I went to the Tsukuba 1000 metre Sprint Track for the last time this
year.
今年、最後の筑波１０００での走行。
My first time on this one with the new Turbo. Wow it was really
good, just a shame that it was about 10 degrees colder than where my
Tyres become pretty useless so couldn't get the power down at all and
had to ease it round corners lol. Pretty much everyone on Summer Tyres spun
out at least once (I was opposite lock twice and did a 180 once ), the guys on Dunlops were a bit better off as were the guys on Semi Slicks, but still was a great day as usual.
I am planning one last run at the main Track on the 28th but that will
depend on the weather. Not much point going all the way up there if it's
snowing.
A nice clear day, but very cold with a maximum for the day of 8℃ and most of the day only around 5℃, so really way too cold for my tyres to be honest. 天気はすごく良かったのですが、正直言って、5℃は夏」タイヤには,厳しい過ぎたのですね。
Nice and clean, for now. ピカピカです、走行まえ
My friend Hiro going hard in his Evo VIII 友人ひろはエボＶＩＩＩでがんばっています.
The track was again crowded, but not near as bad as it has been so I was able to get some good runs in. 今日もやはり込んでいたのですが前ほどひどくなかったからけっこういい感じに走れました。
Well, you can't say I wasn't trying hard lol... がんばりました！ｗｗ
Next week I will post a lot of photographs and maybe some Video of the many other cars there on the day.
Some good video from the day, fighting grip and chasing Evo's、a fun day on my favourite Track :-D
Watch here or click on the YouTube logo to view on YouTube:
While at Tsukuba 1000 sprint Circuit for a Track day, I went over to the main Track to the restaurant for lunch and was greeted with a lot of interesting cars at a pretty big meet that was being held.
I have not watched any of the 'Fast and Furious' films, but I knew who Paul Walker was, and I know he was genuinely a good guy who did a lot of Charity work, and helped spread Japanese Tuning car love around the World.
It's a montage of Videos and photos from the last couple of years of Motor Sports in Japan Youtube. I hope you like it :-)
Motor Sports in Japanの新しいプロモーションビデオです (^_^)v
Also, I had been contemplating changing the factory barn door style door mirrors for ages and finally did it.
後は、結構前から純正ドアミラーを替えると思っていました。ＷＲＣ風が好きなので、これにしました。
I like the WRC style ones, and although there are exact replicas available I decided to save myself the rather large cost
difference and got some cheaper (and slightly different shape) ones instead. They are
still fairly close, have really improved the overall look of the car,
and hopefully will help in the chase for 10ths at the track.
I modified the mounts quite a bit to get a flush fit like original by removing about 10mm from the base, and
was successful to the degree that I could even use the original rubber
mounts.
The exercise saved me 2kg from the upper half of the car. Not huge but
decent. I am looking at some possible changes to the car in the next few months with a view
towards a little more 'serious' track work.
We'll see.
The new suspension settings (I raised the front 15mm a little while
back) allowed me an extra 5~600 rpm in 4th round the last corner and to be
honest I feel I could have perhaps squeezed a little more out of it.
This combined with the extra power from the Turbo change and tune at Garage GForce last week meant I was able to maintain a pace that before would have meant pushing harder. I was also up-shifting at lower rpm than before.
あとは、新しいRSタービンをつけてから初めての走行。
One obvious difference due to the extra torque, was before I would be
reaching for 5th gear on the back straight right at the end just before
the braking area and often wouldn't bother, but today I was selecting
5th half way down the straight when I was going for it.
The brakes also seemed to go longer and I didn't really have any fading issues at all due to fitting Evo V Brake cooling ducts recently.
The only bad thing was, the amount of slow traffic on the Track was
insane... and all things like Corollas, MX5's, MPVs and whatnot... So I
only got a few clean laps my first session (only one proper one once
warmed up), and not a single clean lap in my second session due to the
traffic, and 3 yellow flags.....
It normally doesn't really worry me, we all have to start somewhere, but this day it was a bit extreme,
So while I was able to beat my previous best by 0.9 of a second (which
is a lot on this track), I have no doubt at all there's another
second or so to be had going by how much quicker I was going my second
session aside from the holdups.
After a long day, ready for the trip home. エボちゃんご苦労さま
I
thought this was a repair shop next to the Track.... but that Evo VIII
MR was a complete car when I drove past in the morning.... The R32 was
also wrecked. いつも通る道にあるこの場所は筑波サーキットのそばにあって、整備工場といつも思っていたけど、実は車を解体して、パーツを販売している所みたい。。
Spotted this AE86 coupe on my way out. ハチロクみっけ
And finally, some Video from the first session, you can see the traffic I had to try and work through. Still great fun as always :-)
最初セッションのビデオです。ちょっと込んでいたけど楽しかった。
Click on the link to watch on YouTube, or watch in the window:
So today's post is the result of my trip to Garage GForce last week to fit up an almost brand new Evo VI RS Turbo I had bought on Yahoo Auctions a while ago to replace the original 15G Turbo which was doing an awesome job, but I suspected was getting a bit tired.
A lot of people ask me why I don't use an aftermarket Turbo such as a HKS. The answer is that I really like OEM parts. They are almost always more reliable than aftermarket components, and especially in the case of Lancer Evolutions, have a lot of engineering behind them aimed specifically at competition, and are almost always more than sufficient. People are way too quick to replace things that they really don't have to.
I like HKS Turbos, but on this car I want to stay with Factory parts as much as possible.
So after a LOT of research, it was obvious to me that the only choice for an upgrade for the Turbo was a TD05HRA-16G6 10.5T, as originally fitted to Evo VI / TME RS models. It is exactly the same as the 15G originally fitted to my car, but with a slightly bigger compressor wheel, which should give me more power in the upper rev range and hopefully also more mid range Torque which was my main goal.
