EVO and Eclipse Turbo Parts and Performance

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Royz Pikes Peak EVO 8 – Hoonigan Build Biology

roy hoonigan

 

The Hoonigans just did a Build Biology video feature on Roy Narvaez’s EVO 8 that we built for him back in 2015 for Pikes Peak.

We built the car for Roy out of James Singer’s old street car that got rear ended by a girl in a Jeep putting on her makeup in the morning commute. Even though the damage in the rear was just the rear body panels and rear part of the floor, the car was declared a total loss by an idiot insurance adjuster that didn’t know the difference between a Lancer and an EVO. Roy bought the shell and RRE took it from there.

 

Roy raced the car in 2015 but that year the course got shortened due to weather. He came back in 2016 for some satisfaction to complete the full course. But that year the mountain got him instead. He was driving in practice up in the W’s section and the straight road just moved and made a curve out of nowhere. You can see it in the crash video.  You can watch the in car video and the road moving out of no where just stuns poor Roy and side of the road just wrecks into the car. Weirdest thing to watch it is. He was done for that year’s attempt.

Back in LA Roy took it to a body shop to fix but they tole him the car was wrecked so it was unrepairable. Yes, the body shop said because the car was crashed they couldn’t fix it. The frame was bent. Silly us we thought that was what body shops did, fix crashed cars. The car had too much work in it to throw it away. So Mike got out his big hammer and with some 1950’s frame pulling technology he straightened the core shell and floor and replaced the frame rail and radiator support. Some new APR bod panels and suspension and it was ready to race again  for the 2017 Pikes Peak Hill Climb.

 

 

Check out the video for a closeup look at the car and some stories from Robert Garcia about the build.


Road Race Engineering Gift Certificates


Does a lack of last minute gift ideas have you down?  Here is your solution for the EVO or Eclipse junkie in your life! A RRE Gift Certificate. Make that special someone in your life the happiest person on earth Christmas morning! Granted you are already a little miffed that they spend all their spare money and time here. Just try not to be jealous and be an enabler with their Mitsubishi addiction for once :-) 

You can pay by credit card, money order or by PayPal or in person with small unmarked bills. Please e-mail or call for payment options. We prefer a little personal interaction with these to be sure they go to the correct address and person so as to not spoil any surprises.

We can send them to you by regular mail, however at this date a printable version by e-mail works wonders for your sanity.

sales@roadraceengineering.com


EVO Factory “Mag Style” Lug Nuts – Chrome and Black

Finish

 

Black

Black

 

Factory Mag style lug nuts are needed for the factory wheels. These use the regular 21mm socket the same as stock. Other “Acorn” style lug nuts and cute anodized and JDM fruity colors lug nuts wont work correctly with the factory wheels. They will not seat correctly, these do. Now available in Chrome and Black finish.

Price includes USPS Priority Mail Shipping in the US (2-3 days delivery)

 

 

 


997 GT3R at California Festival of Speed

Road Race Engineering with driver Alexander Radu racing his 997 Porsche GT3R at the Porsche Club of America, San Diego Region California Festival of Speed at Auto Club Speedway. Helping out with track support and expertise was Bob Faieta and Caden Loftus from Competition Motorsports

This is the 2nd sprint race of the CFOS weekend on Sunday. Dr Alex had a strong start and was running in first place in the GTA class and 2nd place overall to the GT1 Class 996 turbo of Dwain Dement from Vision Motorsports. A late race pass by Daniel Davis in a Turbo Cup Car in the GT1 class dropped Dr Alex to 3rd overall.

The final result was 3rd overall and first place in the GTA class. His best lap time of 1:39.03 in the race was his fastest lap for the three day weekend.

The car is a 2013 spec 997 GT3R from Manthey Racing in Germany. It was built to campaign at Nurburgring and endurance races. This was the first race in the United States for the GT3R. Dr Alex is familiar to our Mitsubishi customers normally driving the RRE widebody EVO 6.


Juha Rintanen – FD Long Beach Prep and Dyno

Juha Rintanen is from Finland and was in town this last week prepping his 240 SX for the first Formula Drift round here in Long Beach.

They camped out for a week in a corner of the shop to do some maintenance, general cleanup and swap out the intake manifold and injectors.


