Evo Build
Posted by DaveK
Dave Kern Junior Moderator Location: Centennial Join Date: 07/11/2008 Age: Midlife Crisis Posts: 1,085 Rally Car: Compact M3 & Evo IX |
Dave Kern Junior Moderator Location: Centennial Join Date: 07/11/2008 Age: Midlife Crisis Posts: 1,085 Rally Car: Compact M3 & Evo IX |
Alright, so time to finish off the 2008 part of the story.
We also ran a couple more CHCA hillclimbs that year and wrapped up our first win and course record a few weeks after PPIHC at the Land's End Hill Climb in Grand Junction, CO. I took a big gamble on tires and tried running the Yoko intermediates we had run at PP when the road started getting a nice blue groove on it, and it paid off big-time. New course record by 15 seconds or so, and in the years since, nobody in the rally class has broken the 5 minute barrier. Unfortunately I was using a ChaseCam which was getting flaky, so I didn't get the full fast run, but this one is only a few ticks slower: About a month later we had the last CHCA race of the season at the Gold Camp Hill Climb in Victor, CO. It was a course we got to run earlier in the season, but with more seat time in the new car and familiarity with the course, it was nice to be able to eek out a few more seconds and nab another record: This is a high altitude road, starting right around 9,000 feet if I remember correctly. At about 1:55 into the video, you can see Pikes Peak off to the right. Unfortunately we never got a chance to go back there and race as its a mining road and it got torn up before the 2009 season. It was a fun road, but murder on the bottom of the car. The kevlar underbody looked like someone had been doing close range shotgun practice after only ~15 miles on that road. Sharp crushed granite does not do nice things to rally shells. Fast forward a few months and we're up to the winter of 2008-09. As some of you guys know I've been instructing at the Bridgestone Winter Driving School for a while, and I decided to drive the Evo up there a few times for some practice on the ice tracks...and got pulled over and put in the back of a cop car for a while...but I digress. 
Even got to spend a day playing around with Matthew Johnson's "partridge family WRX" but don't seem to have any pics online I can link to. Nothing like being humbled by a guy who can really wheel a car around and had Yoko A034s! But hey, that's what practice is for.
Dave |
Grant Hughes Ultra Moderator Location: Whitefish, MT Join Date: 01/11/2006 Age: Midlife Crisis Posts: 6,818 Rally Car: BMW |
Dave Kern Junior Moderator Location: Centennial Join Date: 07/11/2008 Age: Midlife Crisis Posts: 1,085 Rally Car: Compact M3 & Evo IX |
2009 was the year we dreamed big. Got a call about teaming up with some of the other AMS customer and shop cars and figured why the hell not. It meant being able to order up an extra goodie or two for the car, and we got to cover up all the rock chip damage on the side of the car. LOL
Alright, so on to the 2009 upgrades: The orig. HDPE white muflaps looked like crap after a season (sorta grey/pink from rock blast), so I ordered up a set of proper rally flaps, the KD molded ones: 
Prototype intake manifold from AMS Performance (which has now been in production for a few years): 
2.3L stroker motor with an AMS Performance prototype v-band turbo kit: 
And tie it all together with a turbo fit for rally duty, a TR30R: 
Mixed all the parts together with an all night tuning session and we had a pretty fun car to kick off the racing season with. Did I mention the um...late nights...um...and who though recording a video on no sleep was a good idea and that...um...I need to work on my speaking skills. I wish someone had told me to do a 2nd take. 
Unfortunately when you use a rally turbo and pull the restrictor, the powerband still looks like the restrictor is in, and it resulted in a strange powerband that I didn't like once it was back up at Denver elevations. I put together a little teaser vid of me messing about at CORE: The AEM ECU I had couldn't do anti-lag, so I had all of the lag of a big turbo, and all of the top-end of a restrictor powerband, I knew this had to change before taking the car up to 9400 feet because it'd only get worse. By the time Pikes Peak rolled around for the year, Forced Performance had offered us a good deal on a 3582R. Seemed like a more natural powerband and at the power levels we were going for, the car wasn't going to be breaking a sweat. Ended up chasing down some wiring issues on the car and even spend an entire weekend in the pits trying to diagnosis an intermittant stalling issue at the Buffalo Peaks Hill Climb. Found a common power wire from the evap system that had come out of its wrapper and was bouncing against the frame causing the car to shut off. Worst weekend in racing I'd had to date as we could hear the cars racing all around us. A double shame as we've now lost the event based on problems with the local forest ranger being against racing. Fast forward to Pikes Peak and the first morning was tough. The car didn't seem to be making power very quickly and wasn't seeing positive manifold pressure till over 5000rpm. After practice we dug into the datalogs and discovered the MIVEC system wasn't activating. Finally traced it down to a bad cam sensor, swapped our high flow cat for a test pipe, and we were seeing the turbo spool 800-1000rpm quicker the next day. Car was a monster! Made really good power and was simply having a blast with the car. I think we ended up setting fast time in the top section but on qualifying day, we started having issues with the intercooler couplers blowing off. I even had one with a hole blown in it the size of a fist. Grant captured some good video of a bunch of cars on qualifying day (Gronholm included!): In addition, the