Evolution Dynamics @ AWD Tuning
Jun 10, 2010, 07:24 AM
#1
Evolution Dynamics @ AWD Tuning
I'd like to (finally) take the time to give a big shout out to KevinD and Richard (and Josh, though he was out most of the times i was there) at Evolution Dynamics in Flower Mound, TX. I made the 1 way 300 mile trip from northwest Arkansas on May 8th, towing my 3070 lb gutted, caged, race car on my trailer. No idea where i was going, only memorized what the picture of the turn on google looked like and the GPS to get me close 
. Upon entering I see at least 10 Evo's and more STI's in and around the shop area in various stages of broken or built. Everything from 600+ hp drag only cars to full on Rally prep'd cars to serious street machines. I knew I had the right address then 
.
Upon entering the shop I walk up to an Evo on a lift, mid clutch replacement, and meet Kevin. Dude's pretty cool, and knows a lot of the quirks, what works, what doesn't, how, and why. Mostly refering to things he's broken on his road race car, which is exactly what I'm doing so it gives me more confidence knowing he's already done it and I don't have to try to explain what the rigours of track days do to the Evo, like i've had to do with most shops. After BS'ing for awhile I enter AWD's office area. Ahhhhhh A/C, sweeet. I then meet Mary who's the shop mom/****/chief that keeps all of us in check, cool chic, very down to earth and up on shop talk. Totally takes the time to make sure everyone's happy wither relaxing in the waiting area (dvd's/xbox/Mary's cute little daughter asking what movie next) or watching their car on the dyno. Most shops I've had experience with in the past where two joined forces, always ended bad. But this one seems to have the formula down, not only does everyone get along personality wise, but they have a very visible line between who does subi's and who does mitsu's, so there's never any issue. But everyone's cool enough to offer help on both when needed. I left Sunday sometime, and Josh let me store my trailer at his place so I didn't have to drag it both ways, Thanks Josh!
Now the issue with "project" cars at popular shops is that you ALWAYS get walk-in's/phone calls/weekend schedules/and the general annoying problems that arise on other cars that the expert needs to go over and look at, not to mention everything in their personal/daily job life. This puts a real damper and delay on projects, but is required to keep the machine running smoothly. Skpping ahead, I left the car there for about 4 weeks, making the 300 mile drive back to TX on the 5th last weekend. In between this time they had a slew of racing prep/rally prep customers come in and get work done, so I didn't expect her to be 100% finished. What we had gotten done was swapping intake manifolds (ported one I had aquired), installed 1050 blue maxx's, installed what looked like an AP mani spacer, tucked/wrapped some wires and moved throttle cable, then taken off all the emissions crap. So far we assumed she'd shed about 18 lbs in weight. I arrived around 3pm and we started on the rest of the work. Swapped exhaust manifolds for a (PPI?) ported coated, ebay 02 housing (complete with drilling the bolts and safety wiring everything, very time consuming but required for our use), taking off bumper braces, multiple brackets, then some wiring and electronics removed (abs computer etc). It was about 96 deg outside, 30 seconds and sweat humidity, very hellish to work in.
Now it's about 2ish AM with everything done, just Me, Kevin, and my buddy Steven at the shop. For NASA tts/st2 racing classes you run the car based on a power to weight ratio. I won't go into how it works here, but now we needed to weigh the car. A few phone calls earlier resulted in most of the portable scales in the area were all at races that weekend for Lemons and various others. So we found out that the CAT scales at a truck stop were cool enough and opened 24hours, so on we went. She came out to EXACTLY 3000 lbs (saw it live) with a certification, signature and everything, with about 6 gallons of fuel. SO now we know what kind of power we can make. Lugging back to the shop, fighting to stay awake, we put it on the dyno lift and dump the 110 out, in trade for some mmmmm gooood e85. Kevin hopped in and began his magic for all the conversions we just did. Fast forward to around 6:15 am, my eyes bloodshot and dry from the ub3r dyno fan, and we're done. Car would only boost to 27.1 PSI due to the 9/MR BOV I had leaking. But with this we came within 7HP of my goal to 320HP and 331 TQ. 20 HP and 30 tq from where I started on a very safe tune. For mustang dyno's you add 10% for NASA so that came out to 352HP (for a fairly low reading dyno) and I figured 3125 min. race weight. That's giving myself (185lbs) some wiggle room. Mary let us crash on the shop couches so we didn't have to spend the $ for a hotel room. Dirty and tired we knocked the F* out till about 10am, woke up, loaded up, and hit the road back for another 300 mile trip. And promptly showered lol.
Now I've gotten most of my fluids changed and tightened everything down, so on the trailer tomorrow for NASA Texas region's Hallett event to shake her down and hopefully not break anything or anyone
. I'll be in DE4 for this weekend then onto TTS for the following event. (that is if i'm nice enough to Ken ).
