Tuner Shootout Review from the Ego Killer EVO pits...
Sep 25, 2007, 08:32 PM
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Tuner Shootout Review from the Ego Killer EVO pits...
Ok well reading Mynes post I got inspired to tell my story from this past weekend's Tuner Shootout. Not a lot of people realize what goes on behind the scenes and in the pits of race teams and its usually an interesting story that makes their accomplishments seem that much better. For example, a blown turbo would have ended most racer's weekends, but AMS worked diligently on repairing it and came back to set the fastest time for the event along with a track record. There is a lot of work, problems, and drama in the pits of Time Attack races that can make the results all the more interesting. Here's my story...
Some of you may know of Relentless Autosports or even myself from our efforts in Time Attack with the Relentless Autosports (Double Down) 350Z. Well we have decided to diversify a little and chose the AWD platform of the Mistubishi Evolution to try and build a car that is competitive in the Street and/or Modified time attack classes as well as car shows. I bought the car in June of this year and the preparation has begun for the 2008 competition season.
Day one of the national meet for me was Thursday night at a local In & Out where a good showing of local, and a few out of town, Evos showed up. I had to bring my old VIII MR that I am trying to sell because my daily driver/time attack Evo IX (EgoKillerEVO) was in California at Relentless Autosports. I had brought the car down there in hopes of doing some cams, clutch, and a new tune, but all that we were able to get done in time was powdercoating the wheels and calipers and installing a new GTSPEC exhaust manifold.
Day two was spent pacing around my house waiting for Scott from Relentless Autosports to start making his way to Vegas from San Diego with the car. Being that I live in Vegas, I had to work the 'ol 9-5 on Friday causing me to miss the Red Rock cruise. I was really anxious to get the car back in town because I had a Progress rear sway bar to install along with the Ferrodo DS3000 brake pads. Well due to reasons un-related to the car, Scott didn't arrive in Las Vegas with the car until 3am Saturday morning.
Day three was the first day of the track event at Spring Mountain Motorsports Ranch. To make it to the track in time, we had to leave my house in Las Vegas at 5:30am and since Scott and the car didn't arrive until 3am the sway bar and brake pads did not get installed. We arrived at the track where it had been raining all night and into the morning. Despite only a few hours of sleep, we were excited to see what this car could do. We had only previously had one 20min. session at Willow Springs in the car so needless to say we still had no idea what the car was capable of. Well our first session out we made it almost one full lap before blowing a turbo coupler off at the lower intercooler pipe. It was back to the pits and under the car to fix the problem. Session two had the same results, but this time the coupler lasted halfway through lap 2 leaving us stranded in the dirt until the session was over. Mind you, this is on the 91 octane tune that I use for daily driving, and yes, we still had pure 91 octane in the tank. We turned the boost back down to the stock levels in hopes that the turbo pipe would stay together for session 3. Session 3 didn't have any turbo pipe issues, but the car had an insane amount of understeer in low and mid-speed corners which is what makes up probably 80% of that track. The rest of the day was spent playing with tire pressures and dampner settings, but whatever we could do, we could not get rid of that understeer. To add to our struggles, we got uneven pad deposits on the front rotors from the street pads we were using that day.
Because of the understeer problems, we decided that we had to go to my shop and get some work done. I worked until midnight installing a rear sway, messing with the turbo pipe coupler, installing the race pads, and swapping front rotors with the Evo VIII MR I took to the meet on Thursday. Tired and delirious, I set my alarm for 5:00pm instead of AM and we ended up waking up Sunday morning at 8:30am! At that time, the track was already screaming with cars, and we were an hour and fifteen minutes away! We arrived at the track just before the first Time Attack competition session, and unfortunately we had missed our one and only practice session. Rather than risk the turbo pipe popping off again, we continued to run the low boost setting to focus on what the sway bar did to change the car. Although the sway bar helped there seemed like there was nothing we could do about this understeer. We finished our first and second time attack sessions and decided to try the street boost (21psi) again for the simple fact that we had nothing to lose. Well, true to form the turbo pipe came off again just after turn 2 on the first timed lap and that was the end to our weekend.
To our suprise, when the awards ceremony came around, they announced us as the 2nd place finisher with a time of 3:13.090. Although I was not at all pleased with the time, I was pleased with the results and had fun regardless of the frustrating gremlins that plagued us throughout the weekend. Thanks to Scott at Relentless Autosports for bringing the car all the way from San Diego in the middle of the night. Thanks to Nils for offering a different turbo coupler when we were having our problems on Saturday. Thanks to Perrin, EvolutionM.net, CharlesJ, Speed Ventures, Aaron Bitterman, and Nitto Tires for putting on a great event.
