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Brakes have been done for a week. It was a huge nightmare, had a caliper strip out and had to rethread it, Mitsu wanted 3 days to get the bolt, so I went and picked up the caliper bolt for an STi from Subaru and used that.

Shook down the braking system at USA International Raceway in Wisconsin on Sunday, which went quite well.

I've also had a change of heart on the coilovers. While they will need to eventually be addressed, it makes little sense to spend a bunch of time and money trying to dial in the suspension now, when later mods are going to change the way things need to be set up.

So the next major change is going to be the diffs. Rear end is going to be converted to a 2-way locker, and the center diff will be flashed with the Ralliart maps. It'll change the way the car handles without touching the suspension, and since I was going to eventually do it anyway, will finish up one part of the car so I won't have to worry about it anymore.

Since I haven't bumped enough threads today... Photo from over a month ago, because I've been lazy.

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Can we expect a rear spoiler on this monster anytime soon? I'm usually a fan of automobiles without them, but I could never dig it on the LanEvos. Who cares what I think anyways?

If he likes it he should put a wing on it.

Within the next couple weeks, actually.

but will she say yes?

My luck? Fuck no!

Rear diff mod day! It's been 15k since I last did the diff fluid, so I figured that since I needed to drain the fluid, I might as well pull the diff out of the car and rebuild it CORRECTLY.

I know I covered this in my other thread, but as a refresher, the backstory: Mitsubishi decided that Americans are two things; whiny and sub-par drivers. We received CT9A Evos with a neutered rear diff, but it is fixable with a rebuild if done correctly!

The factory diff is a 6-plate clutch-type one-way locking diff, meaning it has 3 plates (and two discs) on each side of the spider assembly. The clutches rotate and bind as the shaft speed changes from side to side, causing a lockup and strong increase in rear traction under cornering. This will induce yaw angle and increased cornering force at the expense of overall stability, and it will also make a notable clicking noise when doing so at lower speeds. Mitsubishi thought the both of these would be issues for US drivers (compalints/warranty claims for noise, crashes from unexpected oversteer) and instead of organizing the clutches properly (plate, disc, plate, disc, plate), they organized them (plate, disc, disc, plate, plate) which greatly decreases lockup and therefore the agressiveness of the handling and tends the chassis toward understeer.

Anyway, some pics from the process:

Diff out, which is the easy part.

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On its way apart.


For Banken, if he ever checks in, this is OE, 113k, still fairly wear-free. He had some comments about these being wearing parts that I don't disagree with, but they aren't a regular replacement part as he implied.

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Reassembled correctly. The wide and narrow pieces at either end are the clutch packs.


Diff back together, time for a snack while the RTV does its thing!

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Well, that's new.

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The car drives better than ever now, I had it sideways within 10 minutes of being back on all 4 wheels. Super excited to get it aligned tomorrow and then shake it down on Thursday.

Awesome stuff. I know that AYC was never offered in the US market Evo's sparing the X. Glad to see you're getting the most of the car's AWD now or atleast alot more than before.

This post has been edited by RalliKai on Aug 10 2015, 05:37 AM

The car just digs and wants to turn now, it's awesome. I did manage to get it realigned today, and it'll have to go back to have the steering wheel straightened by a few degrees, but it's a totally different car now, the limits have been notably raised between the two changes.

I'm just a brake bleed and an oil change away from shaking down on Thursday.

It's not so much that the clutches have to be replaced all the time, but more that it will need to be shimmed once in a while if a. the diff is aftermarket (more aggressive, with higher initial torque means faster wear time than OEM) and b. initial torque is a critical factor for your application (it is for drifting).


BTW, it looks like your diff is set up as a 1-WAY, but I think if you flipped the cams around it would become a 1.5-way, which I would recommend if this is the rear diff, since you'll be have marginally more stability while braking.

Surprised no one has noticed yet...

They are a 1-way from the factory. I'll do some digging into that and see, it would definitely be worth it down the road, but at the same time I think the next step is to upgrade to a 12 plate 1.5-way anyway.

Be interesting to see how a 1.5 way goes.as ive seen a few tarmac rally set up earlier evos go back to a 1 way after running a 1.5 way and 2 ways as the rear locking under dec was pushing the nose wide when turning into the apex

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This post has been edited by lawler on Aug 13 2015, 11:48 AM

Shakedown was completed on Thursday, the car is rightfully tail happy and wants to pretend it's a handful as you approach the limit, but everything is smooth and controllable as the limit is reached and it breaks away. Ended up having to roll a fender for clearancing issues with the new 255s (my alignment got very off very fast, I now have a set of 255 Rivals that I picked up used to replace the messed up 245s).

