1G GSX – E85 – Sam Dyno Tuning With DSM Link
Sam here at the shop tuning with DSM Link on Kris’ 1G GSX is running a used stock 6 bolt long block from a used 1G 140k mile auto DSM he picked up. FP 3065 (GT35R-ish sized) bolt on style turbo. The fuel pressure was dropping big time once the boost got up past 30 psi. With a Walbro 255 lph pump not keeping up, with the car still on the dyno we put in a Walbro 400 lph fuel pump, reset the base pressure and Sam went at it some more. That fixed the fuel pressure problem. There is a bit of surge on the spool up, nothing we could do about it. It is just there on a longer pull on the dyno, it does not do it on the street.
And It’s Andre’s EVO IX For The Win!
Andre was in the shop the other day for some service work and sporting his RRE license plate frame. Here is a pic of his new personalized license plate on his super clean Electric Blue EVO IX.
LEET Roll Cage Build – Part 3 – Prep and Paint
We last left off on this roll cage build with finishing all the welding. Now it is time for the cleanup, prep and paint.
All unnecessary seam sealer and sound deadening gets removed to lighten things as possible. We trimmed off any brackets and tabs. Most small holes get covered and smoothed over with metal tape for a cleaner look.
All the bare steel on the roll cage and welds needed to be cleaned and prepped with a light acid wash.
Everything gets masked off nicely. The floor gets cleaned and roughed up with sandpaper and a Scotchbrite. Blow all the (more…)
Countdown To Mitsubishi Owner’s Day 2012
It is coming up quick! MOD 2012, the largest gathering of Mitsubishis anywhere in the US. RRE will be there again this year with our race cars and some customer cars. We’ll have product displays and the RRE AWD Dynapack Dyno. The show is free to get in. They have free food, a crazy raffle with tons of giveaways. All your friends will be there.
We’ll be running the dyno contest again this year. There is no charge to enter. We are looking for cars that make over 500 whp and make some noise. Contact us if this is you. We will be dynoing pre approved cars only. They give us time for maybe 6 cars.
You will need a recent tune, some kind of race gas or be on E-85. Fresh plugs that are gapped well and no boost leaks. You will be famous and the top 5 cars get $100 each for putting on a show. The winned gets announced and a trophy awarded at the raffle ceremony!
LEET Roll Cage Build – Part 2
Here are the next round of pics building Ben’s full roll cage. The last article had the car getting stripped and interior cleaned. The main hoop and basic bars getting bent and tacked into place.
We had dropped the roll cage down off the foot plates to be able to weld all around the tubes up in the roof area. With the upper bars now welded all the way around, the roll cage goes back up on the floor plates and the floor plates get welded in place.
The b-pillars are closed back in now that they have been lightened.
The door bars are taking shape. The driver’s side has the bars extending deep into the door “NASCAR Style”
The passenger side is a lighter more simple “X” design (more…)
LEET Roll Cage Build – Part 1
With all the 600 whp mods Ben has lately, he felt it was time to step up the safety from a bolt-in Autopower 4 point roll bar to a full cage. Here is the transformation:
The first step was to gut the interior. Everything that could be unbolted was unbolted. The dash comes out, carpet, seats, door panels, headliner, wiring and more.
Bryce was enlisted to help. Anything with a Phillips head screw was his responsibility.
Next is to clean and strip any caulking and paint or undercoating where the base plates will get welded into the chassis. We used 1.75″ diameter .120 wall (more…)
Super True Stories From The Track [part II]
Part I is here.
Text by James Singer
Photos by Mike W
Prep
[it isn't the camera, it is rosacea]
I am a pretty average guy as far as driving cars on the track goes. I am also a pretty average guy in the sense that this economy has taken its toll on my ability to indulge in track days. As a result, I prep my car painstakingly before going to the track to avoid breaks and other disasters. This month, before going to the track I changed out my blown (more…)
Daniel Sanchez’s ’05 Mitsubishi Lancer ES
It’s not every day we feature a Lancer ES, especially one equipped with an automatic transmission, But here we are, scratching our heads in amazement at Daniel Sanchez’s “Lancerlution,” a truly unique project started by Road Race Motorsports and now in the hands of Road Race Engineering (RRM specializes in turboing the non turbo Lancer, RRE specializes in the EVO and Eclipse). Daniel, a 29-year-old So Cal native, took a foul ba11 to the head at a Dodgers game a few years ago and suddenly came up with the idea of turning his daily driven Mitsu into the fastest and most powerful slushbox-equipped Lancer in the country. OK, we may have made up the part about the foul ball, but you’ve got to admit that it takes a special kind of mind to cook up an idea like this.