Here he is on the RRE Dynapack Chassis Dyno. The car has a 2JZ punched out to 3.4 liters with a Garrett GTX3582 turbo running on Thunderbolt E85 race gas.

 

The following day they went testing at Willow Springs’ Horse Thief Mile:

After the test day they put a new clutch in the car here at the shop and were off to Long Beach for qualifying just in time. Good luck guys!


Getting Sideways With Coco Zurita

GTTNSIDEWAYS is a short movie featuring Coco’s, BMX bike, his GTR 35, his bobber featuring RRE driver Coco Zurita Pro BMX rider from Chile.
A 4K movie filmed during 10 days in California.

Filmed & edited by JC Pieri


Factory Five Racing GTM Tuned by Sam @ RRE

overhead

 

Here is a Factory  Five GTM on the Road Race Engineering Chassis Dyno being tuned by Sam “icantunafish” C. using HP Tuners software. The car is is built primarily for the NASA 25 Hours of Thunderhill race but also runs in other NASA events and some west coast endurance races as the schedule allows. It is essentially a stock LS3 small block with an open exhaust.

 

 

Video is the car on track at Buttonwillow running with NASA driven by Carl Rydquist.

 

Team: Prototype Development Group
Car: #4 Factory Five Racing GTM
Driver: Carl Rydquist
Track: Buttonwillow CW13

The Factory Five Racing GTM is owned by Yvonne and Richard Migliori, powered by a GMPP LS3 tuned by Road Race Engineering.


Sand Rail With AMG M113K Motor AEM Infinity ECU Dyno Tune

Basically this is a stock Mercedes/AMG Supercharged 5.4 Liter V8 in a sand rail chassis. The headers add some additional HP along with the AEM Infinity ECU. The rail is being tuned here on the RRE Dynapack Chassis Dyno by Sam C “icantunafish” The motor runs on California 91 octane pump gas with the Infinity ECU controlling the 50% water and 50% methanol injection.

The AEM Fail safe gauge keeps tabs on the flow rate and shuts the meth party down if the flow is out of range. If the meth nozzle is clogged of the pump is dying, then the flow will be low and the fail safe cuts in. If a meth pressure hose were to pop off or otherwise spring a leak then the fail safe would see too high a flow and shut things down also.


RRE @ Mitsubishi Owner’s Day – 2016

Every year in July Mitsubishi Motors North America throws a huge party at their Cypress CA headquarters to celebrate and thank Mitsubishi owners from all over the West Coast. RRE has been there every year since the beginning. The event attracts about 3,000 people that start showing up to get a good spot as early as 2am. There is music, free food, raffles and every year of every Mitsubishi to look at.

 

Jem Fx Evo

 

 

rre cars

 

 

RRE Dyno Contest

We have time to dyno 5 or 6 cars from the time MOD gets rolling at 9am and when they start the raffle at noon. This year there were a couple big guns going for record numbers so everyone was a little shy to get on the dyno. So John Mueller put his blue EVO 8 road racing car on to get things rolling. Chris, Matt and FNG Bin were busy busting the cars on and off the dyno in the sun.

dyno on

 

For the big numbers it was between Atif tuned by English Racing and Albert tuned by Reese Tuning.  All CT9A chassis. No EVO Xs stepped up this year. We always save a spot for a good running EVO X, DSM or 3KGT.

Results worked out like this:

1st Place Atif Tuned by English Racing – 1156 whp and 660 ft lbs of torque. The turbo was a FR SLR 72/85 on a 2.0

2nd Place Albert Tuned by Reese Tuning – 912 whp and 693 ft lbs of torque. Turbo is a FP/Tial 67mm “Super 94” on a 2.3 bottom end.

3rd Place Muellerized Tuned by Sam @ RRE – 470 whp and 425 ft lbs torque. Turbo is a ball bearing BBK on a 2.3 bottom end.

1st place got a set of Motegi wheels, 2nd place got a set of Nitto tires, 3rd place got a Zeitronix wide band kit.

RRE Girls!

