JDM EGO in SHOP!!
Jay has had his race car here for some time getting some serious upgrades. His build is pretty epic and will definitely snap some necks this coming year. Right now here is some love for Art’s skills with the welding. Check out this UICP Art fabbed! Nice work Art!!
EVO Of The Day: Daily Driven Track Car EVO VIII [Update]
By James Singer
I have been buried for a few months but just before things went nuts with work and life, I got a chance to update my stealthy street/track EVO VIII. My goal with this car is to have a car that does not get too much attention from unwanted parties and is streetable with a tad of blingage but can still be more than fun to drive to the track, drive on the track and drive home from the track.
OEM IX front bumper with SE lip and Ganador Super Mirrors.
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.
RRE @ Hot Import Nights LA – December 3, 2011
Rossy took the RRE race cars to the LA Convention center for a night out this last weekend. The shop EVO 8 and 4G Eclipse got a lot of attention as always :-)
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!
RRE’s 4G Eclipse Brake Parts and Options
Here are the brake parts that we trust and use the most for the 4G Eclipse GT and GS 2006-2012.
Centric PosiQuiet Brake Pads:
For street cars, we like the Centric PosiQuiet Ceramic based pads. They have low dust (as low as you can get and not affect brake performance) and they also have great cold stopping performance. They have minimal wear on the rotors. The grip is also very consistent across their heat range and driving conditions. They are not a track pad, but do very well on the Eclipse on the street. It is a heavy car and these hit the sweet spot between performance and the price.
Price includes USPS Priority (2-3 day) shipping within the lower 48 states!
- Long wearing
- Low brake rotor wear
- Stable friction performance across wide temperature range, particularly higher temperatures
- Good cold stopping bite.
Stoptech Slotted Brake Rotors
StopTech Sport Rotors – the new name for one-piece performance upgrade rotors from StopTech. Formerly known as Power Slot or SportStop rotors, StopTech Sport Rotors are still the best aftermarket performance upgrade rotors around – only the name has changed. StopTech slotted brake rotors prevent glazing of the pads, add bite and improve wet and dry braking performance.
E-Coated Finish – StopTech Sport Rotors are finished with black e-coating on both sides of the hat, inside the cooling vanes, and on the outside edge. E-coating is a superior electro-statically applied finish designed to withstand 400 hours of salt water exposure without rusting. This is especially important on both mounting faces of the hat where it touches the hub flange and back face of the wheel. Any accumulation of rust in these area can lead to installed lateral run out issues.
Power Alloy Metallurgy – This is an exclusive feature of StopTech rotors. StopTech works with their foundry partners to adjust the molybdenum and carbon content of the castings, and to carefully control the cooling rate during production to reach targets for hardness and tensile strength.
We only sell the slotted version of these rotors. Rotors with drilled holes will always crack around the holes when driven hard. Slotted only does the best job of venting and cleaning evenly. Drilled rotors look cute for sure, we are more about the function over looks.
UPS Ground Shipping (3-4 days) to the lower 48 states is included in the price.
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- Powerslot 4G Eclipse frotn slotted brake rotors
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- Up close view of the venting and slots
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- Slots and surface finish
EVO X – Full-Race ProStock Tubular Exhaust Manifold – Dyno Test
Normally when a customer with a Mitsubishi stumbles into the shop and the first thing they want to do is put on a header, our first question is “Was your last car a honda?” Typically the answer is “Yes”. The stock cast exhaust manifold on the EVO is a great match for a stock turbo. Even with an upgraded stock style turbo the stock EVO exhaust manifold will easily support 500whp on our dyno. If you want a little more power, do some porting on the stock manifold is what we usually suggest.
Knowing this, when Mark Z really really wanted to add a header to his already well running EVO X GSR race car, we tried to talk him out of it. Any of the big loopty-loo tubular manifolds would just put too much heat back there between the motor and firewall and on the track that is a lot of work to keep things from melting. The gains would be too small for the cost involved we explained.
