Built to race. Mitsubishi originally built the EVOlution for one purpose and one purpose only. It was built to race in the Group A class of the World Rally Championship (WRC). Mitsubishi was able to claim several driver's titles from 1996-1999 with Tommi Makinen behind the wheel of the EVO. Although the US had to wait until 2003 to receive the EVO VIII, the rest of the world had already been fortunate enough to experience this serious platform. For Australian native Mark Rayner, the EVO's capabilities at the track prompted him to build this 2006 EVO IX.

Get Movin'

After purchasing the vehicle some 16 months ago, Rayner became a man on the mission. His mission was to build a vehicle capable of lapping the local track with blazing speed while still being able to use the vehicle to make the daily drive to work. To accomplish this goal, Rayner enlisted the help of Nick Zervos from Advance Performance Center in Queensland, Australia. Nick is no stranger to building awesome race cars. The company's EVO II has blazed through the ¼-mile traps in just 8.76 seconds at speeds in excess of 173 MPH. Unlike a drag-race engine that needs to generate maximum horsepower for a few split seconds. A circuit racer needs to be reliable and able to withstand several minutes of continuous beating. Not wanting to risk pushing the limits of the stock engine, the block was yanked out for some heavy fortification. The stock crankshaft was replaced in favor of a new 94mm APC stroker crankshaft. The 6mm longer stroke increased the engine displacement from 2.0-liters to 2.2-liters. The stroker crankshaft now swings a set of Eagle Specialty Products H-beam forged rods connected to a custom set of 85.5mm low-compression JE Pistons. The bottom-end was high-speed balanced and then blue printed prior to reassembly with ACL Race-Series rod and main bearings. With the bottom-end buttoned up, Nick sought to increase the airflow to and from the combustion chamber. An APC-custom CNC port and polish cylinder-head treatment was performed to allow maximum flow. After porting the APC cylinder head was filled with Ferrea 1mm-oversized stainless-steel valves with APC valve springs and Ferrea titanium retainers. A pair of Kelford 272-degree camshafts orchestrates valve movement in perfect harmony.

Fully Pressurized

With the engine fortified, Nick looked to fill the combustion chamber with pressurized air. The stock turbo system was deemed too small and was replaced with a Buschur Racing BR3065 turbo system. High-pressure spent gases are channeled through a Buschur Racing stainless-steel tubular manifold before entering the turbine housing. Once the high-energy exhaust gases propel the turbine blade, the exhaust gases are routed through a 3-inch Buschur Racing stainless-steel downpipe. Exhaust sound pressure is slightly muffled by an APS exhaust canister mated to a custom 3.5-inch exhaust piping constructed by APC. On the cold side of the turbocharger, the charge air is channeled into a Hybrid front-mounted intercooler via custom intercooler piping designed. After cooling, the charge air is routed through a Hypertune intake manifold where a quartet of 1,000 cc/min HKS fuel injectors injects 98-octane BP Premium fuel into the air stream. The injectors are kept primed and kept ready for action by a custom fuel system. A Walbro 255-lph in-tank fuel pump forces fuel into a custom-fabricated APC surge tank. From there, the fuel is then pumped into the fuel rail by a Bosch 044 inline pump. The surge tank prevents fuel starvation from occurring during heavy braking and cornering.

Explosion

With both the fuel and air demands of the equations addressed, Nick concentrated on combusting the highly-compressed air-fuel mixture. A HKS Twin Power DLI ignition amplifier increases the ignition voltage to the factory coils before the intense energy is sent to the Mitsubishi Motorsports Group N spark plugs. The HKS ignition amplifier increases the voltage intensity of the primary side of the ignition system, which in turn increases the ignition output of the coils. With all the ingredients necessary to generate power it was left to the chef to make it all work. The factory ECU was reflashed using the ChipTorque Ezy-Flash software. The ignition and fuel maps were reworked by Nick for optimum performance. Nick was able to coax 403 horsepower and 354 lb-ft of torque to the wheels on the Dyno Dynamics dyno with only 21 psi of boost pressure. More importantly the powerband of the EVO is extremely broad with quick turbo spool up allowing the EVO to quickly power out of the corners.

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