The Evolving Story of the Evolution MR

 

The Evolution is going through more changes.  True to its name it is evolving into a car that capitalizes upon its starting point and is becoming more of what it is.  So what is the Mitsubishi Evolution?  Its heart and soul is that of a rally car.  About thirty years ago Mitsubishi crafted a Lancer into a very competitive rally car and continued the evolutionary process through today.

Mitsubishi had some very successful years with their rally cars and in the late nineties they won the WRC four years in a row.  It also produced a street version of its rally car and named it the Lancer Evolution.  Versions I through VII were never sold through the dealerships in America, even though they were in Europe and Japan.

In 1999 I spent a few months in Scotland and enjoyed being able to view television coverage of rally competition as well as read the car magazines’ reviews of the Evolution VI and VII, never dreaming that an Evolution would be offered in the US.  A year later and the new came out that Subaru would be bringing the WRX to these shores.  That was Subaru’s version of a rally car for the street.  It was soon followed by the STi version with even more power and handling.  In 2003 the eighth iteration of the Evolution was finally delivered to Mitsubishi showrooms in the U.S.  In 2005 the MR version was added to the lineup of Evolutions and I snapped one up.

That year an active center differential (ACD) was added to the suspension technology that included all wheel drive (AWD), front and rear limited slip differentials (LSD), and aggressively tuned spring rates and shock valving.  The brakes were incredible Brembo calipers on huge rotors at all four corners.  The brakes have four “pots” on the front calipers and two on the rear.  These “pots” are the pistons that push against the brake pads.  Typical disc brake systems will have calipers with only one “pot” or piston that presses on one side’s pad and the other side is forced together much like a “C” clamp does as you screw in the one side.  This single piston design is very efficient and economical to produce, but when braking capability becomes critical, having direct pressure on both sides of the rotor is far more effective.

The Evolution was shod with some very sticky tires, too.  Mitsubishi chose to design their street suspension around the Yokahama Advan tires that provide fantastic grip as well as precipitous wear.  Most Evo drivers are lucky to get 12,000 mile out of a set.  While they erase away their tread they are certainly having the time of their lives.

The Evolution is unibody construction, which means that it doesn’t mount the body on a separate frame, but designs the body as a frame itself.  This means that the car is far lighter than it would be if it had a separate frame.  Typically car manufacturers will spot weld these unibody structure together and the Evo is also spot welded.  It is just that the Evolution line is welded a whole lot more than the Lancer would normally be.  Structural stiffness is therefore multiplied which translates into far more precise handling.

The suspension is designed to keep the tires in the best contact with the road possible.  That is critical to taking corners briskly and being able to control braking.  They chose McPherson struts on all four corners with multi-link suspension.  The control arms and suspension links are forged aluminum for strength and to save weight.  If you put a ping pong ball in your hand and waved it around you would find it easier to do than if it was made of lead.  By keeping the weight of the linkages down the suspension components can move faster and provide a more responsive driving experience. 

The MR version came with Bilstein struts (spring dampeners for those of you from the UK).  The Bilstein folks have been designing struts and shock absorbers for decades and are known for the highest quality and engineering.  They did a fantastic job with the design used on the MR.  It provided a more comfortable ride than the standard Evo (the GSR) and yet turned better lap times than the more aggressively sprung GSR.

Aluminum is used on more than the suspension.  The front fenders and hood use this light weight material and the MR version gets an aluminum roof to contribute to a lower center of gravity.

Great, you say, so why change a good thing?  Perhaps it is a sick compulsion of mine to constantly see an opportunity to tweak a good thing into a better thing.  Believe it or not I do restrain myself.  There are Evolution owners out there that have really gone over the top.  There are at least a half a dozen Evolutions in the U.S. that have over 1000 horse power to the wheels.  There are several in the area that are in excess of 500 hp and are probably more suited for track use than commuting to work in.

