June 2025: A few more updates for the Evo this June. Given the E85 sensor failure, I had the gauge rerouted to the ashtray location so I could view it at a glance at all times. The gauge being there didn’t bother me as much as I thought it would, it’s largely out of the line of sight. I also installed a rearview camera mirror, but given how weak our car’s rear view hinges are, this solution did not work out for me. I’ve purchased another unit with an arm attached, hoping that will be a better all-in solution. I’m not sure how effective the rear view camera is either. I then had the wing wrapped, as the carbon fiber has been long peeling and something needed to be done about it. I drove the car back to Illinois for two new bits – one is the SSB rear trailing arms, which allow for wider wheels on the inward end for the car. I think they are also a little shorter than stock. The other thing I did was to get extended studs in the front. They’re not massively longer – maybe only 10-12mm or so. That’s because I have 12 and 15mm spacers to use with the new 18×10 +40 wheels that are coming. Unfortunately, the stock sized spacers didn’t fit. This turned out not to be an issue as I had recently replaced my stock lug nuts with brand new ones, which happened to be slightly on the long end. The 17″ wheels will no longer be usable soon anyway, as I have Alcon 6piston monobloc calipers incoming with the 355mm rotors – the 17″ wheel definitely will not fit over those. So, install will have to wait until the wheels arrive from Japan. Should be in July.

May 2025: It’s been a rough few years for the Evo. In October of 2023, I had a transmission failure at the Lime Rock Park’s proving grounds – the last event of the year, after which I had planned to get the transmission rebuilt. It proved one too many events for the transmission, which jammed itself between 2nd and 3rd on a downshift. I had been planning for a rebuild due to 2nd gear continuously popping out, likely contributing to the jammed gear.

Had the transmission rebuilt in 2024, and while the gears actually looked good, the syncros were worn down, one of the keys was loose, so it was long overdue for a rebuild. After I got the rebuild, we still had an issue – 2nd gear, and now 1st gear, were popping out still. This turned out to be a snap ring issue, which requires downshifting into 1st and basically releasing the clutch to pop it back into position. Once that was finally taken care of, I attended the next event, in which I damaged the transfer case – prompting a return to TRE in Michigan.

While here, I decided to make a number of upgrades to the car. With the transfer case coming out to be rebuilt, I detailed the changes to the diffs here. With the car being down for so long, and changes in priority as far as events, I also finally made some power mods as well. Finally, with the changes to the parts, I sent it back to my tuner for a retune, at this point, for the 2025 season.

In early 2025, the night before I was going to pick up the car from the tuner, disaster once again – the tuner did a street pull in 4th, promptly causing the gear to explode. Turns out, the gear had looked fine so in the previous rebuild it wasn’t replaced. This was in the final stages of tuning, on e85, just making sure the car was happy in each gear. This prompted yet another transmission rebuild – this time with a “Neat”/PPG 4th gear, which wasn’t available during my first rebuild. This is a course tooth helical gear, which is much, much stronger than stock. The gear itself looks much beefier than the original.

The transmission feels fantastic. There is a little bit of whine in the 4th gear now, but I kind of like it. It’s also really minor – if I have any music on at all, I can’t hear it.

Prior to finally driving the car though, I had yet another issue. Something with the car just wasn’t running right. It felt really weird overall and I figured there was a boost leak somewhere. Given how far everyone else was located, I found a local-ish shop that was able to do some work for me. On the drive over there though, I noticed that the fuel gauge in the glovebox was dead – no lights, no nothing. For a flex fuel tune, this gauge and its sensor are crucial to the car driving properly.

So, after a year and half of the Evo being down, it’s finally ready to race. More upgrades are coming down the line, and I’m excited to share those once they come in. Now, to find some events to attend in the area…