I’ve had my Project Thread on EvoMN for a little while now but, especially with the “season” starting soon, I figured I’d start the thread here as well. Since it’s been up there for a while, the intro posts will be even longer than they were before.
I’ve always liked Project Threads but never thought my car and my “journey” were worth a Project Thread; I’ve always thought my setup was pretty basic with only a few bolt-ons, and the mods have come month-by-month over the course of ownership, as opposed to one or two big builds at a time. That, and I didn’t really have specific goals for myself or the car other than to enjoy the car hobby and have some fun.
Well, I’ve talked to a few people lately about the car and mods and found myself not really remembering everything I have on it or the various changes I’ve gone through, and my goals are getting more specific, so I thought a Project Thread would be a great way to keep of track of my progress and the car’s progress, and maybe provide some useful info along the way.
I have some catching up to do since buying the car in 2009, so forgive the introductory novel.
Background and history
After looking at and driving over 12 different Evos, I bought the car in November of 2009; it’s a 2006 IX MR SE and I bought it with 26,000 miles on it and basically stock—it had tint, a bunch of stereo stuff, a stupid alarm, TBE, matte black MR BBS wheels, Rexpeed CF Type-C lip spoiler, maybe more I can’t remember right now. For all intents and purposes though, it was stock—stock intake, stock tune, suspension, clutch, etc.
When I bought it:
I started by fixing a couple of things I didn’t like-- debadged the rear, CF wrapped the front emblem, blacked out the front and rear sidemarkers, replaced the taillights with JDM VII’s and switched the loud, raspy Tanabe catback for a Perrin Stealth (which I think still is my favorite sounding exhaust for these cars). I put winter tires on the MR BBS wheels, then got new wheels and tires in Spring—I always loved the look of CE28’s but couldn’t afford them, so I went with 18x9.5 Rota DPT’s and Sumitomo HTR ZIII’s.
I eventually added some GTWorx lowering springs on the stock MR Bilsteins, a Nisei LICP, intake, and a conservative tune to 25psi.
Some pics from along the way:
Getting into autocross and progressing
I bought the LICP from Toothy who, at the time, was running autocross and doing extremely well, so I talked to him about getting into the sport. He encouraged me to come out to an event and said he would show me the ropes. I assumed since he was driving an Evo and doing so well, the same would happen for me, so I went to my first event in late 2011.
Before going, I wanted some lighter wheels and stickier tires so I sold the Rota DPT’s and picked up some MR BBS with 255 Star Specs on them. Since I modded the car before getting into autocross, a few of my mods vaulted me into BSP (Evos are now classed in ASP though) which is a very high class in terms of mods/ prep. I did well for my first event; I spun on one run but I finished lower-mid-pack for Raw time, even lower-mid-pack for Index time. I did one more event in 2011 and switched the MR BBS for 17x9 Rota Grids with 255 Star Specs since I wanted a slightly wider wheel. I had the same result as my first event—spun, finished lower-mid-pack in Raw time, and even lower-mid-pack in Index time.
I wasn’t sure how serious I wanted to get with autocross, I wanted to have a fun street car, and I was saving to buy a house so I just did a few more little mods in 2011 and planned to participate in more events in 2012.
Well, we had our first child in May, 2012 so it was hard to justify spending a whole day away from my wife and newborn, so I only got in 3 or 4 events in 2012. Over the year, I did a few more mods, got a little better as a driver, and generally had fun.
Highlights from 2012 include the custom aluminum catback (v-banded to be quiet for daily driving, louder and lighter for autocross), brakes, RSB, my first foray into lightweight batteries, my first foray into strut tower bars, and convincing s1lence to come to some autocross events.
When I started autocrossing, I really thought I needed a really fast car and I would be good just because I had an Evo which was apparently so easy to drive and made every driver look like a star. But as I progressed, I realized the car was much more talented than the driver and I couldn’t take advantage of all the car had.
I also realized I liked autocross but the competitive side of me struggled with not doing well—not even compared to others, but not doing as well as I thought I could. So I made it a 2013 goal to fix the nut behind the wheel.
Some more pics:
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