My goal was to take advantage of opportunities inherent in the Evolution to increase power and handling without destroying the car’s street manners.  In the UK dealers are able to offer versions of the Evolution beyond what comes out of the Mitsubishi factory in Japan.  These are cars with more horse power and extra handling tweaks.  They are called the FQ series.  FQ stand for, well, Fucking Quick.  There is the FQ320, FQ340, and in 2005 came the FQ400.  This version was made famous on the British television series called Top Gear where the FQ400 trounced a Lamborghini Murcielago.  This was one very impressive Evolution, but it was not practical for daily driving as the clutch was more of a trigger and it consumed petrol and tires at an astounding rate.  The following year the same developers came out with the FQ360.  It was still an impressive performance version of the Evo, but far more practical as a daily driver.

So my goal was to convert my Evolution VIII MR into a U.S. version of the FQ360.  I wanted to enhance the handling and take advantage of the power potential lurking behind all the stock bits.  I say U.S. version because the American Evolutions were not imported with active yaw control (AYC) as the British and Japanese versions were.  While that gives me a slight disadvantage, there were plenty of opportunities to enhance despite that missing piece.

First off I researched the suspension modifications that would make sense.  The Evolution is a very popular vehicle for tuners so there are all kinds of suspension upgrades out there to choose from.  Not all of them are improvements and often one change that shows potential can actually end up having a negative effect.  

I was particularly concerned about the effects of springs that would lower the car’s ride height.  Normally you would consider lowering a car would be of benefit since it lowers the center of gravity, and it does.  But it also results in changes in the angles of the suspension links and lowers the roll center of the car at the same time.  The roll center is a point where the suspension angles converge and forms the basis for the roll axis, or the point on which the car’s body rotates as it leans going around a corner.  If this point drops too low it can even be below ground level and then bad things happen.  Even though the center of gravity is lower the car will handle with understeer and “push” its way through a corner instead of gliding around in a balanced fashion.

I first settled on springs made by a company called RSR that were made of a light weight titanium alloy.  They provided a modest lowering while keeping the unsprung weight to a minimum.  Unfortunately there was a problem with the distribution channel and they suddenly became unavailable.  Fortunately there was another option by Swift Springs.  They are another light weight spring that lowered the car 1.4″ in the front and 0.8″ in the rear. 

In order to be certain that the lowered stance didn’t cause me problems with the roll center being too low I ordered up a kit from Whiteline that brought the roll center up by replacing the lower ball joints and outer tie rod ends.  I also installed a bump steer correction kit for the rear of the car.  Bump steer occurs when the car goes over a bump and the direction of the tire is forced by the suspension geometry either in or out instead of staying parallel to the centerline of the body.  The Whiteline folks are out of Australia and have many fine suspension products.

Tires are a key component to any car’s handling.  The Yokahama Advans were too noisy and wore quickly.  I decided to check out my options on Tire Rack’s site and found Bridgestone Potenza RE-01R to be an excellent replacement.  They are very sticky and far quieter.  I’ll let you know about the wear as time goes on.

I had previously added an adjustable rear anti-roll bar as well as additional chassis bracing in the form of a rear strut tower brace as well as a trunk bar both from Mitsubishi.

With the suspension bit on and a proper alignment it was time to see what kind of power was lurking in the engine.  Mitsubishi has already out together a very potent 2 liter engine right out of the box.  This engine, known as the 4G63, has been around for enough years that its power secrets are well known.  Like most turbocharged engines it responds to freeing up the intake and the exhaust with more power.  

I had previously gone to a “cat-back” exhaust from Greddy early in the car’s life.  The Greddy item was all titanium so that meant it was very strong and very light.  It is so light that the 49 pounds of parts that it replaced now only weighed 9 pounds.  To further enhance the exhaust I replaced the downpipe with a larger diameter unit by Tanabe that I purchased from Road Race Engineering when I was out in California last June.  Between those two pieces I replaced the stock catalytic converter with a high flow version.   I wrapped the downpipe with exhaust wrap to hold the heat in and muffle the sound some.  It is beneficial to keep the heat in so that the flow out of the exhaust system maintains its speed. 

On the intake side there was not a lot to be done with the stock air filter box other than replace the filter element with a K&N drop in element.  Some Evo owners have gone to a larger cone filter, but that has some drawbacks.  The stock air intake is designed to ensure that the engine inhales cold air from outside the engine compartment.  A cone filter would have to be isolated from the heat pouring out of the radiator and the engine compartment.  Due to the increased turbulence generated by a cone filter the mass airflow sensor (MAS) is often confused and provides the wrong information to the engine control unit (ECU).