Erica Nagashima and Erica Ocampo are always a crowd favorite at the RRE compound. Lots of opportunities for fans to take pics with them, get autographs signed and some free RRE swag passed out.

ericas-01

 

 

 


Pikes Peak 2016 – Jeff Denmeade EVO 8 Race Wrapup

Pikes Peak 2016 Time Attack 2 Class EVO 8 driven by Australian rally driver Jeff Denmeade of Meadsports with prep and crew support by Road Race Engineering. Tuning by David Hinde of Merlin Tuning.

Jeff’s recap of race day:

After seeing that we had a small chance to take the number 2 Viper, we knew 4th place was ours to loose, a finish was more important than a fantasy. The mountain was yet to play all it’s cards, it had 10 hours left to teach some lessons.

peak

With an amazing amount of red flags that left us bewildered, with a huge amount of cars being turned around and sent back down the hill for restarts the day dragged on.

Finally the gates opened for us and we were let into the start zone area, safety checked, and given the clear order, we were now under starter orders. Revs raised, launch control enabled. Great start! The best all weekend. A good start, even on a rally usually, seemingly, sets the atmosphere for the mood for the run.

Concentrating on accuracy first for the lower section, quickly in 4th gear hitting all the high speed apexes, all in 4th gear. This sets the mind up for the run, accuracy first, speed second.

In all the run was effortless, even faultless, but at some point it felt like the car simply ran out of air, not pulling as strong as it did in practice, no real time to fight it, just had to keep getting it to the apexes. Suddenly cars were stopped all over the course, hoods up and steam coming out, in large places there was little grip on the pavement due to heat, brake zones were harder to read with over run forcing diving into the apexes.

Data later showed that the car ran out of air, due to a zone on the mountain where there was simply no humidity to cool the air going into the airbox, or radiator. The car became a barometer meter itself. The car spiked from 97 degrees Celsius, to a whopping 113 in this odd ‘dead-zone’. But the old dog hung in there.

Running the same specification we ran in 2010 when we won the Time attack class, even the same turbo, the old EVO proved it can run reliably, with simple ecu updates and reflashes running constant all week.

start

Typical of Pikes, we were entertained with a ice storm, then a hail storm at the top, leaving all of us to tip toe down a few miles on the ice with race rubber, when we were rounded up let loose to come down under a safety car. How we all made it down without someone sliding off is beyond me.

Only one car didn’t make up due to the storm, when the Ecoboost Mustang simply couldn’t go up the hills on the ice, at some point sliding backwards down the road, deciding to park it for safety sake.

End result, 4th, which was expected, and achieved, and not wasted. We drive the car up into the trailer on it’s own power, lock it down, and have a post race drink in the spa.

In reflection, it was an amazing year, and the team was simply the best to have around me. Mike and Matt and Bryce from Road Race Engineering in California, and our tuner David Hinde (aka Merlin) from Sydney kept the car at it’s peak, and were always ahead of the curve on anything that may have happened. We’ll be back.

Cheers to all.

Jeff

Final results for Time Attack 2 Production were:

1st Place Nick Robinson 2017 Acura NSX Hybrid – 10:28
2nd Place Kevin Wesley 2016 Viper ACR – 10:39
3rd Place Stephanie Reaves 2016 Viper ACR – 10:56
4th Place Jeff Denmeade 2003 EVO 8 – 11:32
5th Place Fumio Nutahara 2015 GT86 12:36
DNF Kash Singh 2016 Ford Mustang


Pikes Peak 2016 – Jeff Denmeade – Middle Section Practice

Friday is the last of 4 days of practice on the mountain. For us, this was the middle section. This starts at Glen Cove just past the ski area and goes up past the tree line and through the “W”s and stops at Devils Playground. All the go up a couple minutes apart. Once all the cars go up, they clear the road and send everyone back down. The cars do any prep or changes and go back up again. We hope to get 4 or sometimes 5 runs on a short section like this. The drivers don’t get to connect the entire course until race day.

 

middle-going up

 

The car had been running fine all week. We were looking to see how the additional ducting that we had made the day before had changed. In the practice sessions we run from daybreak until 9 am. The weather is very cool. But come race day our start time wont be until about noon. And instead of running a short 4-5 mile section, we’ll be running the entire 15 mile course flat out. We wanted to compare coolant temps here with the higher to[ section that we ran earlier in the week.