I'd also like to thank apagan01 aka Andy for his AMSOIL Dominator 15w50 and WIX filters he got to me in record time, should help to keep things running smoothly!
. Upon entering I see at least 10 Evo's and more STI's in and around the shop area in various stages of broken or built. Everything from 600+ hp drag only cars to full on Rally prep'd cars to serious street machines. I knew I had the right address then . Upon entering the shop I walk up to an Evo on a lift, mid clutch replacement, and meet Kevin. Dude's pretty cool, and knows a lot of the quirks, what works, what doesn't, how, and why. Mostly refering to things he's broken on his road race car, which is exactly what I'm doing so it gives me more confidence knowing he's already done it and I don't have to try to explain what the rigours of track days do to the Evo, like i've had to do with most shops. After BS'ing for awhile I enter AWD's office area. Ahhhhhh A/C, sweeet. I then meet Mary who's the shop mom/****/chief that keeps all of us in check, cool chic, very down to earth and up on shop talk. Totally takes the time to make sure everyone's happy wither relaxing in the waiting area (dvd's/xbox/Mary's cute little daughter asking what movie next) or watching their car on the dyno. Most shops I've had experience with in the past where two joined forces, always ended bad. But this one seems to have the formula down, not only does everyone get along personality wise, but they have a very visible line between who does subi's and who does mitsu's, so there's never any issue. But everyone's cool enough to offer help on both when needed. I left Sunday sometime, and Josh let me store my trailer at his place so I didn't have to drag it both ways, Thanks Josh!
Now the issue with "project" cars at popular shops is that you ALWAYS get walk-in's/phone calls/weekend schedules/and the general annoying problems that arise on other cars that the expert needs to go over and look at, not to mention everything in their personal/daily job life. This puts a real damper and delay on projects, but is required to keep the machine running smoothly. Skpping ahead, I left the car there for about 4 weeks, making the 300 mile drive back to TX on the 5th last weekend. In between this time they had a slew of racing prep/rally prep customers come in and get work done, so I didn't expect her to be 100% finished. What we had gotten done was swapping intake manifolds (ported one I had aquired), installed 1050 blue maxx's, installed what looked like an AP mani spacer, tucked/wrapped some wires and moved throttle cable, then taken off all the emissions crap. So far we assumed she'd shed about 18 lbs in weight. I arrived around 3pm and we started on the rest of the work. Swapped exhaust manifolds for a (PPI?) ported coated, ebay 02 housing (complete with drilling the bolts and safety wiring everything, very time consuming but required for our use), taking off bumper braces, multiple brackets, then some wiring and electronics removed (abs computer etc). It was about 96 deg outside, 30 seconds and sweat humidity, very hellish to work in.
Now it's about 2ish AM with everything done, just Me, Kevin, and my buddy Steven at the shop. For NASA tts/st2 racing classes you run the car based on a power to weight ratio. I won't go into how it works here, but now we needed to weigh the car. A few phone calls earlier resulted in most of the portable scales in the area were all at races that weekend for Lemons and various others. So we found out that the CAT scales at a truck stop were cool enough and opened 24hours, so on we went. She came out to EXACTLY 3000 lbs (saw it live) with a certification, signature and everything, with about 6 gallons of fuel. SO now we know what kind of power we can make. Lugging back to the shop, fighting to stay awake, we put it on the dyno lift and dump the 110 out, in trade for some mmmmm gooood e85. Kevin hopped in and began his magic for all the conversions we just did. Fast forward to around 6:15 am, my eyes bloodshot and dry from the ub3r dyno fan, and we're done. Car would only boost to 27.1 PSI due to the 9/MR BOV I had leaking. But with this we came within 7HP of my goal to 320HP and 331 TQ. 20 HP and 30 tq from where I started on a very safe tune. For mustang dyno's you add 10% for NASA so that came out to 352HP (for a fairly low reading dyno) and I figured 3125 min. race weight. That's giving myself (185lbs) some wiggle room. Mary let us crash on the shop couches so we didn't have to spend the $ for a hotel room. Dirty and tired we knocked the F* out till about 10am, woke up, loaded up, and hit the road back for another 300 mile trip. And promptly showered lol.
Now I've gotten most of my fluids changed and tightened everything down, so on the trailer tomorrow for NASA Texas region's Hallett event to shake her down and hopefully not break anything or anyone
. I'll be in DE4 for this weekend then onto TTS for the following event. (that is if i'm nice enough to Ken ). I'd also like to thank apagan01 aka Andy for his AMSOIL Dominator 15w50 and WIX filters he got to me in record time, should help to keep things running smoothly!
Jun 10, 2010, 08:42 AM
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awsome review! let me know how hallet goes, hopefully this weekend i'll have a moment to strip the rest of my car so i can get it painted and join you at the next race 
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