The next step was to upgrade the cam shafts.  This can be a tricky proposition as the wrong choice can result in an engine that only performs in an rpm range that is not suited to a daily driver.  I researched what options were out there looking for cams that would provide excellent mid-range power so that the car would not be torture to drive in urban traffic, yet would come on like gang busters when it was needed.  My choice was a set from GSX Power Division.  They are out of Charleston, SC, and offer a stage one set that did just that.  It didn’t require an upgrade to the valve train either.  By upgrade I mean the valve springs and retainers, which often must be upgraded with high performance cams.

Finally I decided to upgrade the front mount intercooler as well.  The factory unit is basically very large.  It is far larger than any intercooler that was offered on Mitsubishi cars prior to the Evolution.  Since I live in a part of the country that gets mighty hot in the summer I decided to give my engine every advantage in terms of a cool intake charge of air that I could.  Greddy makes a much larger front mount intercooler that bolts up in the stock location and doesn’t require any cutting or welding.  It also comes with larger diameter piping that ensures that boost pressure is not lost.

A couple of weekends ago a friend of mine and I tackled the job of putting on all of the power mods.  Since the car has about 45,000 miles on the odometer it was a good time to replace the timing belt, balance shaft belt, and associated pulleys.  This normally is scheduled for 60,000 miles, but it made sense to do it early.  I also replaced the serpentine belt that drives all the accessories.

While Doug tackled the timing belt and cams I worked on the intercooler and exhaust parts.  Thank goodness Jim’s Garage has a lift.  It makes life easier for everyone.

The front bumper cover came off as well as the pan under the engine area.  Then the bumper itself was removed.  While Doug worked on the cams I rolled under and removed the downpipe and catalytic converter as one unit and worked to install the new downpipe and cat.  Stainless steel metric bolts were used to connect up the exhaust system and then, when it was all tight, a second nut was added to each bolt to ensure that vibration didn’t loosen things up.

Doug is not only very experienced with 4G63 engines, he is also very methodical, which is why I was fortunate to have his help.  We took our time and over a twelve hour period we swapped out the old cams for the new ones, installed cam gears and cam seals, installed the balance shaft belt, timing belt and new pulleys, and put the engine all back together.  There was a bit of drama when oil leaked out of the bolts that held the tensioner to the engine block.  That was remedied with the application of thread sealant on the bolt threads. 

Then the new intercooler was fitted and the bumper re-installed.  With the Greddy intercooler kit came new piping including a replacement for the pressure side of the turbocharger.  The new pipe omitted a small tube that the old pipe had so that pressure could be monitored.  This monitor point was used by the car’s ECU to control how much boost pressure was applied.  The Greddy folks supplied additional tubing and a new place to hook the monitor to that was off the tubing that controlled the boost recirculation valve (often called the BOV or blow off valve).  Later, on a test run with the car I discovered that the turbo wasn’t producing much more than half a bar (about seven pounds) of boost.  A quick check of the old short piece of vacuum hose showed that it contained a small orifice in it.  Once the metal orifice was moved to the re-routed hose the ECU was able to produce normal levels of boost pressure in the 1-1.5 bar range (19-22 lbs.).

The ECU also received a re-flash that we got from one of the best tuners around, called Jestr (yes, that’s how it’s spelled) Tuning.  The changes ended up a success.  The handling is fantastic and the power is unbelievable.  While we haven’t had it on a dyno it is likely at least 360 hp to the wheels and plenty of torque to match.

This has been a lot of fun and it is especially fun when things turn out as you hope they would.  With a little more tuning of the ECU we should be ready for some track time as well as some road trips.

Speeders get Tasered

NCSU Supercar – Wood You Believe

 

A car is being designed and built by a group of NCSU (North Carolina State University) students lead by a 27 year old graduate student by the name of Joe Harmon.  But this is no ordinary car.  It is billed as a supercar much like Lamborghini or Porsche, but it is more than that.  This is a wooden car that is designed to go 240 miles per hour.