But Mark was persistent and he did have enough upgraded parts to to be able to use some additional airflow. AEM intake, ETS 3.5″ FMIC and full piping. Full exhaust with an AMS DP bolted to a CBRD BBX stock frame turbo. With 1200cc RC Engineering injectors and a Blaqops/Walbro 255 lph fuel pump kit, the stock bottom end was pushing the limits of reliability on E-85. We like to keep stock bottom end EVO Xs to 360 foot lbs of torque. This limit seems to keep the stock skinny rods and pistons happy in competition.
There was one option to recommend, the Full-Race ProStock tubular manifold. While super sexy curvy, it isn’t too tall to practically use the stock manifold heat shield. We have seen mixed results with the polished Chinese manifolds. With the Full-Race super thick SS tube walls and consistent robotic welds, we didn’t have to worry about an expensive failure haunting us later on.
Here you can see the Full-Race manifold installed before we put the stock heat shield over it.
The install was not too bad. Only one bolt is a little tight to get to. There is better access than on other tubular manifolds. It is still an all day job and you run the risk of snapping stuck bolts. Mark’s CBRD BBX turbo had recently been installed so it went OK. Lots of penetrating oil always helps. All buttoned up and onto the dyno.
Right away we could see the motor flowing more air up top. With the boost left the same, power was up by 30 whp for one thousand RPMs. Boost is limited below 4500rpm to help keep the torque within our limits for a stock bottom end. We lost a couple hundred RPM of spoolup but the gains up above 5500 RPM are well worth it.
Larry Chen’s SR20 Swap
Andrew Escarcega shot some video of Matt helping out Dave Karey prep Larry’s Z car for paint under the hood.
RRE Battle Bot
We were cleaning out the used parts attic. Tossing out excess stock parts, some half dead used parts that seemed worth keeping at one time or another… Art is one of the fabricators here @ RRE and saw something in the pile of parts. A 4G muffler took shape as a torso. A clutch disc made a menacing Mohawk. Flywheels became shoulders while EVO X connecting rods and pistons provided arms. Everyone started chipping in with ideas.
A 1G differential repurposed as hips with 1G FWD axles providing legs and knees. EVO X resonators for shins and a piece of U bend for feet and stability were added. But Battle Bot was a bit wobbly with CV Joints and knees and hip sockets. So Art made some tendons out of a flywheel ring gear and some gears and muffler hangars for knee caps.
A good Battle Bot needs a weapon and a defensive shield of course. A dead MIVEC cam with a hydraulic lifter ball of sorts became his mace. A DSM valve cover provides a shield while the breast plate power core is a MIVEC cam pulley.
Art intentionally gave Battle Bot no face so that you would need to make your own mental image of his personality. Battle Bot currently protects the service office from all evil doers.
AEM Meth Fail (safe) Video
Remember _way_ back in September the DSport video crew was here shooting some video while we were testing an AEM meth/water injection flow gauge and how it worked as a fail safe device. Here is the final cut video:
Matt Dennison – North American Festival of Speed
Congratulations to RRE’s Matt Dennison for his 1st place in AWD Street class at the North American Festival of Speed at Las Vegas Motor Speedway this weekend!
Full race coverage @ UrbanRacer.com
S-AWD
1st Place Car# 23 Matt Dennison S-AWD 1:25.319 Sunday
EVO X/RalliArt – Inside the Stock Muffler
We wanted to see what was inside a EVO/RalliArt muffler so we cut one open to see what made it work. As a kid I always got in trouble for opening things to see what made them work.
At low exhaust pressure the flow through the stock muffler follows these red lines. All the exhaust has to flow through _12_ little holes. Then into a chamber where the only escape is a bunch more holes. Then through a 2” pipe into the center chamber, then out through either of the interior tip pipes.
:-/
Ninja Attack!
Being that it is Halloween today we shouldn’t have been totally surprised when we found a ninja in the office today. On the plus side… all the shop guys have been on their best behavior today.
