HB Speed Evo X – Street AWD Time Attack
The Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution X before your eyes has been prepped and campaigned by HB Speed, a performance shop based out of Fountain Valley, CA. HB Speed is no stranger to the turbocharged, all-wheel drive platform, having tuned and modified countless custom Subaru WRX STIs and Lancer Evo 9/10s.
But time attack is a little tougher than just slapping together a street cruiser and would require all of HB Speed’s expertise.
Time attack is one of the latest phenomena to capture the interest of car enthusiasts. It’s existed since cars have had wheels and has been previously known as time trials. But when the compact car enthusiast scene grew up enough to stop hitting the bass-infused “import nights” scene, it grabbed on to the concept and renamed it with the moniker “time attack”. The name is derived from its Japanese time trailing cousin, which uses the interesting names “time attack” or “super lap”.
It basically boils down to cars and drivers versus the clock. There are rules set in the competition for each class and then cars are let loose to see who can grab the fastest single lap time. Yes, it’s quite similar to a qualifying session, but there is no wheel-to-wheel action.
Body contact is very rare and discouraged and with only a single fast lap counting, the cars often aren’t sporting the type of reliability modifications that true racecars pack. With lighter stress and close competition, time attack has rocketed in popularity among street drivers and club racers, all anxious to get a piece of the latest low-cost and close auto competition.
HB Speed’s Lancer Evo X is built to the rules of the Street class in both the Redline and SLB (Super Lap Battle) series. This class is designed for cars that are street legal and driven on public roads. There are no roll cages, slick tires, lexan windows or stripped interiors in this class. The street class competitors will often sport modified engines (some in excess of 550hp), custom suspensions, big wheels and rollbars. Common tire choices include the Yokohama Neova, Dunlop Direzza Sport Z1 Star Spec, Nitto NT05, Hankook RS2 (now RS3) and Falken RT-615.
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