It is slated to weigh in at under 2500 pounds and use a twin supercharged V8 engine derived from GM’s Northstar.  The expectation is to be able to accelerate from zero to sixty in 3 seconds and still achieve 20 miles per gallon.

Here are some 3D renderings as well as a shot of the car in the process of being put together.  It should be an amazing vehicle.  Thanks Shep for the heads up on this project.

In the Garage – an Evolution

 

This time the project is my personal car.  It is a 2005 Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution VIII MR.  It is a long moniker that I usually just shorten to Evo or MR.

This is a car I truly have enjoyed.  The fact that it is an MR edition means that it has a few extras over the GSR (or standard) model of the Evolution.  First, it is limited in numbers.  Only 850 MR versions were made in 2005.  It comes with a six speed instead of the five gears on the GSR.  It has some nice extras on the inside consisting of a gauge set and some nice aluminum pedals.  There is some carbon fiber bling such as the parking brake handle.  The MR came with a unique Bilstein suspension that provides a great ride and yet exceptional cornering.  It also has a vortex generator on the back edge of the roof to enhance the downforce created by the rear wing.  The roof is aluminum so no sunroof is allowed on an MR.

While it is a fantastic car out of the box there are always things that could be improved.  I had already replaced the rear anti-roll bar with an adjustable unit.  I bought the Mitsubishi rear strut tower brace (the front comes with a brace) and added a trunk bar that came on the RS version of the Evolution.  Then I replaced the lower front suspension braces with a more triangulated unit.

This was good enough to go through three sets of Yokahama Advan tires, but I wanted a bit more.  So this week we installed a set of springs that would change the stance of the car and provide some additional stiffness.  They are from a company called Swift Springs and are very light weight using a proprietary alloy that results in a smaller diameter spring wire.  This means more suspension travel before spring bind and lower unsprung weight.

 These springs lowered the car a little more than an inch in the front and just less than an inch in the rear.  Generally lowering a car means that the center of gravity is lowered producing a “good” effect.  Unfortunately lowering the car changes the geometry of the suspension linkage and can result in more understeer because the roll center has been lowered as well. 

To counter this problem we used a kit engineered and sold by Whiteline of Australia.  It consists of replacement tie rod ends and control arm ball joints that return the geometry to angles that will keep the roll center up where it belongs.  Whiteline also makes a kit to eliminate the bumpsteer caused by the geometry of the rear control arms. 

The first order of business was to remove the wheels and get the car in the air.  Fortunately Jim’s Garage has a lift that safely gets the car up to a decent working height.  Then we emptied the trunk of the few items that were in it and removed the trim panels so we could gain access to the rear strut bolts.

With that done we moved to the front of the car and swapped out the tie rod ends.  It is nice to work on a relatively new car that has not been exposed to the ravages of snowy, salted roads.  The ends were easy to unbolt and drive out of the steering knuckles.  The jam nut was loosened and white out was used to mark the position of the original tie rod end so that the Whiteline replacement would be set to that same position.  The car would still require an alignment, but this would get it somewhat close.  The old end unscrews and the new one screws on in its place. The jam nut is tightened and the end is bolted to the steering knuckle.

The control arm ball joint replacement was a much more involved process.  Mitsubishi designs it so that if the original ball joint needs to be replaced, the whole control arm assembly is replaced.  This is a forged aluminum unit that would not be cheap to replace.  We had to press out the original ball joint, but because it was made to be part of the assembly we had to remove the aluminum that was peened over the back side of the joint.  Then we used a press to push the ball joint out of the arm.  A press was also needed to install the new ball joint.  One critical step was to make sure that the indentation on the ball joint was facing the right way.  This is to ensure that the cross bolt that holds it to the steering knuckle can lock in the ball joint.

Before the yellow boot is pressed on the new ball joint, additional grease was added to the ball joint.  Then the assembly was reinstalled in the car.  The bolts holding the arm to the chassis require about 130 lb/ft of torque so be certain you don’t just hold an air gun to them.

In the rear we added the bump steer kit by Whiteline.  This changes the pivot point on the rear track arm so that when the rear deflects as it crosses a bump it doesn’t pull the wheel inward and, in effect, steer the car from the rear.