Today (Monday) I called the original owner of the car, who had done the last alignment to see what the settings were at. The car was at -2.5 degrees camber all around and 0 Toe. Its something that we overlooked checking before the event but rest assured that some more negative camber and some toe out in the front are in the near future for the car! And so is a new lower intercooler pipe!
Onto the pics courtesy of TrackDay.net...
CLIFFS NOTES:
- Car arrived from California at 3:00am Saturday morning.
- Car had to run 13psi due to turbo piping consistently blowing off at 21psi.
- Excessive understeer due to previous owner's alignment settings.
- Uneven pad deposits on front rotors.
- Installed rear sway, race pads, and stock front rotors Saturday night.
- Overslept on Sunday missing practice.
- Still got 2nd place in Street with a 3:13.373!!!
Some of you may know of Relentless Autosports or even myself from our efforts in Time Attack with the Relentless Autosports (Double Down) 350Z. Well we have decided to diversify a little and chose the AWD platform of the Mistubishi Evolution to try and build a car that is competitive in the Street and/or Modified time attack classes as well as car shows. I bought the car in June of this year and the preparation has begun for the 2008 competition season.
Day one of the national meet for me was Thursday night at a local In & Out where a good showing of local, and a few out of town, Evos showed up. I had to bring my old VIII MR that I am trying to sell because my daily driver/time attack Evo IX (EgoKillerEVO) was in California at Relentless Autosports. I had brought the car down there in hopes of doing some cams, clutch, and a new tune, but all that we were able to get done in time was powdercoating the wheels and calipers and installing a new GTSPEC exhaust manifold.
Day two was spent pacing around my house waiting for Scott from Relentless Autosports to start making his way to Vegas from San Diego with the car. Being that I live in Vegas, I had to work the 'ol 9-5 on Friday causing me to miss the Red Rock cruise. I was really anxious to get the car back in town because I had a Progress rear sway bar to install along with the Ferrodo DS3000 brake pads. Well due to reasons un-related to the car, Scott didn't arrive in Las Vegas with the car until 3am Saturday morning.
Day three was the first day of the track event at Spring Mountain Motorsports Ranch. To make it to the track in time, we had to leave my house in Las Vegas at 5:30am and since Scott and the car didn't arrive until 3am the sway bar and brake pads did not get installed. We arrived at the track where it had been raining all night and into the morning. Despite only a few hours of sleep, we were excited to see what this car could do. We had only previously had one 20min. session at Willow Springs in the car so needless to say we still had no idea what the car was capable of. Well our first session out we made it almost one full lap before blowing a turbo coupler off at the lower intercooler pipe. It was back to the pits and under the car to fix the problem. Session two had the same results, but this time the coupler lasted halfway through lap 2 leaving us stranded in the dirt until the session was over. Mind you, this is on the 91 octane tune that I use for daily driving, and yes, we still had pure 91 octane in the tank. We turned the boost back down to the stock levels in hopes that the turbo pipe would stay together for session 3. Session 3 didn't have any turbo pipe issues, but the car had an insane amount of understeer in low and mid-speed corners which is what makes up probably 80% of that track. The rest of the day was spent playing with tire pressures and dampner settings, but whatever we could do, we could not get rid of that understeer. To add to our struggles, we got uneven pad deposits on the front rotors from the street pads we were using that day.
Because of the understeer problems, we decided that we had to go to my shop and get some work done. I worked until midnight installing a rear sway, messing with the turbo pipe coupler, installing the race pads, and swapping front rotors with the Evo VIII MR I took to the meet on Thursday. Tired and delirious, I set my alarm for 5:00pm instead of AM and we ended up waking up Sunday morning at 8:30am! At that time, the track was already screaming with cars, and we were an hour and fifteen minutes away! We arrived at the track just before the first Time Attack competition session, and unfortunately we had missed our one and only practice session. Rather than risk the turbo pipe popping off again, we continued to run the low boost setting to focus on what the sway bar did to change the car. Although the sway bar helped there seemed like there was nothing we could do about this understeer. We finished our first and second time attack sessions and decided to try the street boost (21psi) again for the simple fact that we had nothing to lose. Well, true to form the turbo pipe came off again just after turn 2 on the first timed lap and that was the end to our weekend.
