2005 Evo 8 first trip to the dragstrip
Apr 20, 2005, 08:20 PM
#1
2005 Evo 8 first trip to the dragstrip - 13.061 @ 105.68 stock
Well with just over 500 miles on the clock I decided to take my brand new 2005 Evo 8 out for a baseline run at the local NYIRP dragstrip. I did a lot of varied driving around town at all speeds and rpms but most was under 4000 and at only partial boost with no launches practiced. I read that the stock clutch was on the weak side and was prepared to work around that as best I could... Time to see what this car can do!
The weather was perfect out with barometeric pressure at 30.2 and temperature in the low 70's. First run right off the street was a 13.4 @ 103 (1.99 short time) and this was my first time launching the car besides a single traffic light launch on the way down. The rev limiter kicks in at about 5000 rpms and seems to work really well with a quick drop of the clutch to avoid spinning it too much. Granted I am used to launching this way with my 96 Eclipse GSX that has the stutter launch from the DSMLink software but I never bogged once using the stock rev limiter launch. I knew this is about what the magazines said the car would run but I figured I could squeeze out some more time with a better launch and more aggressive shifts.
I ran a few more times with slight improvements getting my short times down to 1.89 but I knew the stock clutch was going to be my limitation getting this car off the line fast. Finally my friend pulled in with is WRX Sti so that we could have a little friendly competition while my car was still stock. This was going to be a Subaru vs Mitsubishi showdown where both cars are supposed to be almost the same performance.
We line up and even though he said he would take it easy the first run I knew that it was time to drive the car well. He pulls what ends up being his best run of the day getting a 1.77 short time and 13.274 @ 101.15... this beat the 3 runs I got before he arrived but I pulled off a decent for evo stock clutch 1.864 short time and 13.114 @ 105.57 mph pass in response. Now granted we all know that the HP rating of the EVO is a little below what they claim but this was a good 40 HP difference in top end power over the STi! Looking at the numbers I knew that it was possible with a low 1.8x short time to get a 12 sec pass so I pressed on...
We took a ride in each others cars just to compare and overall the STi seemed to launch much harder with their stock clutch and a good driver. What seemed to hurt my friend the most was the fact he had to shift so much throughout the run and was forced to go to 5th gear through the traps. The six speed transmission almost seems too close of a ratio and if the MR is similar I am glad I stuck with the 5 speed. The rev limiter was kicking in right at 7k on his tach and even though he didn't hit it during most runs it only took once for him to see that riding 4th through the traps was not a good idea. His car was also getting jerky between shifts during the run which seemed to upset the balance of the car the faster he tried to shift, and his shifts were as fast as mine. Now in my Evo it was smooth as butter rowing the gears and he said even when he beat me out on the launch he would watch me walk past him and gain quite a bit every time a shift was made. I wasn't power shifting but you could call it clean crisp shifts that went as fast as the tranny would safely allow.
After a few more runs I started to see a pattern of low 13 sec passes at 104-105 and decided to let the car cool down a bit since some runs were made back to back within 5 min of each other. The place was really thinning out towards the end of the day which really allowed you to make 20+ runs if you wanted to.
For my 10th and final run I posted my best time and decided to stop since I didn't trust pushing my luck with the clutch too much longer. This run I was able to do a full throttle launch at the 5k limiter and the RPM's barely dipped before heading to redline. The shifts were smooth and fast all landing at about 6800 RPM's which seemed to be a good balance for the stock car:
60' 1.854
1/8 8.373 @ 82.81
1/4 13.061 @ 105.68
I was really happy with that knowing that a good ACT 2600 clutch would have put me into the high 12's! Right out of the box they could have made these clutches a bit stronger since building a few psi of boost off the 5000 stutter launch seems to work really well. Are there any other techniques that would allow me to get a 1.7x short time out of the stock clutch or do I just need to accept the fact that it's too weak? Either way with around .03 shaved off the short time I could have pulled a 12 out of the Evo 8 stock and considering the extra 50+ lbs of sunroof/HIDs/stereo/leather seats I couldn't be happier. Now I did remove the spare tire, jack and tools from the trunk to counter that but it seems I have a strong running EVO in my hands here.
In my friend's defense he did have his spare tire, 3/4 tank of gas, and a race spec child seat in the back but those wouldn't have explained all of the 40 HP advantage that my trap speeds seemed to show between our cars. It seems that atleast this 05 Evo has around 300 HP on tap based on the trap speeds I was seeing at the strip while the STi was closer to 280 HP even taking the extra weight into account. All in all we had a great time exploring what these cars could do out of the box and I'm glad I chose the Evo... Now to install all the goodies that Buschur Racing is going to be sending me this week! 12's indeed.