The TALON8R!
David is “The Talonator”!
His clean 2G AWD Talon backs up the personalized plate with 350 whp.
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.
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!
Modified Magazine – November 2011 – RRE RalliArt
The November issue of Modified Magazine just hit the news stands. It is a skinny little magazine this month but well worth checking out. Some sweet old school cars and my favorite, an article on our project RRE Ralliart and the BBX Lite turbo install from CBRD! You also get a little article on the 2011 Mitsubishi Owner’s Day with a little pic of the RRE Battle Bot.
The car is currently tuned at 411 whp on our AWD Dynapack dyno and runs 375 whp on GReddy’s Mustang Dyno. It ran 12.2 @109 mph in the 1.4 mile at that hp. A bit more on this car is also in the October DSport. The full Modified Mag article is here.
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.
Formula D – Title Fight
Well www.speedhunters.com says it well… “the biggest man in the smallest car” Jeff Abbott got into the big show Friday by qualifying 27th on Friday night under the lights at the House of Drift in Irwindale. At the drivers meeting to announce the qualifying it was all: “Good news, you qualified 27th, you are in!” and then it was “bad news… you go up against Dai Yoshihara for your first run!”
Jeff drove his heart out. Dai led on the first run and you could just see Jeff pedaling as fast as he could trying to keep up to the V8 powered S-13. On the second run with Jeff leading he pulled off a great run. But with Dai making everything count with his potential championship on the line, there wasnt much the little 1.8 liter Mazda had to hold him off. The run would have been enough to advance to the sweet 16 against many other cars. Oh well, it was Dai’s night in the end.
Jeff ends the season with bigger motor visions dancing in his head. We’ll see what comes over the winter!
November DSport – AEM Meth/Water Injection Flow Gauge Testing
OK, one more November DSport mention and then I’ll leave it alone, I promise. Last month we hosted the DSport video crew for some dyno testing here at RRE. They were testing and demonstrating the various scenarios that a water/meth injection setup could go bad and how the AEM Flow Gauge would be able to save your butt. Well I just came across the print article that resulted from the testing that day. I imagine the video will be out next month or so on the DSport DVD 22 or 23.
All the more reason to look for the November issue of DSport!
License Plate Of the Week :-(
There is a RRE plate frame there… well… the smouldering remains of one. What a big oil leak next to your external wastegate dump can do on a bad day. Corey drives an EVO now.
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.
While we are on the subject of unlucky… here is lucky:
Car came in the shop for some other work. Heard a rattle and took off the timing cover. One more bolt to go and it would have been a dead motor. Check those bolts once in a while if you are going to be playing with them :-)
Jen Imai’s Suzuki – Looks Like a Championship Year
Jen got her Suzuki Swift all patched up after the roll at the Gorman Ridge Rally last month. The car headed out of here and off to Arizona last Thursday.
She finished 2nd place in Performance Stock for the Friday night rally. On Saturday she had to deal with a blown rear strut but here competition for the championship John Black in the Ford Ranger had more problems. She ended up with 1st place in P-Stock on Saturday and enough points to get the Performance Stock California Rally Series Championship. Congratulations Jen!
DSport DVD #21 – MOD 2011
The DSport DVD that comes in the new November issue of DSport Magazine has a feature on the 2011 Mitsubishi Owner’s Day this past summer. The beginning sequence has RRE tuner Scot Gray walking all HARD in front of the dyno :-) Check it out when you pick up the magazine. Also nice shots of Michelle and Michelle the official RRE models and cars running on the RRE AWD Dynapack dyno!!
Ben’s EVO RS Hits the Cover of DSport
The full feature of the car isn’t on line, you gotta get yourself to the store and buy the November issue of DSPort when it hits the newstand! In the meantime, the RRE RalliArt is in the current October Issue. This is the EVO we tuned with the new Borg Warner turbo with the crazy spoolup.
More pics and partial article in DSport’s website.
