Project Evo IX – Part 3 – Easy Bolt On 320whp
By Joey Leh, Photos by the author
Ok, so we’ll level with you. These modifications aren’t technically street legal here in California. Some states have loose emissions regulations and may only check what comes out of the tailpipe, or not check anything at all. But here in California at The Octane Report offices, we run around like headless chickens at the mere thought of getting pulled over by the cops every other block.
Actually, those might just be repressed memories now that we think about it. Tired of getting hassled and pulled over for driving modified or “altered” vehicles, we’ve strived to lean more on the side of stealth.
One of the glories of starting with a factory turbocharged car, like the Lancer Evolution or Porsche 911 Turbo, or a naturally aspirated car with big power potential, like the Corvette Z06, is the ability to add aftermarket power without unnecessary attention. You just have to know the limits of the car.
Use only CARB-approved (California Air Resources Board) parts and you’re in the clear every which way. But those parts rarely are capable of making big power and they’re drying up due to the R&D costs. A hotter camshaft in a LS6 can’t be seen by the smog check guy but the lumpy idle and poor tailpipe readings will burn you. The same goes for our project car.
Hidden underneath the car and away from prying eyes, exhaust parts are easy to slip by the man. Cams and a moderately sized turbo can be stealth mods as well. Just be sure not to use any massive tubular manifolds or custom intake piping. Make it look like stock and nobody will notice. In our case, we were looking for response and quick spool for street use. The Lancer Evolution IX comes equipped with the MIVEC system and makes more power, earlier, than comparably equipped early model Evos.
So we decided to leave the superb TD05HR-16G6C-10.5T twin-scroll stock turbo in place. We’ve seen examples of this stock turbo making more than 350whp on CA-grade 91-octane gasoline. This can easily propel an Evo down the ¼-mile deep into the 12-second range.
Our wish list was simple. We’d be changing out the parts that posted up the biggest gains with the least attention. Then we’d get it all custom tuned and find out how much power we gained. Simple enough.