_________________
Chris Wirth
Rochester DSM
2005 Lancer Evolution 8 (13.0 @ 105)
1996 Eclipse GSX (11.8 @ 118)
The weather was perfect out with barometeric pressure at 30.2 and temperature in the low 70's. First run right off the street was a 13.4 @ 103 (1.99 short time) and this was my first time launching the car besides a single traffic light launch on the way down. The rev limiter kicks in at about 5000 rpms and seems to work really well with a quick drop of the clutch to avoid spinning it too much. Granted I am used to launching this way with my 96 Eclipse GSX that has the stutter launch from the DSMLink software but I never bogged once using the stock rev limiter launch. I knew this is about what the magazines said the car would run but I figured I could squeeze out some more time with a better launch and more aggressive shifts.
I ran a few more times with slight improvements getting my short times down to 1.89 but I knew the stock clutch was going to be my limitation getting this car off the line fast. Finally my friend pulled in with is WRX Sti so that we could have a little friendly competition while my car was still stock. This was going to be a Subaru vs Mitsubishi showdown where both cars are supposed to be almost the same performance.
We line up and even though he said he would take it easy the first run I knew that it was time to drive the car well. He pulls what ends up being his best run of the day getting a 1.77 short time and 13.274 @ 101.15... this beat the 3 runs I got before he arrived but I pulled off a decent for evo stock clutch 1.864 short time and 13.114 @ 105.57 mph pass in response. Now granted we all know that the HP rating of the EVO is a little below what they claim but this was a good 40 HP difference in top end power over the STi! Looking at the numbers I knew that it was possible with a low 1.8x short time to get a 12 sec pass so I pressed on...
We took a ride in each others cars just to compare and overall the STi seemed to launch much harder with their stock clutch and a good driver. What seemed to hurt my friend the most was the fact he had to shift so much throughout the run and was forced to go to 5th gear through the traps. The six speed transmission almost seems too close of a ratio and if the MR is similar I am glad I stuck with the 5 speed. The rev limiter was kicking in right at 7k on his tach and even though he didn't hit it during most runs it only took once for him to see that riding 4th through the traps was not a good idea. His car was also getting jerky between shifts during the run which seemed to upset the balance of the car the faster he tried to shift, and his shifts were as fast as mine. Now in my Evo it was smooth as butter rowing the gears and he said even when he beat me out on the launch he would watch me walk past him and gain quite a bit every time a shift was made. I wasn't power shifting but you could call it clean crisp shifts that went as fast as the tranny would safely allow.
After a few more runs I started to see a pattern of low 13 sec passes at 104-105 and decided to let the car cool down a bit since some runs were made back to back within 5 min of each other. The place was really thinning out towards the end of the day which really allowed you to make 20+ runs if you wanted to.
For my 10th and final run I posted my best time and decided to stop since I didn't trust pushing my luck with the clutch too much longer. This run I was able to do a full throttle launch at the 5k limiter and the RPM's barely dipped before heading to redline. The shifts were smooth and fast all landing at about 6800 RPM's which seemed to be a good balance for the stock car:
60' 1.854
1/8 8.373 @ 82.81
1/4 13.061 @ 105.68
I was really happy with that knowing that a good ACT 2600 clutch would have put me into the high 12's! Right out of the box they could have made these clutches a bit stronger since building a few psi of boost off the 5000 stutter launch seems to work really well. Are there any other techniques that would allow me to get a 1.7x short time out of the stock clutch or do I just need to accept the fact that it's too weak? Either way with around .03 shaved off the short time I could have pulled a 12 out of the Evo 8 stock and considering the extra 50+ lbs of sunroof/HIDs/stereo/leather seats I couldn't be happier. Now I did remove the spare tire, jack and tools from the trunk to counter that but it seems I have a strong running EVO in my hands here.
In my friend's defense he did have his spare tire, 3/4 tank of gas, and a race spec child seat in the back but those wouldn't have explained all of the 40 HP advantage that my trap speeds seemed to show between our cars. It seems that atleast this 05 Evo has around 300 HP on tap based on the trap speeds I was seeing at the strip while the STi was closer to 280 HP even taking the extra weight into account. All in all we had a great time exploring what these cars could do out of the box and I'm glad I chose the Evo... Now to install all the goodies that Buschur Racing is going to be sending me this week! 12's indeed.