 

 

We were also able to track the tire pressure at the altitude went higher to best set a start pressure. The run group that we are in has some wild cars. A good Pikes Peak car always looks like it was drawn by an 8 year old. Because of the thin air up this high, the aero is always exaggerated. You end up seeing crazy open wheel cars with giant double wings in the front and rear. Tunnels and diffusers, canards out a foot in each direction. We see the open class electric cars of Rhys Millen and “Monster” Tajima, stock cars, Mike Ryan’s Freightliner semi-truck, every concept of an open wheel car you can imagine…

Here is a video of the middle section practice run. One run, three different camera angles back to back.

 


Pikes Peak 2016 – Jeff Denmeade EVO 8 – Practice and Qualifying

As day two arrived, it was a 2:45 am wake up call to get ready to head up the mountain. It takes about a half hour to get through the gate and to the pits. Then set up, get the car and driver warmed up and be ready for the session to start as soon as it is light enough to drive without headlights. We have the Pikes Peak Highway available for practice and qualifying runs until 9 am each day. The competitors are divided into two groups of cars and one group of motorcycles and quads. Each group runs a different section of the 15 mile 152 turn course. The start line is at 9,000 feet with the finish just above 14,000 feet. The air is thin at the top!

Quali-sunrise

It often works out that you get only 2 or 3 runs on the longer bottom section. On the two upper sections you can get as many as 5 runs if everyone behaves. Today will be our day for qualifying on the bottom section.  It was the other race car group’s qualifying yesterday and will be the motorcycles for qualifying tomorrow. Early on there were some offs and mechanical break downs with the other competitors and it became clear that we would only get 2 runs. We chose to concentrate on data logging for boost and to monitor temperatures.

Quali-start line 03

Our MeadeSports/Road Race EVO 8, which was taken back to stock configuration for this year’s event put in a good effort to qualify just 1.6 seconds behind the Electric Class Tesla running in Ludicrous Mode. We had been running 3rd in our class all week during practice. Running a bit behind the 2017 Hybrid Acura NSX and the faster of the two 2016 Viper ACRs. The second 650 hp Viper ACR finally found its mountain footing this morning and we were bumped. Our qualifying time of  4:48 put us 4th in class.

Quali-merlin

In all, the team was satisfied with the running and as the times got quicker. Jeff was actually faster than he had run in qualifying in 2012 in the Australian built carbon fiber Skelta sports car.

“We take these qualifying times as an indication, but race day is so very different than practice and qualifying as we run in the heat of the day on race day, whereas qualifying is done in the cooler early morning. We have half the power of the top 3 cars now ahead of us, but the mountain saves its joker cards until race day” Jeff said. “We’re getting closer to the business end of the week of work, I’m exhausted, but excited”, Jeff went onto say.

 

Quali-times


Pikes Peak 2016 Meade Sports/RRE EVO 8 – Practice and Day 1

 

Tuesday the MeadeSports Road/Race Engineering team took use of the optional practice day to run on the bottom section to start data gathering and sighting the twisty tarmac that is this section of the spectacular Pikes Peak road. This day isn’t a mandatory day; mandatory practice starts Wednesday the 22nd.

 

