ShakeyJake188's 555bhp Tommi Makinen Edition

[ShakeyJake188]

f1ten said:

That's a fast road car you have ! What hours were spent on the underside work ? Rough costs ?

It was the previous owner who had all the underside restoration work completed which involves totally stripping the car to it's component pieces which even includes removing the interior so it is light enough to go on the spit for easy access to the underside of the car.

Since I didn't really explain the work here is a quick breakdown:

Strip down vehicle
Steam clean, degrease and solvent clean existing stone chip and sealer from underneath the car.
Media blast to bare metal engine bay and complete underside including wheel tubs/archs and cills.
Prepare with acid etch primer, rust treatment, seam seal, 2k primer, stone chip and 2k white colour coat.
Wax oil chassis, inside doors, cills etc.
All parts such as suspension arms, subframes, north/south bar, all brackets, driveshafts, fuel tank etc media blasted and powerdercoated or painted satin black
Stripped and refurbished suspension uprights, steering rack, rear diff, brakes calipers, CV joints.
Replace all fuel and brake lines.

Or in short, everything is stripped and refurbished with lots and lots of new fixings and clips bought.

I do actually have a large breakdown of the work carried out so the above is very brief! With regards labour a total of 480 hours where put into it and at a cost of around £14,500 which spanned just over 2 years!!!

[ShakeyJake188]

Only had a few small upgrades, I've replaced the wastegate vacuum hoses with some better ones as the old ones were starting to crack, finished them with some reflective heat wrap to stop the hose getting hot and expanding. I've also wrapped some around the cam angle sensor and purchased a neverneverman heat shield as I know they can be problematic when they get hot, especially with a big manifold!



Another job was making sure it passed noise regulations for when I take it on track, although my biggest worry was ruining how the car sounded so I didn't want to quieten it down too much. I decided to order a M2 silenced decat from rosssport. As I mentioned previously it measured 104.5dB on the static test and after fitting it measured......



......104dB. Well, at least it made some difference!

A few months ago I competed in the Javelin Sprint Series at Croft, I've been to Croft more than enough times so no excuses for not knowing the track! It was a very well run event and it was good to get the Evo on a circuit and see how the car is when driven flat out. The answer is...... it's a bit mental to drive even the straights are fun in this thing! Lots of grip from the R888r's tyres and the Ohlins suspension coupled with cusco anti roll bars aren't giving to much roll and the new brakes are very good but I really need a bias valve as the fronts are doing too much of the work and are easy to lock up.

Coming into this event I was apprehensive about where I would end up as the common view is that a lower weight car with good amounts of power would be quicker around a lap then well.... my heavy Evo. Considering that entry list was a mix of lotus exige's, various kit cars (some turbo'd!), single seaters and even a 400hp vx220.
I did originally enter the road car class for four wheel drive cars using road tyres which is B1 but after the morning practice sessions I was moved up to A1 which is for cars with roll cages, stripped out and using slick tyres .

The end result was 2nd in class and 4th overall considering the car that finished first overall was a supercharged ariel atom with a sequential gearbox I'm pretty pleased with how it performed, finishing ahead of a time attack Evo with full slicks and sequential gearbox and half a second behind a much higher powered Impreza on slicks! My car really is a credit to the previous owner and I never believed it would finish that high up the order, I was thinking mid table or something

Anyway, here is a vid. (Thanks to whoever took the pics!)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CkDHPd8MKdc

Results:







The handling on the road is epic but when pushing hard around a circuit you start to find the limits of the set-up, and I did..... understeer.... lots of it. It is probably because the front end is very stiff so I have decided to go down the route of stiffening the rear, I had already put the rear anti roll bar on its stiffest setting and even tried increasing the rear tyre pressures quite a lot! Along with stiffening the rear dampers bit to no avail, the understeer wouldn't go away. The last option would have been to increase the rear ride height (to adjust the roll centres) but to be honest it's already pretty heigh. As a result I decided to order some stiffer springs for the rear.



Fitted.



