A crazy comeback this week led to a podium at Autobahn Country Club, for the Grid Life Chicago event. Rewinding 2 weeks, I had to deliver the Evo from ASM to RS Motors, as the latter had an OEM shortblock assembled and ready to go, if it had to come to that. It did have…
Been dragging my feet on this post for a bit. The Evo recently blew at Gingerman Raceway, and we’ve been running around trying to fix it ever since. Now that it has been fixed, a short debrief: I had Tom take a quick spin in the car at Gingerman, and after a quick hotlap something…
First mid-season tweak – I’m bumping from 11k rear springs to 12k rear springs, and dropping the rear bar back to soft. I was a little hesitant, this thing can already be a handful in the cold, but the car still can be a little pushy on a hot track. I left the preload and…
Evo / Modifications / Sequoia
New 70% windshield tints for both the Evo and the Sequoia. The Sequoia I did because of all the long hauling planned in the car. Windshield tinting makes it easier on the eyes, especially after lasik. I don’t really like wearing sunglasses over long hauls, so windshield tinting has always been a go-to for my…
Here we go, first competition weekend of 2021. The Evo has continued to perform flawlessly lap after lap, track day after track day – thank God. The car continued that trend through day 1 of the Grid Life competition. Back to NCM, where I was 2 weeks ago to learn the track and get some…
The stock ATS front differential comes with 30-40kgm of preload – this is a lot of preload. A big part of why they are able to get away with it is due to their carbon disks, which allow for smooth engagement even with a lot of preload. This works great in the rear diff, but…
First off, let’s get the big stuff out of the way. Just as I set off for home after the track day, disaster struck – one of my Falkens, the rear left, started to delaminate on the outer edge, showing its cords. I drove to this event in the Evo with the Prius as a…
New part on the Evo today – early enough (just one autocross) that I’m considering it a pre-season mod. I replaced my 100 cell cat for a resonated test pipe. From the pics, it’s clear this will be a huge improvement in flow. Additionally, cars that run high ZDDP oil eat cats anyway. The pic…
I had a great start to the 2021 season in my Evo. The Sequoia is temporarily out of commission, meaning I had to drive the Evo up and down for the event – a nice call back to the pre-trailering days. I looked back at the archive to see when I last did a CCSCC…
I had already known I was going to want an alignment prior to the start of the season – I was expecting the camber to be a little lower in the front, so I had wanted to get that taken care of – what I didn’t expect was how off the entire car was –…
For the first time, I’ve really been enjoying the off-season. 2020 was the first time I primarily focused on track days, and it’s been good to unwind and focus on other things. That said, I’ve got big goals for 2021, and I’ve got a number of changes to the Evo to help me achieve those…
New trailer for the tow car & race car – this is a Rice FMCR8218-BKTB – a 16′ trailer + 2′ dovetail that will be used for towing the Evo around. I always thought I’d own a trailer at some point, but I didn’t think it’d be feasible already – we have been very fortunate.…
Got an easy one here – replaced my Sequoia low-beam bulbs today. The lights had been looking fairly dim before this, and as it turned out, the passenger’s side headlight was out. The foglights that I always run had been masking the issue to a degree. The low beam bulbs are H11s, and are accessible…
Though the Evo remains in storage likely until late February or early March, wanted to give a special shout-out post to Red Line Oil for sponsoring me once again, through the 2021 season! I am excited to continue the partnership and I’ve got high hopes for the Evo in time attack this year.
Major changes came during the 2020 season in the form of an E85 tune, and wow – hard to believe I held off on doing it. With the introduction of the tow car, life on E85 has been very easy, with 20 gallons on board the Sequoia, along with all tools needed to service the…
