Hey! There's a possibility I may be transferring to our Honolulu office here in the next few months, so I wanted to ask you guys if you guys have decent shops for mods down there. Even if I ship nothing else, I will be taking my car with me.

I grew up in Hawaii, so I know the area pretty well. Right now I live in Dallas, so I'm close to Cobb. If I do move, should I go ahead and do my big mods (turbo, etc) and suspension while I'm here, or will it be relatively easy to find someone down there? Right now I'm happy with my current mod list, but I plan on trying to get to 400+ HP in about a year or so. I may push that plan up sooner if I really need to, though.

Are Evo owners on Oahu fairly active, like car shows, meets, etc?

Edit: Also, should I add my surfboard rack before I get there or not?

 

I would do as many big mods as possible on the mainland, as you will save a ton on shipping. You probably already know that though! There are two descent shops that work on evo's, but none for thee sst tranny( if you have it) there are car shows, and hit up rome evo in the hawaii pt 2 thread if you want to join a club.....welcome back

 

Thank you! No SST here, I have a GSR and I cannot stand automatics. Do the shops there have a lot of experience on the X's, or do they mostly do IXs and VIIIs? We have several shops here that pretty much do one or the other.

 

Hey welcome back! I would highly suggest swapping out the outer state plates for Hawaii ones when you get here instead of the out of state permit. I had a bad experience with keeping my Cali plates. When cops see it, they assume you have illegal mods on your car. If you are planning on getting Recon when you get here, have the stock light housings on. That includes the lit up reflector in the rear bumper. No HIDs unless you hide them really well or they are the stock ones. Any aftermarket mods to your engine will prompt the inspector to ask you the list of mods done to the car and for them to be suspicious about you keeping the stock crash bar and the bumper impact foam. They are required by federal law so thats an instant fail if you dont have them. If they wanna be jerks that day, they will ask you to drop the rear and front bumpers on the spot to prove you have the stock crash bar and bumper impact foam on the car. Thats not a lie since they asked me to do this twice. Suspension mods are also a big thing. The car needs to be able to bounce 2" with minimal effort on the front and rear. Have super soft coilovers if you are gonna get them or keep the stock suspension on the car until you get your recon and then swap out the suspension parts. Tint must be at 35%. You need an alignment no longer that 30 days old of your recon appointment. Oh yeah theyre only open on the weekdays and its by appointment only and costs $15 exact cash only for the inspection. Bring your registration, alignment paper, and I forgot what else but have your owners manual handy too. I had to use it....... Now heres the stupid part. If youre desperate, they will more than likely pass you if you bribe the inspector. Theyre jerks like that. Just wanted to let you know.

 

Wow. Thanks for the info. This sounds like it's going to be a pain in the ****. All my mods are in my sig, and I don't think I'm going to have any issues with those. I'm running HFC not a test pipe, too, so emissions won't be an issue, I hope? I have no appearance mods, except my vanity plates that I just got a few weeks ago . Speaking of which, are front plates required there? I can't remember. I just paid $500 for the plates, so I may keep them. Would it help if I have documentation for all my mods?

Dumb question...what is Recon?

 

Holy crap! Thats a lot of...crap to go thru!

 

Yeah no problem. Most of the community knows what I went through and its surprising cause my car isnt modded for high power output. It looks almost like any other stock Evolution. It took me almost half a year to get my Recon and I spent a lot of time and money to get it. Getting Recon is a pain. Its pretty bad since the inspectors themselves dont do their job properly and they know they can without getting into trouble. Once you get it though, the cops are most likely to leave you alone about not having a Recon permit. It doesnt seem like you would have any trouble with those, but the intercooler pipes may hint the inspector to think the intercooler and turbo arent modded. Oh yeah, they may want you to prove the turbo and intercooler is stock with part numbers or something. I failed the first time partly cause I couldnt prove they were stock and that my crash bar wasnt modded. We dont have emission laws here, but cops can cite you for a loud exhaust. Having no appearance mods is a good. You have a better chance of not being pulled over by cops. Front plates are required here by law. You will fail safety check and Recon if you dont have a front plate. I cant remember if there still is a height requirement for the front plate. Cops hand out fix it tickets for no front plate. I dont know if documentation will help, but you can try. Documentation from the dealership helps more, but I dont think the Mitsu dealership does that here anymore. We only have one dealership. Im not an expert on Recon or Safety check. Im just sharing my experiences and what I know. Safety Check is another thing. If you dont have Recon and the Safety Check station you go to deems your vehicle is in need of Recon, you fail Safety Check since Recon is required for Safety Check. Safety Check is annual. Theres a handbook somewhere online that the inspectors use that you can use to see if your car will pass Safety Check or not. Some places that do Safety Check are more lax than others.

Yeah we have stupid laws here.

 

+1 when i got mine i had to get my pregnant wife to go for me. I gave up after the 2nd try and got her to go. She got my evo done......then she went back with her sti and failed on the bounce check

 

Hmm...the Cobb IC piping actually looks pretty clean, but the big name plate and the intake will give it away. I wonder if I can take off the name plate and switch to the dual oval exhaust if I can squeak by. But I'll have to get the tint removed, since I'm at Texas legal limits, which is 25% on the front, 15% on the back. Sh*t.

...sounds like it'll be a lot of trouble.


Also...does anyone know where the "friendlier" safety check places are? Would you PM me, pretty please?

 

Can I come by someday so I can work on a suspension and tire setup? After being on stock and aftermarket springs, they both feel pretty soft in the corners..............

LOL Recon in general is tons of trouble. Its a headache. Sometimes you revert super close to stock just to pass Recon and then the inspector asks you why do you need Recon in the first place. Yeah you might wanna get the tint redone. I think the fine here for illegal tint is $263 PER window. Somewhere around that price but the per window part is true. They care more about the tint than the exhaust system to be honest.

 

Yes, but it will have to be after hellaflush. I let someone borrow my jack and jackstands! If we ever meetup again i can give you my adress also......we can work something out!

 

LOL okay thats fine. I cant go to Hellaflush cause its on a relatives birthday. Snag me a sticker if you can! LOL. A safety check sized one is what Im trying to find but theyre pretty hard to find. Awesome cause suspension tuning is a pretty big headache lol. I dont think Im going about it right.

 

Yeah, im down to adjust ride height and get camber kind of where you want....but you will have to go to island brake for a alignment

 

LOL okay. I was toying with different ideas for my touge setup still. I dont have the coils yet or tires/rims, but it would be cool if I can get advice on what to choose.