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It's about time this car got its own thread.

The brief history:

This is the day after I picked it up:


The car was in an accident 4 days into my ownership, a teenager cut me off by changing lanes right in front of me and I had no time to react, the car got a new front bumper, core support, intercooler, and radiator assembly. After 3 weeks in the body shop due to issues getting parts from Japan, I got the car back, looking better than ever:





That was closing on a month ago. The car's been amazing since, as I've gotten used to it I've noticed a few things, mainly in sounds I've found to be... not quite normal. For starters, I first noticed a little extra noise in the drivetrain, particularly a whine coming from the transmission in front of me. Then, once I got used to that, began to notice the whine from behind me. These two things sparked my curiosity, and I'd been toying with the idea of yanking up the back seat and taking a look at what's hiding under that access plate.

Well, as it turns out, there's no need. I found out today from a post on the local Evo board. Owner #2, the one before me, made a somewhat lengthy post detailing the history of this car.

The first owner tracked it. Since the car was originally purchased in Milwaukee, I can only assume it's seen time at Road America. The transmission was supposedly built during this time, with what inside, I have no idea. My guess would be a Stage 1 Shep since the gearing is the same as from factory.

The car was in an accident on the highway in traffic with the second owner a month after he bought it, it was sandwiched when someone rear-ended it and pushed it into the car in front. Cue bumper #2.

That owner daily drove the car, had no issues with it, and never tracked it. In winter '08 the car slid into and hopped a curb, the bumper and lip were damaged then. Cue bumper #3. Somewhere in here it also got a Walbro 255 and that ETS intake. The car also apparently has a mail-in tune that ended up being complete shit, and unless the dealership reflashed it it's still on there. A new stock clutch was put in a 27k, has only one launch on it.

So... that's what I've got for now.

Wow, this car is a magnet for accidents. What a succubus...

Otherwise, it's an incredible looking vehicle. Any major plans for it?

Right now, just the basics; beyond what it's got, exhaust, boost controller, tune.

But first, gauges and getting rid of the disgusting stock chrome Altezza-style tails I conveniently left out pictures of. I'll be getting the ebay knock-off JDM tails, which happen to look quite nice for under $200.

Holy crap. 4 bumpers. I think I'm seeing a pattern here. Evo drivers have a problem with excessive speed. Damn though, I'm not sure I would have bought that care had I seen a carfax.

You start fooling with stuff too much, you'll wind up in SM again =P I think that car is a BSP car, which would be good for competition and for keeping costs down. Or, hey, you can stick it in STU and save a ton of cash while still having fun.

SM is a death pit to get curb stomped by life and raped in finances.

To be competitive locally in STU with an Evo you need $3000 Zzyzx coilovers.

I can do BSP with just what's listed, only caveats being that the exhaust has to be a catback and the boost control will have to be done by the ECU. The only problem being that the stock solenoid eases the car into boost instead of staying shut as long as possible, which makes it feel pretty wimpy.

As long as I can get a decent tune, I could also swap between the stock solenoid for events and the MBC for daily driving and avoid any legality issues.

Sweet cat buddy. I love it. Your cars history is the reason I haven't traded the stang for an Evo yet, They usually have a questionable history when I find them. I hope your project goes well.

Nice. I am partial to EVO's. Saw one in town on my drive to work this morning, and followed it until it turned.

That sucks about the accidents! That would piss me off. lol.

Eh, you wouldn't know the history if you looked at or drove the car.

It doesn't look like it's been through an accident, let a lone 2 major and 1 minor one, nor does it drive like it, or have any weird rattles or shakes as a result. The motor and tranny have appeared to be healthy enough that you'd expect the car to have been babied, not tracked, for its first few years. For Christ sake it's got factory compression numbers.

With what I know of the history, I'm fairly pleased, the car has held up very well through all of that.

