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Alright, so as some of you probably have noticed, I picked up an Evo IX a week ago.

I'll start with chassis history, which is actually interesting!

I am the 4th owner. The car was a southern car up until March of last year, and is basically free of notable rust as a result. It has only seen salt for the past month while the 3rd owner was driving it to ensure no issues and then the few times I drove it.

The car was stock with some basic bolt-ons when the 2nd owner, a friend of mine, purchased the car. He was in the Army at the time, and was stationed at various bases in Alabama, Georgia, and Florida when he wasn't deployed. When his time was up, he applied for and got a contractor job, and went overseas again. During that period of time, he had the car, which was then further from stock, sent to Buschur Racing. his instructions? For David to clone the Bad Bish, their 700+whp shop car:

The chassis, following that, made numbers anywhere from mid 700s all the way up to 870hp AT THE WHEELS on E98. it was taken down to TX2K last year and whooped up on some stuff, spun on the dyno, and was all around very good at looking stock but being anything but.

This was with 800lbs of dude in the car:

Dyno pull:

I had a chance to ride in the car shortly after that, and that much power is really eye opening. Changes your perspective on the whole game.

At some point prior to the insane build, the car was backed into a ditch at speed, the wing broken and removed, and some body panels a bit messed up. The panels were replaced and the whole car was repainted, so the paint is fresh as of two years ago and has never been buffed or polished, it saw a clay bar out of the body shop and nothing but sealers since. A nice, fresh canvas for me.

Anyway, the 2nd owner got bored of the car (yeah, you read that right) because it just didn't try to kill him enough. He tried to sell it for a month and a half as it sat, and with no buyers, he bit the bullet and parted it out.

That's where the 3rd owner comes in, also a buddy of mine. He purchased the shell, rebuilt the car as near to stock as possible, and then sold it (to me) for a solid profit. The motor and t-case came from a IX MR that had its trunk pushed back into the rear seats and have 46k on them. The t-case, as a result, houses the more aggressive MR/RS helical front diff. The trans was rebuilt 3k ago, with the ever-desirable Evo VIII 4th gear, so it has the same driveline ratios as my old VIII. The only mods are a test pipe and Apex'i N1 coilovers with Swift springs, specifically the setup referenced in the video above on Buschur's car right down to the spring rates and damper settings.

But you guys really just want pics:







So yeah, that's the new SpazEvo.

Time to update your sig

It looks naked without its wing. Nice car and color though!

mmm you got a piece of a monster there. What are your plans for the build? Keeping it discreet, like 300-400 hp tops? Planning to go crazy like what it used to be?

Sweet sleeper there!

Thanks guys!

Plans right now are pretty simple. I'll transfer the fuel system from the black car and convert to E85, but will otherwise leave everything else alone, including the stock intake and exhaust. I should with the turbo maxed out be able to make around 350/350 to the wheels on my tuner's Mustang dyno. It'll need a clutch eventually so I'm keeping the black car's Exedy HD Twin for when I kill the OE unit... So probably in June.

Outside of that I'll play with the suspension, add some bracing to stiffen things up and account for metal fatigue from the previous build, and then do a bunch of lightweight stuff on top of that (propshaft, mustache bar, crossmember). Brakes will be upgraded too with at the very least fluid, rotors, and track pads, but that shouldn't come as a surprise. Interior will stay pretty much as is but get a harness bar and at least the driver's seat and probably passenger too with racing buckets. Exterior will get some cosmetic accents to set the car off, I'll probably picked up a winged trunk for the track as well.

Wow, I never realized this LanEvo had so much history to it, that was actually very interesting to read.

So this car has some simple upgrades and a rebuild gearbox and better differential. Also, seemingly stock otherwise, I honestly didn't even know it had coilovers because your ride height it modest compared to most people who are granted height adjustment (shots fired!) and your's is very tasteful.

I'm reviving a bit of an older thread but is there any progress on the Mitsu since you posted this?

EDIT: Didn't this Evo race the 3DX Evo 10 at TX2K13? I thought I saw this car on the DVD.

