Project Evo IX – Part 6 – Time Attack Winner
By Joey Leh, Photography by the author
The dust has settled and we’re honestly too happy with our results to hide them, we’ve won Street AWD at the Super Lap Battle Willow Springs qualifier event. With just a few days, albeit long days, worth of work, we’ve gone from bolt-on street car to time attack competitor. We had hoped that if we were lucky we could podium in our first event but somehow all the stars aligned.
After getting just a few hours of sleep (more like a nap), Project Evo IX is rushed on to the road to make it to Willow Springs on time for NASA tech. Our driver, NASA TT regular Russ Warr, is already up at the track, having spent the weekend there hanging out and essentially waiting for a car to drive.
Project Evo IX is filled with tires, tools, a jack, stands, cameras and one 5-gallon jug of 118-octane fuel. The tank is filled with 91-octane gas for the drive up and back and thus the engine shouldn’t go into boost. It takes a little bit longer to travel with only part-throttle available, but it still feels like traveling to a normal track day.
Once we arrive, it’s a flurry of activity. The front pads need to be swapped to the Raybestos ST43s, the 285 Yokohama Neovas need to go on and, most importantly, stickers have to go on to the car. Russ heads out for the first session with just seconds to spare and soon comes back in after just three laps. The throttle body connector hose has blown off and the car is in limp mode.
According to our Traqmate data, the car has been lapping in the 1:37 flat range. The hose is re-tightened but it blows off late in the next session as well. Russ is now running in the 1:34s, with a best of 1:34.128. This time, the hose is tightened like we want to choke it to death (which we all really do), and it holds up for an entire session.
By now, we suspect that we’re doing well for the day but are not sure how well. The NASA TT time sheets don’t list or highlight SLB competitors and we’re not sure who’s driving what. So we focus on doing as well as we can, trying some setup changes for the fourth session. Russ doesn’t even make it five minutes before the Hose Clamp From Hell lets go and the throttle body tube blows off again. Looks like we should have taken the time and put those Samco intercooler hoses and clamps in after all.
Despite the hose and clamp issues, which prevented us from shooting for the 1:33s, Project Evo IX held up fantastically. Considering the fact that the car only has brake pads, stainless lines, wheels, tires, coilovers, rear swaybar, turboback exhaust, boost controller, front lip, ECU tune and makes just a bit over 340whp, it did very well to lay down a 1:34.128.
The key to winning the time attack and setting that time our first time out was proper optimization. A careful setup on the suspension, solid tuning from Tuning Technologies (that didn’t push the ragged edge) and consistent grip from the huge 285 Yokohama Neovas helped us focus on what we needed to do and made sure we weren’t trying to tinker with too much too soon. Now about that hose clamp….
Sources
APR Performance
www.aprperformance.com
JIC Magic
www.jic-magic.com
M1 Fabrication & Development
www.m1fd.com
Tuning Technologies
www.tuningtechnologies.com
Yokohama Tire
www.yokohamatire.com
Continue to Project Evo 9 – Part 5
Continue to Project Evo 9 – Part 7