I'd hold off on the mods. I've had this car for over three years now and it's still bone stock (with the exception of the tires, which of course were bound to be replaced), and it's still plenty of car for me, and it was enough last night to obliterate an S2000 around a few corners

If you're willing to do some work yourself, you can open up the VIII tails and paint them. They end up looking pretty nice.

I already ordered the ebay tails, and the car should still have that "shit mail-in tune" as the previous owner called it, so it'll need a tune, and why not push the stock injectors at that point?

Spaz already got the modbug, it's too late!

I suppose in your situation, it would be worth it, plus it's not like you have a warranty anymore that you need to worry about voiding... so on second thought, go for it, but I'd say go little at a time. It's not like you really need much more power.

Oh, I'm not looking for any more than 250 at the wheels this season, there's no need. But I do feel compelled to get rid of that tune, so I'll do what I can with what's on there to start.

I'll also probably pick up a Tactrix cable and start playing around with softmods a bit.

Sorry if i missed this- Whys the tune "shit"?

Probably didn't gain a whole lot if any power (it still feels stock), and beyond that I've noticed that the stock 2-step is... missing.

I always find with tuning people have unrealistic expectations, its a retune- not a redo. Only reason to expect more power is if you upped the boost (which i admit is capable of being done with a retune to my knowledge on the evos, what boost is it running?). Id expect it to feel stock. Unless your butt dyno is exceptionally accurate even gains of 20 hp along the powerband are going to go unnoticed.

Hook a wideband up to it, check your AFRs- Is it all over the place? Is it constant? Does the car have any drivability issues?

I haven't had a chance to get a laptop hooked up yet, but I just don't like the idea of a mail-in tune. Every car is different, you can't really do things that way and get away with it. We have both the proclaimed "Best Evo tuner in the US" and the actual "Best Evo tuner in the US" (who are in fact two different people) locally, so there's zero reason for me to go with a vanilla tune over something either of those two could produce.

But we'll find out what's up in two weeks when the car goes on the dyno for a baseline.

You can easily get away with "mail in tunes". When you say each cars different are we talking after theyre modded or stock? Stock for stock, yes theyre each "slightly" different, but they will not be different enough to have one tune work brilliantly one one car and totally f**k up another unless something is completely wrong. As long as the individual doing the tune knows what theyre doing and are intending this to be for relatively stock cars, OR has experience with a vehicle set up in a particular way, you can get away with "mail in". Granted I admit its not the best, and support the notion of having it tuned fully on a nice load based dyno if given the chance and its in the budget. Point being, as long as the tuner knows his stuff and whats going on, it should be fine.

This post has been edited by sideways on May 4 2010, 10:15 PM

Dude its a non 10.5 hotside, its not gonna make a ton of power, being as how that is the main restriction right now.

Oh, I know. And even with a IX turbo, it's not going to make as much as a IX due to the lack of MIVEC. I will not, for a long time, be looking to make a large amount of power with this car. I don't need to. I'm just looking to eek out what can be eeked out with what's on there for the time being.

But Evos are known to run VERY rich from the factory, and the guy who had tuned his Evo before may not have been the best tuner, especially if it was an off-the-shelf tune, especially if there are minor bolt-on mods. Even tunes on Evos can wake up quite a bit of power.

Wont argue that, but I stand by what I said. You can pick up power by adjusting the Afr, especially on cars where they do run rich from the factory for safety reasons- Point is unless its HORRIBLY off, the amount of power you pick up by just adusting the afr is going to be minimal and while beneficial its very unlikely that it would register on all but the best of the best butt-dynos. The only way youre going to pick up noticeable power is if the boost is tampered with.

So yes tunes can wake up a lot of power on evos (and have seen this happen first hand), I'd also be much more than willing to bet those are the tunes that are increasing the boost. This is just my opinion based on my past couple of years helping operate (key word, i dont tune- just hook up, do pulls for the tuner, and observe) dynos.

Just about every turbo vehicle runs very rich, especially WOT.

Don't I know it.