This post has been edited by HateSkylines on Feb 25 2014, 02:11 PM

It has quite a backstory for sure. All components are now stock outside of the test pipe and coilovers, and the engine, trans, and t-case have never seen more than stock power. The trans can be considered an Evo VIII unit by rebuild specs. The coilovers are set lower, but the car was lowered evenly so the front wheel gap is still greater than the rear. I do plan to drop the front to match.

No progress thusfar though, just a parts pile of increasing size. I've been all over the board as far as what I want to do with it, and right now the big thing is wheels and tires since I need those ASAP for when the season hits. I have a set of limited run Volk CE28 Time Attacks lined up in 17x9, wrapped in Direzza Z1* that should get me through an event or two before I slap a set of BFG Rivals on there for the next two seasons.

For transfer parts, I've got the clutch and injectors, then one of the fuel pumps out of this chassis previously.

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Image size reduced, original size: 720 x 540. Click here to view the image in its original dimension.

Image size reduced, original size: 720 x 540. Click here to view the image in its original dimension.

I'm not honestly not sure if the injectors are going in at all, if so probably not this year. I need to pickle them while I'm indecisive. E85 availability is getting questionable with some new legislation so I'm going to wait and see and run classes closer to stock in the meantime.

You'll remember this car from the dyno video and one, maybe two races, but he never had a chance to race Chase's car. The white VIII, however, did. All 3 cars would have been damn near even.

So... About a post in the Random Thoughts thread...

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Image size reduced, original size: 1024 x 768. Click here to view the image in its original dimension.

Yep, that happened.

gonna put those on the evo?

sweet.

Hell yeah they're going on the Evo. Once the weather warms up, probably next weekend, I'll get them mounted.

Sexiness overload.

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looks pretty sweet

for some reason wingless really works on this evo

Thanks!

Some cars can pull it off, some can't. This specific example has always done a very good job of it.

I've got a serious bind in the driveline right now... There's a torn axle boot and I will address that axle first, but I get the feeling the front diff took a dump.

Regardless, outside of that, this thing is going to seriously hurt feelings this year at Proving Grounds. The suspension and brakes are unnecessarily brilliant and will only get dialed in further between now and then.

This post has been edited by cmspaz on Apr 14 2014, 05:13 PM

Center diff is locked up. Time to drop the trans!

So, I finally have the car back on the road. The ACD is the culprit, it's not relieving pressure so the system is 100% locked 100% of the time. Disabling the pump and depressurizing the system solved the issue.

So the car has a 100% open center diff at the moment but I can at least drive it while I search for parts, probably just a solenoid.

I may end up needing the whole pump though, at least I'll pick one up, then try the solenoid. If it works, done deal, and I sell the pump sans solenoid for $100 less. if not, I throw the whole thing in, still no big deal. Problem gets solved regardless.

In other news, I got an alignment... And this is where things get REALLY interesting:

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The passenger rear is AS GOOD AS IT GETS. Those numbers are with the camber eccentric MAXED negative, and the toe eccentric binds and won't go further toward zero. Now, here's the kicker; the camber eccentric on the driver's side is maxed POSITIVE. It will not go any more positive than -0.8. Toe is fine on that side. So I've come to the conclusion that the subframe needs to be realigned to the unibody. Only explanation as to why it would be like it is considering the unibody is straight... At least straight enough to not cause nearly half an inch of variation in bolt position, that would be pretty darn visible.

So it's more fun to come, but I'm not pulling my hair out wanting to sell the thing anymore now that the driveline is figured out. Put 715 miles on it since Friday (yay cruises!) and am right back head over heels for it.

Race car stuff.

Holy. Shit. I love this car.

Still getting used to the ACD working properly, in fact I mentioned it feeling weird 30 seconds into my first session on Friday night... It was a completely different car from two weeks ago. Completely. No similarities. This week was nothing short of impressive... I'm so glad I picked this car up, this setup is nearly perfect as it sits and I really can't wait for Proving Grounds. I'll get video of a couple runs up here in the next day or so, but I'm just so super happy with the car right now.

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Also, I learned that I'm faster than the 2nd place finisher in my class last year at PG... So here's hoping the field doesn't change too much.