Still with a Titanium Turbine, spool would still be faster than a normal Turbo, and importantly on off throttle response would remain as good as it already was.
And so it begins... 始まるよ～
Fitting up the new TD05HRA 16G6 10.5T Turbo. Unfortunately the original exhaust manifold had damaged threads where the banjo bolts for the Secondary Air System (Anti lag) attaches. So it was replaced with another standard manifold from an Evo IX. I will clean it up and paint it at some point. I am as yet undecided as to whether I will Titanium heat wrap it like the old manifold was, or leave it as is.
エキマニも替えました。
I was hoping for an extra 10~20 hp at the wheels, and an extra 2~3
kg/m of torque at the wheels. I was also expecting to lose some low down
initial torque because of the larger Turbo.
My main target however was as much Torque as possible in the 4000~6000 rpm range.
Well, things went MUCH better than I had hoped!
１０～２０ｐｓと２～３ｋｇｍぐらいウップしたらいいなと思ったが..... それよりかなり出ました！
This
was the first run to check mixtures, with the same boost and mapping as
the old Turbo.... a very nice and surprising result. The lower line is the old Turbo, and the top one is the new Turbo. We expected the
new Turbo to not be as good low down, as it shouldn't be considering the TME 15G has a slightly smaller compressor wheel aimed specifically at fast and early spool. However the original turbo was obviously much more worn than I thought。 これは最初付け替えたまま...
Tazawa san adjusted the mixtures a little and this is the final result: 48.9 kgm (355 lbs ft) torque @3945 rpm, and 376.6hp at the wheels. This was a great result for what is still essentially a standard engine, and obviously all of the small things I have done have added up. Ironically these figures are what I considered an eventual goal but thought I would have to run more boost, and perhaps wait until an engine rebuild to be able to achieve easily. So now that I have achieved the power goals for this car, my focus will now be on other areas to improve my lap times such as replacing the suspension bushes which are still mostly the original ones. This will hopefully make a big difference to the car's performance, and consistency at the track :-)
Yesterday I went to Garage G-Force in Yokohama to have a new RS Turbo fitted to my car and get a re-tune.
While I was there, I thought i'd take a few pictures.
All my engine related work is done by Garage GForce which is regarded as one of the best Evo Tuners in Japan.
This is the home of the current fastest Evo X in Japan with a best time around Tsukuba Circuit of 56.784 seconds which is absolutely amazing for a road registered and genuinely street driven car.
They have also built many successful Time Attack and Drag racing Evo's over the years.
Garage GForce made their name many years ago with their infamous Evo II street car that was capable of the standing quarter mile in a staggering 9.7 seconds, more amazing by the fact that this was well over 10 years ago. ガレージＧＦＯＲＣＥの伝説のランエボＩＩ、街乗り仕様なのに０－４００メートルはまさかの９．７秒！
Out the front of the Yokohama Workshop. They also have a Facility in Aomori Prefecture where they are originally from. 横浜支店、 青森にもあります。
Evo's everywhere. A typical day at Garage GForce.
Very nice Showroom and waiting area with many of Garage GForce's products on display, as well as many other top name products. とっても綺麗で、広いショールームです。
Recogniton and accreditation from top Tuning Manufacturers such as HKS, TOMEI, and AMS, as well as many Trophies from such prestigious events as the annual Tsukuba Hyper Meeting, HKS Drag Battle, and Sepang Drag Battle. ＧＦＯＲＣＥは、ＨＫＳ、ＴＯＭＥＩなどの公認であり、国内と国際のイベントでとったトロフィーもたくさんあります。
If you're waiting for your car and are done with the many car related books and Magazines available to read, you can play Gran Turismo like Nob Taniguchi. 待ちながら、Nob 谷口さんと同じようにＰＳ３を出来るでしょうか。
Dedicated Engine assembly and machining rooms, as well as multiple hoists and a DynaPack Dynamometer. They also have a Gearbox test bench.
The beautiful Gunmetal grey Garage GForce shop demo car up and under wraps. ＧＦＯＲＣＥ田澤さんのエボＸ。
There were some interesting customer's cars there including this crazy Evo IX Wagon that has reached a top speed of 313 kmh!! It's having more engine work to see if he can better that speed... 色々な人達の車も見れました、このＣＴ９Ａワゴンは３１３ｋｍｈが出るらしい！！
130mm Turbo inlet, 90mm Intercooler pipes. . .
A very nice Evo IX with a full Voltex Body kit. ＶＯＬＴＥＸボディキット、エボＩＸ
This Evo III GSR has to be seen to be believed, it was like brand new... このエボＩＩＩは新車のように綺麗。
Another X with the full GForce treatment, and a very rare yellow Evo VII in immaculate condition. エボＸと、すごく綺麗な珍しい黄色のＶＩＩ。
Interesting, and effective.
A very clean Evo VI 綺麗なエボＶＩ。
An Evo IX with all the usual mods. In for an engine rebuild.
Another immaculate VII, this time a GTA. また綺麗なエボＶＩＩ、今回はＧＴＡ。
If you're ever in the area go and pay them a visit, or if you're after anything from a quality high performance engine, to a full Time Attack ready Race car, this is the place to come.
Their advice has so far been invaluable to me, and the tuning work has given very satisfying results.
Their philosophy of not being just a 'fitting shop', but more advising the customer how to best modify their car within their budget or goals, and maximizing performance with what they have available has established a quality reputation recognised by many Car Magazines, and Mitsubishi Motors as well.
