car on the dyno and the track. Luckily everything went well and the ole RS did it's job in both places.
Here's an engine shot when the car was running 10.80's in ESA:
I honestly couldn't believe how fast the car was and how "little" was done to it. Back then Al Friedman was here at all the races with his EVO and at our shop doing stock ECU tuning every month or so. I told him I intended to build an EVO that I could drive on the street and run 9's with. He told me that I was high on something and it wasn't possible. I thought differently. We developed a cast exhaust manifold to bolt a GT35r turbo on the car using the FP turbine housing. The car laid down 542 whp (how I can remember that is beyond me) and what do you know, it clicked off some 9.90's at 142'ish mph! Those times were run in full street trim with Hoosier QTP's. At the time it was just unheard of, nobody with a real street EVO was running like that. The car of course, just like today, had a full factory interior and looked like it was more or less, stock.
Here's a shot of the car with our cast manifold kit on it:
The quest continued, now I was really excited and thought how easy it was to go 9's. I mean it was kind of a "give me" it was so effortless. I decided to build a few headers for the car. Some crazy stuff and put a half width radiator in the car to do some of it. First I had the turbo right in the center of the cylinder head and kind of out front. That header had a long 4" intake that ran down behind the drivers side headlight. Looked cool but still wasn't quite what I wanted. Next I dropped the turbo down low on the drivers side. Both of these made exceptional power and the car that season dropped down to 9.60's at 150 mph, still on QTP DOT tires. The car was running an FP HTA82 at this point in time.
Here is the header and set up I built when the car ran 9.60's:
Emery at STM was coming on pretty strong around this time and I saw a car or two he built with "forward facing" turbo kits on them. Seemed like a damn good idea to me, so much so I had to do one for my own car. My car has always been and will always been focused on being what I consider a street car. I felt I had to have an air filter so my version of a Forward Facing turbo kit incorporated a custom 4" air filter we had built for us by Green Filters. The car had consistently gotten faster and faster. To my complete amazement we dropped from the 9.60's (from my memory) to 9.11's basically overnight. We went to the 17" motorcycle slicks which were a HUGE help and with the Forward Facing kit and a new turbo, the BR FS635 the times just DROPPED! 9.11 at 157 mph and on pump gas we ran 9.72 at 144.xx mph. At this point I need to thank two other guys. Trent Stanley who use to be our welder here, still my friend, for his driving abilities. He was actually driving the car from the point it ran in the 10's down to 9.60's. I SUCK driving a 5 speed in a drag race and like to put capable people behind the wheel! I also need to thank Kevin Lawson, my friend of about 15 years now, for his driving. He has driven all kinds of my cars over the years and has driven the Bad Bish since the 9.60's to where it sits today of 9.04. Kevin and Trent are both top notch skilled drivers and I'm lucky to know them both and call them friends.
Here is the engine bay as it sat when we ran the 9.11's on race gas and 9.72 on STRAIGHT PURE 93 octane, no additives, no preservatives!
9 second pump gas engine bay:
9 second pump gas video on YOUTUBE: Best pass on this video is 9.11 @ 154.75 (the video on Streetfire has over 280,000 views!)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=skly2...61AUAAAAAAAaAA
Robert at Forced Performance contacted me and told me he had a turbo that would kick the shit out of the FS635 I was running and wanted HIS turbo on my car. I told him, SEND IT! I got the turbo, put it on and got the car back on the dyno. The power climbed to 680 whp on our dyno in 3rd gear. Response was stellar and so was the curve. Back to the track we went. The turbo, car and driver didn't leave me disappointed! We ran our best time, still to this day, of 9.04 at 159.64 mph! Multiple 9.0 passes that day and all with big MPH. The car had full interior, full BR 3" exhaust, air filter, air bags, door beams, windows all functioning etc. A REAL street car minus the slicks we were running. It was then and still to this day was amazing. This was also done on a standard 5 speed transmission, no dog box, with our Bushwacker Stage 1 in it and a Tilton Clutch.
Here is the 9.0 run.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=efAOL...bbAUAAAAAAAUAA
Well this entire time I had been having more competent drivers behind the wheel. Robert Fuller for autocross/road racing type action, Trent Stanley for drag racing/autocross action and Kevin Lawson for drag racing. My interest in turning was growing because of the "Magnum" our Time Attack car we built, which Robert Fuller drove. I decided to take up road racing with NASA, quickly learned I had some hidden skills and decided to do more of my own driving. I have now driven the RS at Winged Warrior and done well and we have a class called Max Effort at the DSM/EVO Shootout each year. This is a class you have to autocross in and drag race. Your lowest time from each event is added up and the winner is determined by lowest combined time. I'm happy to say I won my class last year, tough competition and close overall times!
Now I have become obsessed with improving the car even further than it has been. I don't know any other EVO that has gone through the development my RS has. I have over 1,000 dyno runs on it, it's been entered in multiple events, has been asked to drag race, stop, turn and look pretty. It's what an EVO is suppose to be. I want to keep taking it to the next level. Now that I am behind the wheel more I have worked on the handling, the braking, the looks and of course still working on the power.
Here are some current action shots of the car as it was the end of this year, 2011:
Getting ready to drop in some TORQUE:
BR 2.3RPM engine:
Current forward facing turbo kit:
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Originally Posted by Johntsi