_________________
Chris Wirth
Rochester DSM
2005 Lancer Evolution 8 (13.0 @ 105)
1996 Eclipse GSX (11.8 @ 118)
Last edited by Hiboost; Apr 20, 2005 at 08:26 PM.
Apr 20, 2005, 08:30 PM
#4
I don't think the clutch is keeping you in the high 1.8x's, it's the launch limiter. People have hit 1.7s on the stock clutch, but they didn't have that 5k launch issue. You could just disconnect the wire underneath the dash up at the top of the clutch lever if you wanted to try without the limiter.
For reference, you can see my stock time in my sig. That run was actually my first and only run so far, because my 2nd 2 attempts never went anywhere due to the stupid rev limiter. I didn't actually invoke it during my first launch, so when it hit me the 2nd and 3rd times, I wasn't expecting it and didn't utilize it properly, so those runs were worthless. I didn't even complete them, so I'm pretty sure I could hit 12s, too, with the right launch.
I'm interested in your nearly 106mph trap speed, though. I don't have the SSL, but I only hit 103.89, which I thought was good, but I guess not. I had a slower 60' (1.92), but a very similar ET, so you'd think my mph wouldn't be nearly 2 lower. It's possible I just haven't gotten enough runs to really see what it's capable of yet. I don't think the intangibles were an issue (60 degrees and 550' altitude). Nice driving and strong car you got there...
For reference, you can see my stock time in my sig. That run was actually my first and only run so far, because my 2nd 2 attempts never went anywhere due to the stupid rev limiter. I didn't actually invoke it during my first launch, so when it hit me the 2nd and 3rd times, I wasn't expecting it and didn't utilize it properly, so those runs were worthless. I didn't even complete them, so I'm pretty sure I could hit 12s, too, with the right launch.
I'm interested in your nearly 106mph trap speed, though. I don't have the SSL, but I only hit 103.89, which I thought was good, but I guess not. I had a slower 60' (1.92), but a very similar ET, so you'd think my mph wouldn't be nearly 2 lower. It's possible I just haven't gotten enough runs to really see what it's capable of yet. I don't think the intangibles were an issue (60 degrees and 550' altitude). Nice driving and strong car you got there...
Apr 20, 2005, 08:37 PM
#6
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so are you keeping your foot on the throttle while letting the rev limiter keep you at 5k? If so, are you still flooring it while letting go of the clutch? sorry if its 
Apr 20, 2005, 08:57 PM
#7
I had about 1/4 tank of good old Mobil 93 octane gas. Usually this time of year the temps are in the 50's during the day and 30's over night so heading out on a more typical day may actually net faster times. I'll try and disable the clutch switch next round or install a switch under the dash that will toggle the wire for me. I've had alot of practice in the Eclipse for dragstrip launches so the typical problems of bogging at the line weren't an issue but I sure could use an ACT 2600... My goal with this car is to reach the mid 11's with the stock turbo and seeing Evo's hit high 10's from Buschur's camp is very encouraging. 
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Apr 20, 2005, 09:03 PM
#8
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wow great time, my best so far is a 13.15@105 but i have a dp, hf cat, and catback, i cant launch for crap, that was with a 1.8 60 foot time, but i think i ll get into the 12's with more practice
Apr 20, 2005, 09:07 PM
#9
Originally Posted by GTKage
wow great time, my best so far is a 13.15@105 but i have a dp, hf cat, and catback, i cant launch for crap, that was with a 1.8 60 foot time, but i think i ll get into the 12's with more practice
Apr 20, 2005, 09:08 PM
#10
so are you keeping your foot on the throttle while letting the rev limiter keep you at 5k? If so, are you still flooring it while letting go of the clutch? sorry if its
Apr 20, 2005, 10:47 PM
#12
Originally Posted by GTKage
no i gained power, stock my best time was 13.7-13.5 @ 101-99mph, i guess it s becaus ei am in florida it s hotter and more humid around here
Apr 21, 2005, 04:16 AM
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Great times! I'm looking for that 12 second timeslip from my stock '05 RS
Haven't raced it yet, got about 2,500 miles. I think its time! I'll try a couple runs on the 5k and then try without.
Haven't raced it yet, got about 2,500 miles. I think its time! I'll try a couple runs on the 5k and then try without.
Apr 21, 2005, 06:18 AM
#14
Originally Posted by GTKage
no i gained power, stock my best time was 13.7-13.5 @ 101-99mph, i guess it s becaus ei am in florida it s hotter and more humid around here
It may be hotter in Florida, but it's also right at sea level, so I don't think you should have been going that slow. I ran my 1/4 in 60-65 degree weather...