01

After overnight heavy rains and storms, it was a pleasure to see the sky clear, even if it was 3 am and we were all awake getting coffee’d up, trying to look alive. By 3:30am the team was headed out the door and making way up Pikes Peak highway for practice. About 85% of the teams took advantage of the optional practice. After selecting a pit spot we waited for the 5:10 am siren to signal a start to call for cars to be lined up for practice.
Tires checked and pressures set, oil checked by the team, Jeff suited up and made his way to the start line for a simple 70% sighting run of the course to start familiarization with the twisty roads of the mountain that keeps calling him back.
The first run was simple, accurate, of sorts, and of course fun, 5:00 minutes later the run is done and Jeff’s wife Catherine is waiting at the end of the course to check tire pressures and temps. A quick turnaround and he’s back in line at the top waiting to follow everyone down the hill to start again.
The second run was only slightly quicker by several seconds with a 4:53 as the grip of the tires pushed a bit more, but nothing sacrificed, we still have a week to go before the big day.
With data gathered, for Mike from RRE and the one they call ‘Merlin’ (aka David Hinde of EVO tuning fame) we chose not to take a 3rd run, choosing to pack it up and head home for the day to do more tinkering on the car. Well, Mike and Matt from RRE did, Jeff played in the Jacuzzi with Bryce. and watched from there.
Then for the first day of official practice we were on the top section, which arguably, is the fastest and most dangerous part of the mountain. Outside of a slight snow fall, in summer, which made the road a bit slippery, the road has been through some changes in the past where there were more bumps, and even repairs in its short history of being paved.
Times were good, and pretty much expected, with the Meadesports / RoadRace Engineering EVO 8 slotting in between two new Viper ACRs and the new NSX from Japan making its world debut in competition. “Wasn’t anything outside of what we expected in the end” said Denmeade. “We are within 30 seconds of the new NSX, and our nearest competitor is 30 seconds behind. But we all still have to get to the top, our battle will be with the other new Viper” he followed up with.
12
“With the boys from Road/Race Engineering, Americas Mitsubishi Evo gurus on our team I feel we are in the best position to put in our best time on the mountain, all going well weather wise” Denmeade said.
Today’s practice at the top was shortened due to oil being spilled by a competitor who then went off and into the guard rail, limiting the runs from an expected 6, down to just 3 on the fast flowing top section. “We were only doing boost checks today” Denmeade said, “it’s a long way up there with the course climbing from 12,000 to 14,000 feet, all cars suffer in their own way, some in tyres, some in water temperature. But we got what we needed.”

RRE Competition Stainless Steel Race Headers Eclipse GS

RRE Competition Stainless Steel Race Headers Eclipse GS (4 cyl) $475 plus $40 shipping within the lower 48 states. Contact us for shipping rates to Canada. Include your full shipping address. If you see a crazy price when adding them to the cart, it is because they are out of stock and in production. Contact us to get on the wait list for the next batch.

These beautiful fully stainless steel headers come complete with everything you need for a bolt on install. The 4-2-1 design makes power all through the entire RPM band. With just an intake, exhaust and headers you can see over 170hp to the wheels. Price includes SS headers and all necessary fittings and adapters.

Made in the USA!

Not for use on public highways vehicles in the USA. Not for sale at all within California.

Install Tips and Instructions Eclipse GS

Typical HP gains on an Eclipse GS:

gsdyno-stg3


Dr Alex EVO 6 at Willow Springs – Porsche Owners Club Cup Race

Dr Alex and his Varis Widebody EVO 6 ran with the Porsche Owner’s Club at Willow Springs on the big track. Running in the GT-1 class in the Cup Race Alex qualified 11th in the Cup Race and finished 11th overall.

Alex also ran one session in the Time Attack and his 1:28 stood for the fastest time for the weekend.

The EVO 6 is powered by a RRE 2.3 with a Garrett GT3582R turbo. It runs on E85 and is tuned using an AEM Infinity ECU.


Dyno Sound Recording

Major video game studios love the Dynapack dynos. The Dynapack hub style dyno is silent, they don’t get the tires on the rollers noises like from other chassis dynos, just all car noise. It also helps us while tuning since we are better able to her the engine sounds.

base mic

All mic’d up and nowhere to go. Here is a pic of Harry Kong’s Ark Performance wide body Genesis Coupe on the RRE Dynapack chassis dyno doing some sound recording today for a new video game. The level of detail for real sound these guys is nuts.

genisis

And yes those 325 wide Nittos are from the rear of this little Hyundai :-p

gtr

The 2nd car on the dyno for video game sound recording today. Coco Zurita’s #czgtr77 R35 Odd but for some reason this 3.8 V6 sounds a bit different from the previous 3.8 V6 that was on earlier :-) The GReddy exhaust sounds nuts on an angry GTR. At high rpm the sound between the turbos and intake and exhaust all combine to make this tearing violence noise that is pure music to the ears. I can’t say what game this is for but when you get the credits to upgrade to a modded GTR, you’ll get to find out what it sounds like to drive Coco’s car :-) 16 tracks of all car music. I counted some 16 different microphones including a Dolby 5.1 surround sound setup in the car for this session. Microphones on the intake, engine, interior, surface mount on the intercooler pipe, 8 on the exhaust alone. Fun stuff!