gearbox (hollinger dogbox) started acting up and it wasn't sticking in 3rd gear if you had quick on/off/on throttle applications. I ran into ACP out of the blue at Fan Fest (big block party for racers & fans in downtown Colorado Springs) and he mentioned that when dogboxes start doing that, you could just hold them in gear and all would be well for a little while, but a rebuild was needed. We dug up replacement IC couplers as well by race day, but with no real place to test, we just doubled up clamps where there was room and hoped for the best. On the way up to the startline that morning, I did a couple blasts in 3rd gear at full boost and it was holding boost. Quick notes on our tire choice. We wanted something with lots of grooves and biting edges like a rally tire, but needed more rubber since in the US, the widest you can find is a 225. Seemed like road racing rain tires were to be the hot ticket...if they're stand up to 12 miles of abuse on dry pavement. As race day wore on, the clouds started moving in, and just before our run group, the skies opened up. So, the rain tires looked like a good bet, but I'd never had a chance to drive the Evo in the rain. This was going to be fun! Launched the car off the line and something wasn't quite right. As we crossed under the start banner I peered down at the boost gauge and it was at just 6psi instead of somewhere north of 25. The one spot in the system where we couldn't fit two clamps was on the turbo outlet, but because of the splitter, the lower IC pipe couldn't blow all the way off, so it was still making boost. Made the best of the situation, but wasn't able to eclipse our time from the year before and had to settle for 2nd in class. Had an online magazine do a two part feature on the car, so was cool to see a little press over all the long hours and hard work: http://www.speedhunters.com/2009/07/event_gt_gt_behind_the_scenes_with_ams_nos_pike_s_peak/ http://www.speedhunters.com/2009/07/car_feature_gt_gt_nos_ams_performance_pike_s_peak_evo/ And finally, here's the video AMS whipped up covering the event. Some cool shots mixed in, but too much of me talking...and I still need to work on my speaking skills, LOL: Dave |
Ryan Sealey Senior Moderator Location: Golden, CO Join Date: 07/13/2011 Age: Midlife Crisis Posts: 70 Rally Car: '97 Subaru Impreza |
Dave Kern Junior Moderator Location: Centennial Join Date: 07/11/2008 Age: Midlife Crisis Posts: 1,085 Rally Car: Compact M3 & Evo IX |
Thanks for the kind words - now, more importantly, when's the cage going in yours?
Mudflaps came from here: http://www.p-sport.com/ |
Ryan Sealey Senior Moderator Location: Golden, CO Join Date: 07/13/2011 Age: Midlife Crisis Posts: 70 Rally Car: '97 Subaru Impreza |
Like most RXers who startup thinking "oh yeah man this is going to be mad sick tight yo! I'm going pro and getting sponsored and all that other jazz within months"... but 5 years later it still hasn't happened and Travis P still has a restraining order against me.
But perhaps this winter when the RX season is over. Depends on how good of a deal Grant or Jimmy can get me. More than likely when (not if) it happens I’ll just go your route and do lots of hill climbs and maybe a stage or 2. But I don't think $200 flaps will help... regardless of how cool they are. But enough about me and my typical "boy racer" dreams. Lets hear and see more about the Evo R.Sealey http://www.facebook.com/SealeySport http://www.youtube.com/ryolse Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 04/27/2012 10:51AM by ryolse. |
Grant Hughes Ultra Moderator Location: Whitefish, MT Join Date: 01/11/2006 Age: Midlife Crisis Posts: 6,818 Rally Car: BMW |
Ryan. If you're willing to put in labor and bring the beer on shop work nights, I can do it cheaper then anyone else.
I finally rode in the Evo last month. Holy shit is the only word to describe it. Absolute monster and the whole package. So sad to see it moving so far toward a specific tarmac machine. At least there is plenty of time to get it back to gravel for Lands End. Grant Hughes |
Dave Kern Junior Moderator Location: Centennial Join Date: 07/11/2008 Age: Midlife Crisis Posts: 1,085 Rally Car: Compact M3 & Evo IX |
Or OL for SnoDrift...with that rear mounted radiator you're helping with.
 Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/27/2012 11:07AM by DaveK. |
Ryan Sealey Senior Moderator Location: Golden, CO Join Date: 07/13/2011 Age: Midlife Crisis Posts: 70 Rally Car: '97 Subaru Impreza |
Grant Hughes Ultra Moderator Location: Whitefish, MT Join Date: 01/11/2006 Age: Midlife Crisis Posts: 6,818 Rally Car: BMW |
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Dave Kern Junior Moderator Location: Centennial Join Date: 07/11/2008 Age: Midlife Crisis Posts: 1,085 Rally Car: Compact M3 & Evo IX |
Rear doors had been gutted down to 35 lbs each from the stock 52 lbs. Ended up removing 100 lbs, but that also included the widebody stuff, so maybe 5-10 lbs there.
New panels are 5-7 lbs each with maybe another pound or two in fasteners. If this fire ends up postponing the race...maybe we'll have time to do the rear mounted radiator. 
Dave |
Grant Hughes Ultra Moderator Location: Whitefish, MT Join Date: 01/11/2006 Age: Midlife Crisis Posts: 6,818 Rally Car: BMW |
But if you do that with all -16 hose to get coolant to and from the engine you are looking at adding a pound of water weight for every 3 feet of hose, plus the weight of the hose. Grant Hughes |
Dave Kern Junior Moderator Location: Centennial Join Date: 07/11/2008 Age: Midlife Crisis Posts: 1,085 Rally Car: Compact M3 & Evo IX |
Alex Staidle Godlike Moderator Location: Δx = ħ/2Δp Join Date: 08/21/2009 Age: Settling Down Posts: 1,719 Rally Car: Various Heaps |
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