Next to tackle were the springs.  We started with the front springs by loosening and removing the two large strut bolts.  Be sure to note that the top bolt has special flats on it so that you can swap it around to change the camber setting.  With that disconnected we removed the three nuts on the top of the assembly from the engine compartment.

We then needed to compress the springs so that we could take everything apart.  We have used various types of spring compressors over the years but we think we have found one that we really like for its simplicity and safety.  It is a floor stand unit that uses a hydraulic ram to compress with.  It has nice hooks that adjust to the angle of the springs as it compresses them.

With this it was easy to swap springs and then get the assemblies back together.  The front bump stops needed to be trimmed by one hump while the rear bump stops stayed whole.

It was pretty exciting to get the strut assemblies back together with the new springs and then installed in the car.  The next step was to get everything aligned.

While we don’t have our own alignment rack we are fortunate to be close to a shop that is not biased against modified cars.  Some shops have had problems with cars that have been poorly modified and then safety issues crop up.  This shop won’t let unsafe modifications on to its rack, but will accommodate properly done suspension changes.

I had the rear toe and camber set as well as the front.  That allowed me to drive off feeling confident that I would not be trashing my relatively new tires.

The results?  I like the change.  The car has good road manners.  It is firmer, but not at all harsh.  I have no problems with scraping while entering a driveway.  Cornering feels flat and very predictable.  Some track time will confirm these initial positive reactions.

Car Movies – Paris 1976 in a Ferrari

Decades prior to Getaway in Stockhom Claude Lelouch put a camera on the nose of a Ferrari 275 GTB and had a Formula 1 driver take it at high speed through the morning streets of Paris.  At times reaching 140 mph.  Claude was later arrested for the stunt, but this film has become a cult classic.

Honda Civic Project Car – part 2

 

The Honda Civic spent another week in Jim’s Garage to get some miles subtracted.

The owner had found that the front brakes were vibrating after some hard stops.  We had replaced the rear brakes, but the fronts were stock.  The front pads had a lot of miles left on them, but after taking the car for a test drive we had to agree that there was too much vibration in the front when braking.

One of the tests we tried was to try stopping the car with just the emergency brake.  This would use the rear drum brakes exclusively and tell us if the rears were the source of vibration.  They were not.

As we looked over the car we had to face the reality of 145,000 miles and what that meant in terms of wear on the front ball joints and the axle assemblies with their CV (constant velocity) joints.  The upper ball joints came with a new upper control arm for both sides.  The lower ball joints would need to be removed from the front hub.  That meant that the whole front hub would need to be disassembled from the suspension.

It was a good time to replace the axles as well.  While we knew we could obtain the ball joints and axles from a local parts house we also knew that the best axle assemblies would come from Raxles out of Florida.  I had dealt with Raxles several times prior to this and always found them to be top quality.  They cost more, but did not use rebuilt CV joints, were lubricated with Amsoil, and came with all the seals and nuts required.

As we tore into the suspension we found that the upper ball joints were indeed well worn.  Not to the point of failing, but they had a lot more slop than they should have for a secure ride.  The lower ball joints were not as bad, but they deserved being replaced as well. 

The replacement axle assemblies from Raxles looked great and came with harmonic balancers on the axle shafts. 

We purchased a set of Brembo slotted rotors and Brembo brake pads to go with them.  The quality of Brembo is always top notch.

With the suspension back together and the new pads an rotors on we had an alignment done to make certain that everything was correct.  The new components made for an alignment that didn’t move all over the place as toe on one wheel was adjusted over another.

We also had nitrogen filled tires which meant that the tire pressures were correct prior to alignment work commencing.

The result was a much tighter feeling front end.  I wish the suspension allowed for caster adjustment.  It would have been nice to dial in two degrees or more. 

The brake pads were bedded in and the Brembo cadmium plated rotors looked fantastic.

This is a fun car that the owner can now enjoy even more.

Road Trip – Los Angeles to New York in 4 minutes

Makes me want to plan another road trip.

There are a lot of places east of the Mississippi that I didn’t travel to last summer.

Any suggestions folks?