First; Hello

I just put my deposit down tonight and the dealership is going to find me a nice new White '06 EVO RS. Car is going to have two purposes, take me to work and make traffic tolerable, and take me to, around, and back from the track one weekend a month in the North East.

I am coming from a built up 2002 Mercedes Benz C230 Sport Coupe. Driving slow cars fast is a lot of fun. With the RS I hope to leave it close to stock, maintain the warranty (no auto-x), and have a lot of fun and continue to develop my driver skills.

My questions;
1. What are MUST HAVE factory options for a dual purpose car, mostly interested in track days? (no DVD, power windows, etc., keep your MRs)

2. What are the aftermarket MUST HAVES? (Not interested in 1000 whp, looking for reliability, consistancy and enjoyment) My dealership said I add anything but a cage/roll bar, and the warranty is voided.

3. Besides the warning about timed events and the voiding of warranties, is there anything else you want to tell me about the car?


Thank you,
Tom

 

Your dealer doesn't get to make their own laws. Federal laws like the Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act prevent dealerships from summarily voiding warranties simply because an aftermarket part has been added. If the part either directly or indirectly caused an OEM part failure then you're responsible for it though. You pay to play when you mod a car, but it's not "all or nothing" like the SOB's in the service department will claim.

That being said, I would recommend a stiffer rear sway bar, some coilovers, a TBE and an ECU reflash and dyno tune. That should put you over 300whp on pump gas.

 

Thanks Turd but I was thinking more along the lines of

"Get the OEM or X aftermarket wing because the thing will crabwalk without it at high speed thresh hold braking"

"The OEM brake will or will not fade, upgrade to X rotors and X pads and get the blank brake cooling ducts"

"The stock boost is too high to be reliable over the course of a long track such as VIR."



Thanks again for the response. Once I am familiar with the car I may reconsider the HP mods.

 

Ahh OK. I understand your question now but I don't have the 1st hand track experience to give you any honest suggestions. I would post this thread in a different section then for better answers. The section below is dedicated to motor sports. Good luck. I have an '05 RS and it's the PERFECT Evo model for what you're after...

https://www.evolutionm.net/forums/motor-sports-15/

 

Thanks, hadn't seen that forum... maybe some nice mod will move my thread.

I should have my car Friday or Saturday. Can't freakin wait.

 

i think you have most of the bases covered...

rear wing-you'll definitely miss not having anything back there. even the stock one helps quite a bit. but as far as
aftermarket, quite a few run the apr(i believe that's the brand) wing. obnoxious but gets some air on the tail.
i know robi and works both run this wing and seem happy with it.

brakes-you have to lose the stock pads. you'll kill them first session. even with stock rubber. fluid too obviously. ducting is a must if you're keeping stock brembos. two piece rotors are nice for a little better vane structure to help shed the heat but mainly for the aluminium hats to keep the heat off the wheel bearings. the stock brakes wouldn't hold up to r compounds for me. especially when i went to 275's so i'm running 370mm 6-pot alcons. it's a nice feeling to always have brakes.

engine-i run a flash tune on my car with an adjustable boost controler. so when i'm at the track i tend to dial in a couple more lbs. but i always run 100 octane. i know plenty of people on stock setups that run 91(california) with no problems but i like to have the piece of mind of a little extra detenation prevention.

i will say turd was correct about a rear bar. the cars still plows a bit out of the box and the bar will definitely make it easier to get the car to rotate

have fun with the car(it's hard not to)

 

Thanks Smack-

I've watch several on track and can't wait to get this thing out there. Going from RWD to AWD though... I believe I have some relearning to do.

This picture has raised my eyebrows. Looks like it's crossing the rollcenter and into [dynamic] positive camber... think I'll want to resolve that.

http://img212.imageshack.us/img212/2...thvader5eg.jpg

I have another over-arching concern in regards to the 157 mph top speed; has this cars structure uncaged been tested on track? How have they held up? Is there a bolt-in or weld-in (less desired) cage or rollbar you've seen and recommend?

Need to find a shop/tuner in Balt. MD / DC area.

 

I agree with what Smack said as well. Bare minimum, I'd put some better pads on the evo and better brake fluid as well. The car is phenomenal out of the box. I used to have a lo-wing and ended up with an APR carbon fiber wing. Huge difference at the track. Much more stable. Cusco also makes a carbon fiber wing - it sits higher so it doesn't obstruct your view out the back like the APR.