Ohlins road and track come standard with 100N/mm springs on the front and 80N/mm on the rear and I've bought a pair of 100N/mm springs form D.Faulkner to go in the rear. Yes it's a big step up in rates but it really needs it, I'm hoping this will also stop the understeer killing my front tyres! More upgrades to come in the near future, my aim is to give it more caster but unfortunately no one seems to make Caster adjustable top mounts so I might have to get some made.

I got bored one day so decided to write up a spec sheet as their wasn't one when I bought it, and here it is.....

Engine
Link G4+ ECU with 3 position boost switch and Anti-lag
Norris designs 5.5R Precision turbo kit with Zircotec coating (CNC Machined billet collector manifold with v-band turbo, wastegate and downpipe. Precision 46mm wastegate routed into the downpipe, 4" inlet and 4"inch K&N filter. Duel ceramic ball bearing Precision 5558 billet compressor wheeled turbo)
Greedy intercooler and 2.5" pipework
Wiseco pistons
Crower con rods
All new bearings
ND H11 head stud kit
Fluidampr crank pulley
Kelford 272 Cams
ND cam pulleys
ND Valve springs & retainers
ND 1.3mm 86mm Head gasket
Hard wired Walbro 400lph fuel pump
Injector Dynamics 1000cc injectors
Tomei fuel pressure regulator

• **ing hard engine mounts

Engine torque damper
Gizzmo MS-IBC boost controller
Innovate LC-1 lambda sensor
Coil-on-plug kit & alloy cover
Alloy rad & 12" Spal fan
Alloy header tank & swirl pot
Alloy catch can
Silicone hoses throughout
Larger oil cooler with braided lines
RS-R 3" exmag GT2 exhaust and M2 silenced de-cat (104dB static)

Drivetrain
Excedy twin plate clutch
RS rear diff

Suspension
Ohlins DFV road and track with adjustable top mounts and custom spring rates
Polybushed throughout (except rear diff so it's not noisy)
Cusco 25mm front anti roll bar
Cusco 23mm adjustable rear anti roll bar
Adjustable rose jointed drop links
Tein front and rear strut braces

Brakes
AP Racing 362mm front brakes and braided lines
J-hook Reyland Motorsport front discs
Carbotec Xp8 pads all round
Performance friction 665 fluid

Wheels/tyres
XXR 527 18x8.75"
225/40/18 Toyo R888r tyres

Exterior
Carbon fibre front splitter
Carbon fibre side skirt extensions
Carbon fibre rear spats
Carbon fibre rear arch covers
Carbon fibre bonnet vent
Carbon fibre wing mirrors
Carbon fibre rear spoiler blade
Carbon fibre exhaust trim
One piece headlights

Misc
Defi Oil pressure gauge
Defi Oil temp gauge
Defi Exhaust temperature gauge
Defi Controller unit
Re-trimmed suede/leather steering wheel
Odyssey race battery in boot
Neverneverman Cam sensor heat shield
Carbing engine undertray

[Heaveho]

ShakeyJake188 said:

Thanks! Which Evo do you have? I might have seen it around before.... I'm always Evo spotting

It's a black 8, '03 plate. I only moved back to Newcastle last year, and have been doing a house refurb ever since, so the Evo has sadly had to sit for more than a year, other than a trackday at Croft and a trip around Scotland which culminated in a seized turbo and a £1500 bill! I don't think it likes the northeast very much at the moment!

[bicycleshorts]

Car looks great.

Is it reliable enough to use as a daily though?

[CedricN]

Excellent build! According to the setup sheet you have very conservative negative camber up front, which of course causes understeer. Have you tried different settings? Those r888s would probably like much more.

[em177]

CedricN said:

Excellent build! According to the setup sheet you have very conservative negative camber up front, which of course causes understeer. Have you tried different settings? Those r888s would probably like much more.

He's not a very good driver. Understeer is probably not the worst thing...

[ShakeyJake188]

bicycleshorts said:

Car looks great.

Is it reliable enough to use as a daily though?

Thanks Drew,
Yes it is.