To our suprise, when the awards ceremony came around, they announced us as the 2nd place finisher with a time of 3:13.090. Although I was not at all pleased with the time, I was pleased with the results and had fun regardless of the frustrating gremlins that plagued us throughout the weekend. Thanks to Scott at Relentless Autosports for bringing the car all the way from San Diego in the middle of the night. Thanks to Nils for offering a different turbo coupler when we were having our problems on Saturday. Thanks to Perrin, EvolutionM.net, CharlesJ, Speed Ventures, Aaron Bitterman, and Nitto Tires for putting on a great event.
Today (Monday) I called the original owner of the car, who had done the last alignment to see what the settings were at. The car was at -2.5 degrees camber all around and 0 Toe. Its something that we overlooked checking before the event but rest assured that some more negative camber and some toe out in the front are in the near future for the car! And so is a new lower intercooler pipe!
Onto the pics courtesy of TrackDay.net...
CLIFFS NOTES:
- Car arrived from California at 3:00am Saturday morning.
- Car had to run 13psi due to turbo piping consistently blowing off at 21psi.
- Excessive understeer due to previous owner's alignment settings.
- Uneven pad deposits on front rotors.
- Installed rear sway, race pads, and stock front rotors Saturday night.
- Overslept on Sunday missing practice.
- Still got 2nd place in Street with a 3:13.373!!!
Last edited by EgoKillerEVO; Sep 26, 2007 at 10:29 AM.
Sep 26, 2007, 09:56 AM
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Thanks Nils! No, I fought with it for over an hour Saturday night and it was just a hair too small. Thank you very much for lending it to me though. I can drop it back off to you whenever you want.
Sep 26, 2007, 12:13 PM
#4
Wow, sounds like all the little problems I've came across in the past 1.5 yrs with my Evo and the track.
The LICP is soooo fustrating. I changed all sorts of things, tried ziptieing it for reinforcement, moved the T-clamps around, put on double T-clamps, but still had problems! I installed AMS's upgraded pipe that utilizes the stock mounting bracket and haven't looked back! Check it out...
Evo's understeer; that's how it is. Stiffen up that rear swaybar or adjust it out with some good coilovers.
The LICP is soooo fustrating. I changed all sorts of things, tried ziptieing it for reinforcement, moved the T-clamps around, put on double T-clamps, but still had problems! I installed AMS's upgraded pipe that utilizes the stock mounting bracket and haven't looked back! Check it out...
Evo's understeer; that's how it is. Stiffen up that rear swaybar or adjust it out with some good coilovers.
Sep 26, 2007, 12:26 PM
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Wow, sounds like all the little problems I've came across in the past 1.5 yrs with my Evo and the track.
The LICP is soooo fustrating. I changed all sorts of things, tried ziptieing it for reinforcement, moved the T-clamps around, put on double T-clamps, but still had problems! I installed AMS's upgraded pipe that utilizes the stock mounting bracket and haven't looked back! Check it out...
Evo's understeer; that's how it is. Stiffen up that rear swaybar or adjust it out with some good coilovers.
The LICP is soooo fustrating. I changed all sorts of things, tried ziptieing it for reinforcement, moved the T-clamps around, put on double T-clamps, but still had problems! I installed AMS's upgraded pipe that utilizes the stock mounting bracket and haven't looked back! Check it out...
Evo's understeer; that's how it is. Stiffen up that rear swaybar or adjust it out with some good coilovers.
LOL, thats the way it usually is. Little things here & there. Yes the LICP is really annoying. The one on the car is a Nisei one and its painted and has no lip on the end to help keep the coupler on. I tried scuffing up the end of he pipe and using hairspray to help it stick a little better as well as a t-bolt clamp and it just wouldn't work. I will definately check into that AMS pipe.
I know that there is inherent understeer in these cars, but this was BAD, and I mean BAD. The rear sway was on full stiff, the rear dampners were at full stiff, the fronts were full soft, and the front tires were about 4-6psi lower than the rears and it was still BAD. I blame it on the 0 toe out mainly. I tried trail braking WAY into the corners, stabbing the brakes mid corner to try to get the rear end to rotate, the scandanavian flick, and everything else to try and offset the understeer but it was painfull. You can see me experimenting with mid turn braking in this video without success
...
I would get the rear end to start to rotate and then as soon as I touched the gas again it was right back to understeer
.My plan of action is more neg camber up front, some toe out in the front, and different coilovers with more adjustability. Then if that doesn't work...GSC 60/40 Rear Bias center diff.
EDIT: Just ordered the AMS LICP
.
Last edited by EgoKillerEVO; Sep 26, 2007 at 12:35 PM.