And the brakes still work.




All ready for competition on Friday, then it's time to do timing and get the car set for Road America.

Holy no updates... Time to fix that.

So MN Time attack 3... I took 3rd in class. The course was very fast and I simply don't have the power to get between the corners like some of the other cars in my class.

Then came Optima's Search for the Ultimate Street Car at Road America. The event went awesome, but this late in the season the competition is so intense that a car as nationally uncompetitive as mine just really doesn't stand a chance. I ended up in 13th overall out of 20 cars, finishing less than a point behind a 700hp GT-R... So I guess I didn't do too bad? Haha.

I don't have any video published yet, but I do have a couple photos, which I suppose I should note are the first of the car with the wing on it!

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Lastly, this last weekend was MAP Proving Grounds. I won my autox class on Friday night and took 3rd fastest overall, and then competed in the Triple Track Showdown on Saturday and Sunday, a combined scoring between drag, autox, and time attack.

I ran my typical 13.2s in the drag (actually ran like 4 13.2X passes) with garbage 2.0 60' times, but ran a new personal fastest in this car of 105.80 mph which is hauling for a stock car. Should be good for a 12.8 should I be able to get the 60' down. Regardless, I did not place well in class here.

The autox, I don't have video on YT yet but I'll get it there. I ran fast enough for 9th overall and took first in class.

On the road course, I beat my best time to date by a full second, with very little to nitpick about! There were little issues here and there, but overall I'm very happy with the lap.

Overall the car is about as far as I feel I can take it with the parts that it has. I'll finish out the season with this setup, but for next year I will be looking at changes. As it sits, I've had very well established drivers compliment the setup and how well it turns in, or does this or that, despite its lack of competitive potential. I have plenty of hours this season, probably days worth in reality, of thinking and planning and making sure that every setting is allowing the car to be the best it can with what it has, and I'm very happy with how far I've come with it.

Also as a note, my performance at PG, which coincides with MN Time Attack as its 4th series event, has clinched me the class win for this season. I'll show up to the last event and run a few laps, but overall I'm very happy to have been able to achieve that this season.

So did the wing make a difference?

Yes.

Over the course of the past few rounds of changes I've made the rear of the car notably less stable. However, my high speed stability has remained unchanged. So while I don't have a direct comparison of increasing cornering speed, the ability to take the same corners at the same speeds with a car that's more loose is telling me that the wing counteracted what would otherwise be a negative quality in those situations.

And I can still add a vortex generator and gurney flap to increase effectiveness further, which I intend to do.

Gahh you are starting to get as bad as me on this whole update thing.

So, my season is officially over... And it feels good to be able to relax finally.

Overall I'm happy with how things turned out:

4th overall in GTS, USCA Texas Motor Speedway
1st in Novice, MAC autox #2
1st in Super Street, BIR Standing Start Shootout @ Proving Grounds 1
1st in Street AWD, MN Time Attack #2, also 2nd FTD
2nd in Super Street, BIR TTS (drag, autox, time attack) @ Proving Grounds 2
1st in Super Street, BIR autox @ Proving Grounds 2, 3rd FTD

Season finishes:

14th overall in GTS, USCA, 65 car field
1st in Street AWD, MN Time Attack

Now I just need to find a way to work the Gridlife Track Battle series into next season on top of basically this same list and it's game on!

If you are planning to stay in the same class next season, What changes are you allowed to make?

In the USCA, as long as I make weight I'm pretty much free to change whatever I want unless any major rule changes take place.

In MN Time Attack and the Proving Grounds events, the dividing line for me is the injectors. But since I intend to switch to E85 for next season, I'll be moving up a class for those events.

Fall color photos!

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Image size reduced, original size: 800 x 534. Click here to view the image in its original dimension.

And on that note, most if not all of the vinyl is coming off today. Time to clean slate the car for a full detail (that it certainly has earned) and storage, to prep for a livery change come next season.

Goddamn man, your photo skills are on par with the car you drive dude!

I never really took a particular interest in browsing other guys' project threads on the auto section, but after I test drove that Evo IX a couple of weeks ago, I just couldn't resist clicking on this thread.

That thing looks hella beautiful dude; you're thinking about repainting it or just the decals? Also, they let you drive it without a front license plate up there? Over here in country-singer-land, cops catch you without a front plate and they'll burn your hands like Shaolin monks! Got off with a warning for not having my front plate on my olde Impala once.

Also, what Camera + Lens are you using, Spaz man? Been meaning to purchase a new cam+lens, cause my old Coolpix is basically a battery powered paperweight.

I knew the wing would find its way back on.