Suffering From A Loss?

Matt Farah from The Smoking Tire put up this excellent PSA for those suffering from loss.

Yes that is Tony Bird’s 1G AWD!


Dr Alex EVO 6 at Willow Springs PCA Time Trial

 

Back to the track this weekend with Dr Alex and the EVO 6 Running with the PCA killing off some old tires, dialing in the new Ohlins TTX 3 way adjustable suspension and looking towards the POC Tribute to Le Mans Cup Race in May.

boost

In the morning we went over the game plan for running the EVO 6 at the PCA Event. I explained to Dr Alex that since we were guests at this Porsche Club event, wouldn’t it be polite to stay off the boost button and not run away with things too much. “I’m a Porsche owner!” he says as he lays down the fastest time of all the TT run groups. So much for detante.

After setting fast time we spent the rest of the day smashing bugs on the front of the car. It rained on and off all day but at about 3 pm it came down pretty good. When it cleared up the rainbow came out i just the right place.


Pirelli World Challenge Round 1 and 2 at COTA with Carl Rydquist

 

The Pirelli World Challenge race weekend was 4 days in Texas at the Circuit of the Americas, but it seems like it went this fast :-P

RRE went along to help service for Carl Rydquist and the CA Sport Nissan Team at Circuit of the Americas in Austin Texas with the #34 CA Sport Champion Spark Plugs Team Nissan 370Z Nismo ready to rock and hoping for a podium finish. Austin offered perfect weather conditions and large crowds of fans came out to enjoy the Pirelli World Challenge season opener.

 

After the dust had settled, Carl Rydquist came home with a 3rd place podium from a truly nail-biting race 1 and a pole position for race 2.

pit talk

 

“I almost can’t believe it” says Carl. “I wanted and waited so long to get a shot to race in the Pirelli World Challenge and thanks to the amazing CA Sport Team Nissan and my crew guys from Road Race Engineering I found myself in a fierce three car battle for the Touring Car win. I ended up 2 seconds behind CA Sport regular driver Vesko Kozarov who ended up winning after 40 minutes of hard racing in the other team car [#3], and given this is my first race with the team and at the spectacular Circuit of the Americas that 3rd place pretty much feels like a win!”


Carl Rydquist set the fastest laptime of all drivers in race 1 which qualified him for the pole position for race 2. He set off in the lead from a standing start in front of Vesko Kozarov and second place finisher from race 1, Toby Grahovec, however after 11 laps of nail-biting action among the front-running cars he was forced to retire the car with a power steering fluid leak. Vesko Kozarov went onto claim 3rd behind Toby Grahovec and Nick Wittmer, adding to the tally of trophies for CA Sport Team Nissan.

Carl Says about Saturday:

On Saturday I started from pole position and did my first standing start with the #34 CA Sport Nissan 370Z Nismo.

This video shows the start and the first few laps from Saturday’s race. It went pretty well until an unexpected oil leak forced me to retire the car just before halfway into the race. You may notice that the Touring Car class is pretty evenly matched, but it all varies a bit during the different stages of these 40 minute races depending on how hard you push and when you push, how your car is setup and if you run clear or if you are involved in constant battles. Also differences in engine power curves and gearing between the different cars have an impact in different areas of a track.

All in all this was a great last minute race deal that came together. It became a valuable learning experience to get to know Circuit of the Americas, the Pirelli World Challenge, the strengths and weaknesses of the Nismo 370Z and the competition, and most of all how these 40 minute races develop and how the Pirelli racing tires need to be run in order to be in the battle for a win at the end.

lap times
“The second race began really well” adds Carl. “Toby and Nick’s cars eventually showed a lot more pace than in race 1 though but another podium seemed to be within reach pretty far in to the race and it is a bummer to miss out on championship points so early in the season, but in total there were too many positives to be anything but grateful. I am really happy for the CA Sport Team Nissan to get such a great start of the season and I am excited for the future!”


CBS Sports will air the races on TV on Thu March 17 at 8PM ET, with re-air March 17 9PM ET and March 19 12.30 ET.
The livestream from the races is available for encore viewing at MotorTrend OnDemand.