As far as how the evo's hold up at the track (in crashes), I was at a track day last year where 2 evo's were totalled in northern calif at Thunderhill. both rolled. The first was a stock evo and that roof crumpled in a V shape. Drivers head was forced out the window by the crumpled roof (may still be some pics on norcalevo.net). 2nd evo was a race prepped evo that flipped multiple times. The guy driving would have been killed (imho) w/o his roll cage. I have a full welded cage in my evo. Cant be too safe. Personally I'd avoid the bolt in cages - bolts are a weak point. I'm sure there are plenty of shops in the East coast that can weld you a cage.

 

[QUOTE=smack_evo] stock brembos.

The RS has Brembos?

 

yes but no abs

 

i dont think you'll be seeing anywhere near top speed on any US road courses with stock power.

 

I got my white RS last night, your going to love it.

Suspension..talk to Robi aka robispec...he is on this board, a quick search should find him.

 

Don't you just love MacPherson struts? And yet the car out-runs many mildly prepped race cars. A higher spring rate and more static camber can address this, but don't fall into a "it works in practice but does it work in theory" trap. Despite looking like you're riding on the outside shoulder of the tire you will still be fast!

If you're just out for fun RA-1s are great. They hold up well even on a heavy Evo and don't seem to need -3.5 camber. I run about -2.5 up front and get pretty even wear.

People have already mentioned brakes. With good pads and fresh fluid you have hand-of-god braking and can pick up time over most other cars. Depending on how hard you drive (of course you won't have ABS) I don't think you can go wrong trying any of the big names up front, DS2500/3500, Hawk Blue/HT10, XP9/10. Being cheap, and just not that good yet, I haven't run any of the more aggressive pads and stick with DS2500 in the rear.

I haven't even hit 130 down the back straight at Mid-Ohio. Road America has some runway straights but they're all uphill! Without some extra power each MPH beyond 120 takes a long time.

I come from a long line of German engineers and always hyphenate ****-retentive, but you really don't want to over analyze this. Be careful about your prep, but this is a car you can just take out on the track and it will go!

Dave

 

I believe you can take a stock evo to the track, once the break-in has been done, and have lots of fun.
first mod would be to remove the heat/ splash shield for the rotors. After that pads. then ducting or 2 piece rotors, depending on how things are working for you.

when you have gone to the other extreme, a seat. Along the way you will find things you want to change, but really you will have no real problems with the car as delivered.

as an example of a for fun track car I have, coilovers, a seat, roll bar, harness, and rotors, more or less in that order.

 

Thank you.

I've got a couple sets of 235/45/17 RA-1s left from my last car.

I will look into the Hawks for the rear and the Raybestos ST-43s up front (if available, if not porterfield cut me custom pads for my c-coupe). That's what I am used to. Good release characteristics considering no ABS. I don't like ABS. The ABS on the MB was ok but interfered constantly, had to run the thing in "Dyno mode" to get away from the electric nanny.

I have very high expectations for the vehicle. I can drive a slow car fast , I've got video of that lowly C-Coupe picking on C32s, e36 M3s, and various other vehicles. It wasn't faster in the straights, all braking and cornering (maybe a little driver). That car had the MacP issue as well.

I wouldn't expect to hit 157 at Summit Point Main, but Virginia International Raceway (VIR) has very long and fast front and back straights. In the little c-coupe sub 200whp, I was able to hit 120 depending on my exit out of Oak Tree on the 4000 foot back straight. I expect this vehicle to turn in, exit and accelerate much better than that car.

I agree, you can't be too safe. Again, you can't be too safe. I understand this car makes the most novice drivers look like pros. I don't even know that I've ever seen it driven well. Can't be too safe. If weld in's are difficult to find/ do in this car, a bolt in would be better than nothing in theory.

djh- I am an analyst by trade. Not over analyzing this isn't a option. I'd like to be prepared. It'd be worse to have just gone to the track, over-heated the brakes and come here and asked why it happened and whined about the all mighty Evo brakes being mush

*******
My last car had a glass diff (RWD), how have the diffs been holding up in these cars? Any other gotcha's or mandatory regular maintenance items I might not think of? FYI- I do not yet know turbo cars well.

Anyone have pics of where you installed an anti-sub belt?

Thank you again.

-Edit; A few mentioned no ABS. I am ok with no ABS, though I need to ask; Do you know something I don't know about the EVO and no ABS?