Not that Daniel’s love for the CS2A Lancer is out of the ordinary, In fact, having scoured evom.com for ideas on how to make his Lancer faster, Daniel discovered a fellow auto-equipped, eighth-gen Lancer in Puerto Rico that posted an impressive 12.6 at 110 mph in the quarter-mile. He also learned that Road Race Motorsports’ own CS2A Lancer has tripped the lights at 12,9 at 106 mph, and since RRM is local to Daniel, it was a natural choice to turn to them for help in pursuing his dream. With 302 whp at 14 lbs of boost thanks to a complete RRM engine build and 20g turbo kit, Daniel’s Lancer is already plenty quick. But with upgrades coming to the fuel system along with an ECU retune, RRE has told Daniel to expect something in the neighborhood of 370 ponies at the front wheels, which just might be good enough to get him deep into the 12s at the dragstrip, As Daniel told us, “With just a few more mods, I’m sure my Lancer will be the fastest in the U.S. I’m focused on breaking the record and raising the bar, My dream would be the high lls, but low12s is fine too.”
The slushbox hasn’t been forgotten, either, having been seriously reinforced by Jersey-based specialist LEVEL10. With upgraded valve bodies, oil pump and torque converter, this is one ES Lancer that’s ready to launch hard| It’s also looking pretty hard, thanks to RRM EVO IX front and rear bumpers, paint-matched carbon-fiber hood and trunk, black roof (soon to be carbon fiber) and headlights, and a drag-spec rear wing. Once RRE completes the current round of upgrades, you may just be looking at the fastest auto Trans Lancer in the country, and perhaps even the world. This may not be a record that was on your radar before now, but’ you’ve still got to admire the determination it takes to claim a title like this.
“Why We Picked It”
How often do you see an eighth-gen Lancer with an auto Trans and a serious turbo engine build? Pretty damn cool, if you, ask us, but we would’ve liked to have seen a wider set of wheels (at least the fronts) wrapped in some sticky DOT drag radials since this baby EVO is aimed at being the fastest slush box Lancer in the country
Extremespeed AWD Competition – Willow Springs – Round #1
RRE tuned EVOs took first place in both the Street Class and Modified Class of the season opening event in the Extremespeed AWD Challenge Time Attack this last weekend. We brought out the shop truck and tools and an empty trailer for support.
Gevorg took 1st place in Street Class with a 1:33 in his RRE tuned daily driver white EVO 9.
RRE customer Kevin Fairley was fastest in Modified Class at 1:31 in his EVO 9 track car. He recently changed to a BBK Full turbo from CBRD and is pushing 480 whp on E-85 on a stock long block.
Kevin was running with his new side exit exhaust that we just built. It sounds incredible!
Results and points from the day:
Show Time – Tim’s EVO X
Nothing beats watching artists do their craft up close and in person. The work these guys do getting the lighting and angles all lined up never ceases to amaze me. Look for this to be a cover car early next year.
Tim Smith – Spa Time for his EVO X
Tim is in Afghanistan right now but his EVO X is here getting the royal treatment. Got a photoshoot coming up so it is time to scrub it up and lay on the cute. From dirty track ‘ho to beauty queen in 48 hours!
Ken’s 4G Eclipse Spyder
Ken has been a customer forever here @ RRE. He had a clean 1G Eclipse when we first met him. He landed a dream job @ MMSA for a while and used the opportunity to trade up to a 2007 4G Eclipse GT. Ever since he picked it up he has been slowly modding it.
Getting a 2007 Spyder GT V6 with 6 speed manual was tricky. As MMSA continued production into 2007, manual transmission GTs became super rare, they were thinking that people would only want autos. The color is called Ultra Red Pearl and it has the factory aero kit and Premium Package.
Ken had us install a MagnaFlow cat back exhaust and an Injen intake. The 4G GT being a large 3.8 liter V6 has a great burble and rumble to it when you add an aftermarket exhaust system. Mix in the sound from an open intake at full throttle and it is difficult to keep your foot out of the loud pedal :-) We lowered the car with Eibach ProKit springs. Ken went with some super pimp 20″ Giovanna wheels with Goodyear F1 Asymmetrics 245/30/20 to try to fill out the huge wheel wells that come on the 4G Eclipse.