CedricN said:

Excellent build! According to the setup sheet you have very conservative negative camber up front, which of course causes understeer. Have you tried different settings? Those r888s would probably like much more.

Thanks. When it was on Eagle F1 tyres it used to have 1.5 degrees camber so when the R888r's when on it's now at 2 degrees.
You are right regarding more camber is better for track but the car is mainly a road car doing approx 1000miles a month, in the time I've had it, 0.5 percent of its mileage has been on track! so even at 2 degrees it has worn the inner half of the tyres and i don't really want the negative from running lots of camber.
My idea is to add more Caster by making some new top mounts if I find myself using it less on the road then I will add more static camber though.

em177 said:

He's not a very good driver. Understeer is probably not the worst thing...

Thanks Euan,
Just a reminder mate

Edited by ShakeyJake188 on Tuesday 31st October 09:38

[em177]

ShakeyJake188 said:

Thanks Euan,
Just a reminder mate

Edited by ShakeyJake188 on Tuesday 31st October 09:38

Yes but we both crashed in the race so that's irrelevant

[ShakeyJake188]

Hello again,

A slightly delayed report back in August I took the Evo to Cadwell Park to run in the Mitsubishi lancer register sprint series for the first time which was part of the Mitsubishi Evo Festival for the 20th anniversary of the MLR.
I had previously watched the promo videos of the MLRSS over the years but never really had the right type of car to be competitive or I had been doing other things so I was keen to get my entry in.
It was a really well run event and very relaxed which is what I like! I even took part in the Mitsubishi parade at the end of the day which was a nice touch by the organizers, the idea was to line up all the cars on the grid for professional photographs by Steve from Eat My Pixels and then carry out 2 parade laps of the track before the awards are handed out on the podium. Got to say thanks to the organizers for putting on an awesome event, really enjoyed it.


Unfortunately my camera didn't work for my fastest lap as I bought a external mic for my GoPro which stops the camera from working! so here is a random lap from the timed sessions.

http://youtu.be/mpdecw7lwls


I finished 6th overall and 4th out of all the Evos. Quite impressive considering it's my daily driver and I drove it 170 miles from Newcastle to Cadwell park! Finishing ahead of some higher spec Evos and even a sniff ahead of a tuned R35 GTR and even a single seater! It is a shame I ended up in the top class with the Time attack cars as it should have been in the class below but a good day was had overall and I had gone away with a smile on my face and met some very nice people, I can recommend the series to anyone!


I should probably point out that I was a bit nervous coming into this event as the last time I was at Cadwell Park 2 years ago I put my car into the barrier! See below video...

http://youtu.be/olmyJd7cnpE

I don't like crashing..... anyway, since the last time the car was on track at croft I increased the rear spring rates 2kg/mm which has made a good difference to the handling although it is still understeering more than I would like so some more changes will be made before it goes back on track!

Results


Here are a few of Steve's (Eat my Pixels) photos











My terrible photos





Steve's Photos

[99PBATR]

The underside looks like it has been done in Rustbullet White shell. Fantastic job and a beautiful car mate

[ShakeyJake188]

Couple engine bay pics.

Edited by ShakeyJake188 on Friday 8th December 14:42

[ShakeyJake188]

Back in October I had a little problem with a miss-fire, after dropping the car into EvoTune in Durham the problem turned out to be with the coil on plug kit, so this was removed and standard coils were fitted. Since the car was on the Dyno for diagnostics, a power run was carried out .



Not ideal as it made 555bhp and 480lb/ft on the Norris Designs Dyno a year earlier. It doesn't feel like it comes on boost as hard with the standard coil packs but it still feels pretty damn fast . Although I do realize that two different dynos will give different reading on different days so that will also be a large factor in the difference between the two power readings. It was mentioned by Jamie from Evotune that another map would see good gains, bearing in mind that it was originally mapped to run on 97RON fuel where as I run it on 99. To take advantage of this I've ordered a load of parts over Xmas so I will reveal all when they arrive

Edited by ShakeyJake188 on Thursday 4th January 13:18

[chuntington101]

Time for a ND 8R turbo and one of their 'bolt on' superchargers!