Next up on the Pirelli World Challenge Touring Car competition schedule is Canadian Tire Motorsports Park in Bowmanville, ON co-headlining with the NASCAR Canadian Tire Series as part of the Victoria Day Speedfest, on May 19-22, 2016.

One lap qualifying ride along with Carl:

Carl Rydquist’s next event on the competition schedule is a 3-hour twilight endurance race with the Prototype Development Groups’ Factory Five Racing GTM at Willow Springs International Raceway, CA, on Friday night March 11th, 2016.
Car: CA Sport Nissan 370Z
Race: Pirelli World Challenge at Circuit of the Americas 2016 Round 1 and 2
Driver: Carl Rydquist
Team & Sponsors: CA Sport / Road Race Engineering / Champion Spark Plugs, Pettit Kohn Ingrassia & Lutz / APR Performance, OS Giken / Stance / ADVAN GT / MOTUL


Coco Zurita 2015 Quick Recap

THIS is why we hang out with Coco Zurita! A quick recap of all the fun we had with Coco in 2015.

 


AEM E-85 Rated Fuel Pump for the EVO X 50-1220

$130 inc Priority Mail 2/3 Day Shipping

The AEM 340 lph drop in fuel pump for the EVO X (AEM part number 50-1220) is currently our go-to fuel pump for the best fit and best reliability. We never had much long term luck with the other drop in pumps for the EVO X. Premature wear and clogged up filters were becoming too common.

We have also seen many stock fuel pumps die, some on the dyno right in front of us. While the stock pump when everything is working perfect will keep up with up to 350 whp on pump gas, once the pump and fuel gets hot some random fuel pressure drop offs become common. This has caused some busted spark plugs and the resultant mess from running lean.

There will be random reviews around the web on other versions of AEM fuel pumps. They are older reviews and “How-To’s” before this EVO X specific pump was available. Some people try to use the Walbro 255 size pumps and they require special expensive adapters that eliminate the fuel filter housing. Look! No filter housing :-P

pump no filter

In addition to running no pick up sock, the car that this pump came out of had no fuel filter under the hood either. He was on his second motor after breaking sparkplugs on his first motor with this setup.

Many people confuse the fuel pre filter on the bottom of the pump for the actual fuel filter. That pick up pre filter is just there to keep swarf out of the fuel pump. You need a proper filter after the fuel pump (miniature inline screen filters don’t count)

pick_up_sock

This means that we prefer to keep the factory filter housing in place and functional. We have also seen some seriously sketchy fuel pump installs. Some by under water basket weavers, many with kinked hoses. Often with the wrong hose not rated for high pressure. Somehow something that seems easy to install ends up making a mess.

x fuel pump underwater backet weaving

The AEM 50-1220 fuel pump also fits several other vehicles besides the 2008-15 EVO X and RalliArt. Here is AEM’s propaganda for all vehicles:

AEM’s 340lph E85-Compatible High Flow In-Tank Fuel Pumps feature robust internal construction that is designed to withstand the low lubricity characteristics of ethanol and methanol fuels, and are tested to work with ethanol fuels up to E100, methanol fuels up to M100 and all types of gasoline. This physical size of this fuel pump makes it a great replacement for the 2000-’09 Honda S2000, 2000-’05 Honda Civic, 1992-’01 Acura Integra, 2002-’06 Acura RSX, 2002-’15 Mitsubishi Evo, 2002-’07 Subaru WRX, 2013-’15 Subaru BRZ, 2013-’15 Scion FRS and many other popular enthusiast applications (NOTE:The plug wiring may need to be updated for some applications). Its compact, short body design (65mm length) with mounting hooks also makes it ideal in universal applications that have fuel tanks with tight tolerances.

Fuel Pump Drawing 50-1215

The AEM 340lph E85-Compatible High Flow In-Tank Fuel Pump is designed for in-tank mounting on high performance naturally aspirated and forced induction vehicles. It features a compact 39mm diameter that fits most applications and an offset inlet design that eases installation.

all parts

The 320lph E85-Compatible High Flow In-Tank fuel pump includes a wiring harness, pre filter and O-rings. Every AEM 320lph E85-Compatible Fuel Pump is tested to flow 340 lph at 43 PSI before it is packaged for sale.