Ken fabbed custom front splitter himself along with the custom carbon side pieces and carbon interior trim, MOMO shift knob and the RRE emblem on the dash finish off the interior nicely.
Ken got a pic in the January issue of Super Street magazine in the Reader’s Rides section!
Heat Protection
Back over the last month we have been tweaking on Ben’s new track car. Remember the pretty red EVO RS on the cover of DSport? That one. With the big manly Borg-Warner EFR Series turbo and loopty-loo manifold hanging out there baking everything for 30 minutes at a time on the road course, some protection from all that heat was in order.
How things looked a month ago:
Ben started with moving the radiator hose away from the manifold. Then we connected the water cooling ports to the twin Tial wastegates to keep the diaphragms cool. We had to re-configure the water pipe and thermostat housing to try to keep the hose routing clean and tee fittings under control. The boost and coolant hoses had to be heat sleeved.
My favorite part is the heat shield that Lod came up with to get the manifold heat up and out of the engine compartment. It is a simple bolt on piece of sheetmetal with some reflective insulation on it. It directs the heat up and out the hood vent before it can bake anything else under the hood. This chopped pic shows it in relation to the hood vent.
The car is getting prepped for Superlap Battle November 8-9 @ Buttonwillow Raceway.
EVO 6 Custom Fresh Air Box
We got a beautiful EVO 6 Group N rally car here in the shop that was abused at the hands of a scooby shop. Scooby owners must tolerate a different level of abuse since the other shop thought all the work on this poor car was completely normal and up to par :-P
The cold air intake was more of a street cleaner intake. It was about 2″ lower than anything else under the car. That is it hanging under the radiator support.
On the EVO 4-7 the intake is further back and the battery behind the headlamp. That is why they had the little NACA duct in the hood on the left side. So we fabbed up a 4″ inlet that ran from the side there to the GT35R turbo.
Prototype air box with the 4″ by 9″ AEM Dryflow filter:
It also draws air in from the fender well as well as from the hood vent. After the mockup Matt fabbed the final part from sheetmetal.
Car Feature: Stealthy IX SE
This is a pretty sweet IX we recently did. Really nice powerband for not too much money spent and incredibly stock appearing under the hood.
Results from 91 octane and E-85
List of mods:
Cosworth Drop in filter
ETS 3.5″ FMIC
Car Feature: Jason representing DSMs in the PHX!!
Mike liked this picture of Jason’s Talon so much he asked me to set up a feature on it.
Check out the feature after the break!!
DSM of the Week!!
Thank You Jason from PHX!! Expect a full feature soon!!
License Plate of the Week – Alter EVO
Chris Bertino’s 1990 GSX showing off his alternative to the EVO!
Ask for a license plate frame with any order. It’s free! You just need to ask for it. Got a pic of your personalized license plate with an RRE plate frame on it? Send it to us and we’ll put it here.
AEM Meth/Water Injection Flow Gauge Testing
Michael Ferrara and Stephan Papadakis were here at the shop today shooting some video for DSport while we were testing The Boz’s meth fail safe setup. You might remember Keith from a couple dyno shootouts with his white 700whp GVR4 last year. The GVR4 was getting a bit scetchy with that kind of whp and he went to the dark side and picked up a clean used EVO 8.
The Boz had just installed the AEM meth/water injection kit along with the AEM flow gauge and so it was a good car to do some fail safe testing on. The car has an EVO 9 turbo and stock cams. Boz had an AEM EMS on his GVR4 so he went with it again on the EVO.
We tested the fail safe with an overflow condition (simulating a hole in a hose), underflow (clogged nozzle) and also with no power to the pump. Look for the article and video from DSport Magazine in a month or two.
License Plate of the Week
Corey Jenson’s ’97 AWD Eclipse converted from a GS-T. He hangs with LA DSM – San Diego, CA
And runs on E-85!
EVO of the DAY
is a RALLIART!!
<3 Ralliart Sportbacks!!
Thanks to Steven Steck for going BIG and Repping for RRE on the HOOD!!!!!
Willow Springs Track Night
Here is a cool video of Scot Grey out in his dope 1G at STREETS of Willow Springs braving the hot hot summer heat with some night action!! Scot can normally be found driving cars on the dyno as RRE’s tuner.
Our good friend and both customer and supplier Ziggy from Zeitronix also took his 1G GSX out for some night runs.