[ShakeyJake188]

You're not far off with that.....
Although the postman appears to be lost!

chuntington101 said:

Time for a ND 8R turbo and one of their 'bolt on' superchargers!

[james28]

Looks bloody fantastic mate my 6 came from your neck of the woods.Looks like it's being used as it's designed for.

[ShakeyJake188]

Just for reference this is the old dyno graph, I thought I posted this earlier but obviously haven't



Since the Evo was my daily driver the plan was to get a second car over the winter and start working on the Evo. Except as always I leave everything last minute and winter is slowly disappearing and I haven't touched it for months.... and the winter car I was using (Lexus LS400) has even ran out of MOT and been sent to Bordermx5s to have it 4.0 V8 removed and put I'm an mx5.



Anyway, I have secured another daily run around so now all the parts I've accumulated since Christmas can be fitted!

Starting with the handling mods, one thing I'd like to get is more front end grip on the limit (on track) adding more camber is a good way to do this but I've already got around 2 degrees and any more than that on the road will give even worse tyre wear and less grip in braking and accelerating, which in a lot of situations is a bad thing! Caster however is fixed on the Evo and not adjustable, a flaw in the design if you ask me. My idea is to increase this as much as possible but unfortunately not many products have been made for this model to increase it, Superpro make caster bushes for the back of the front suspension arm which give a 1 degree increase so I have ordered a pair of them.

Since I'm trying to increase caster as much as possible, another way to get some gains is to use caster adjustable top mounts, although finding a company that makes them that fit my coilovers doesn't exist so I went about designing my own to suit my Ohlins shocks.

First was to measure everything a thousand times so that it fits properly and decide the how much (fixed) camber to have and how much caster adjustment is available to me. Then to draw it up on CAD/CAM.



I do work on CNC machines and work on CAD for a living but unfortunately the company I work for only deal with wood and plastics so the drawing was sent off to PlaysKool Motorsport in Durham for setting and machining so a big thanks to Luke for that, good price, quick turnaround, top job done!







If you are thinking 'where does the camber adjustment come from?' It's adjusted using a whiteline camber bolt on the hub to get it where the alignment man wants it instead of using the top mount.

New rubber to go on before the sprints start. Didn't want to change completely, they offer awesome performance for the cost.



Also ordered some brake cooling ducts and pipe work in case a track day comes along during the year. Don't really need them for Sprints as standard ducts work fine but a piece of mind for the cost. These will duct from the two holes in the front splitter.



THE ENGINE!
That is next but I'm still waiting on parts when they arrive, so I got the Evo out for a hoon

[epom]

Wow the work that has gone into that is something else. Lovely car OP. I would prefer one on the standard side looks wise, for the element of surprise and all that. Well wear, enjoy it.

[scottos]

What an awesome Evo, i've only ever been out in one driven in anger (which was nigh on standard) and the grip always had me confused, didnt seem like it should be possible

It seems you're relatively local to Durham so will keep an eye out!

Also, i could do with some flat plate machining done in alloy, is that the company thats in Crook? They dont seem to list any machining options on their website, ive sent them an email anyway, thanks.

Edited by scottos on Friday 26th January 11:19

[Richair]

Great read, love the car and development work. Good to see one getting used properly!

I've always liked the idea of a 6 TME. I bumped in to a owner of a similar spec white TME at a Shell garage in Telford a couple of weeks back, white really suits them

[ShakeyJake188]

All righty then, time to get some stuff fitted.

First off was fitting the new caster adjustable top mounts. Easy to fit, only a few bolts but I'll need a full 4 wheel alignment which I'll get done when my tyres get fitted.

Ohlins gold camber adjustable top mounts



New custom caster adjustable top mounts





I'm not 100% on how much caster these will add but I'm hoping it will be a good amount. And to complment the top mounts I have started fitting some caster bushes.



And these camber bolts along with some slightly modified hubs to get the camber back.



The first event for the evo has been booked which is Javelin Sprint series at snetterton at the beginning of April. Can't wait! But still have some work to do.....