  • Tested and compatible with ethanol fuels up to E100, methanol fuels up to M100 and all types of gasoline
  • Designed for high output naturally aspirated and forced induction EFI vehicles
  • In tank design
  • Each pump is tested to flow 340 lph @ 43 PSI
  • Compact body (39mm diameter x 65mm length)
  • Includes pre filter, hose, clamps, flying lead, end cap and rubber buffer sleeve

#CZGTR77 SEMA Crunch and Debut

Three short weeks ago, Coco Zurita’s GTR made an appearance at RRE to get ready for SEMA.  Since then, the car has been totally redone!  Since it made the debut Tuesday at the SEMA Show, we’re excited to finally release all the details.

saw rear

First, we started working on installing the Rocket Bunny widebody kit in the middle of October.  Don’t mind us, we’re just taking a sawzall to a $100,000 car here.

cut front fender

Yeah, that is wide.

fit rear fende

We continued to massage the body kit install for the next couple of days, before we were able to take a look at the fitment on the new rear wing and diffuser.  Looking good so far, but the timeline was SHORT!  At this point, we only had about two weeks until it was time to hit the road and get to the show.

mounting

The next day, we got to install the brand new Project Mu brake pads and rotors – if you’re at the SEMA show this week, be sure to look at all the details on this build.  Great sponsors really made this little details awesome.

caalipers-mu pads

old-new

 The GReddy titanium exhaust went on.  It looks great, performs well, basically weighs nothing, and really sounds killer.

muffler

We were waiting on more parts to show up, but in the meantime, Coco’s sponsor Red Bull came through to keep us caffeinated.  Long nights of SEMA prep start to take a serious toll.

fridge

Considering the timeline on this project, things were moving along great, but about this point in the build, we had to pick up the pace.  With just a few days to go until it was time to leave for SEMA we found out that a vinyl wrap just wasn’t going to happen.  Plan B: time to paint. If any of you have painted a car (even a nice, reasonably new one), you know how much prep work is required.  It was all hands on deck at this point.

sanding-01

 We test fit the brand new intake manifold, and thanks to another great GReddy product, had no issues.

 

We also got the new KW Coil Overs installed, and the car was seriously sitting pretty. Whiteline urethane bushings, Whiteline sway bars finished out the suspension build.

kw-coil overs

Next, we got the Volk TE37s delivered in, and mounted a fresh set of Nitto NT01s.

volk etching-02

The interior went back in… NEw Sparco seats with custom insets, Sparco race 5 point belts and a 4 point roll bar powder coated to match to the intake manifold and calipers.

interior togfether

Detailing got done, stickers went on, and it the CZGTR77 started to look like a real car again.

Not much room to spare when all was said and done – just how we like it!

_1210209

Loaded and ready to go. The car went back together with barely enough time to get to Vegas for show setup.  We made it out the door Monday morning, and got to the show with seconds to spare.

IMG_5187

It was a rough three weeks of show prep, but there’s no doubt it was worth.  If you’re at the SEMA Show this week, be sure to swing by the Zeitronix booth in Central Hall (24223) to check out the final product—she’s beautiful and thanks to the help of Zeitronix, she runs great.  We’re proud to have gotten the opportunity to have to many sleepless nights of work on this build.


Pshhhhhh….

psshh


RRE 3 Port Boost Control Solenoid (3 Port BCS)

What is the best 3 port boost control solenoid for the Mitsubishi EVO? We like this one :-)

It comes complete with silicone hose and zip ties for mounting and securing hoses.  The RRE 3 Port Boost Control Solenoid includes a direct plug in connector to fit the EVO 8/9/X

 

We use these about 8 times a week on all of the cars that we tune in house here at RRE. We find that it is more responsive and smother than the more expensive ones. Solenoids will make some noise when they are clicking so we typically will zip tie the BCS to a hose or wire loom to isolate the possible sound. These can be used with the 3rd port venting or with the air going back in. We typically vent it to keep things simple. Fittings are included to run the BCS either way. Many aftermarket intakes have janky fittings  and tiny nipples that are not well secureds for the vent air to blow back in to the intake. The less you push and pull on those little fittings the better.