Raced an EVO Today.

Had my first real race today. Me and a bunch of friends meet today to play a game of flag football. One of my friends cousins has an EVO. When we were leaving from our meeting place to go the football field I just so happen to get the chance to line up at the light with the EVO. His friend in the passenger seat is hanging out the window talking all this sh*t about how well he is going to launch on me. Anyway the light turns green and my reaction time was way off and he gets about a 3 car pull on me. I floored it, and spun tires half-way through 1st gear. The whole time I'm just walking him down. By the time I hit 3rd gear it was over I pulled on him like crazy and killed him by about 4 cars before I had to stop for the next light. Talk about an adrenaline rush that was fun as hell. Anyhow just thought I'd share my first real race (aside from some ricer I killed a few weeks ago) story with you guys. Vette = 2, Imports = 0

wow..nice one...have you been to the track by chance? depending on whatr year evo, it should be at least a 13 second car, if not faster.

Way to beat a 4 banger! ;)

Evos are actually pretty nasty cars on the street. 4-wheel drive is nearly impossible to beat off the line. If you're going to street race (I don't advise it), insist on a rolling start which is common anyway--takes away their biggest advantage. If you have the M6, remember that 3rd gear is the vette's ace: that is where sheer power begins to really show--so pick somewhere long enough to wind out through 3rd. This means you want a rolling start and more than 1/8th mile to completion.

Stock Evos can do mid to very low 13s depending on the driver and tires. A few on the street are running NOS or bigger turbos and can run down into the low 12s. Few of the people that own moded EVOs (or stock ones for that matter) can resist advertising it with decals and ridiculously big wings and what they call "fart mufflers" (they really call them that, can you believe it?),so there are not too many sleepers to worry about--if it looks stock, it probably is. But you still won't take it right off the line if you are running stock tires.

dont hate me, but i have been looking around for an evo, but i will likely wait until the prive of the Evo IX has come down a bit, in a year or so. i was at an event last weekend, and there were a handful of Evos there that drove in, drove out, running in the low 11s, and a bunch in the tens. i know on eo f the guys, and he hasnt taken the valve cover off yet..stock from top to bottom,and he runs 10.30s. a good driver with intake and exhaust can get an evo VIII into the high 12s, and with items like a MBC, and Ic sprayer, etc, can get into the low 12s/high 11s..

as for racing from a roll, racing from a roll is like trying to screw with pants on...you may get to finish, but its just not the real thing.

quote:

ORIGINAL: Patrick

dont hate me, but i have been looking around for an evo, but i will likely wait until the prive of the Evo IX has come down a bit, in a year or so. i was at an event last weekend, and there were a handful of Evos there that drove in, drove out, running in the low 11s, and a bunch in the tens. i know on eo f the guys, and he hasnt taken the valve cover off yet..stock from top to bottom,and he runs 10.30s. a good driver with intake and exhaust can get an evo VIII into the high 12s, and with items like a MBC, and Ic sprayer, etc, can get into the low 12s/high 11s..

as for racing from a roll, racing from a roll is like trying to screw with pants on...you may get to finish, but its just not the real thing.

I agree with you Pat. I love Amercian Muscle Cars but I know own an AWD car and love the thing. I can not see me driving a FWD or RWD car again unless it is a weekend cruiser.

when i finally get the evo, i run ya sometime...

my current car breakdown is 1 strong RWD car, 1 turbo FWD, 1 NA FWD, 1 old beater RWD truck, and a modded RWD truck, so AWD has not been in my realm of dealing yet, but ive driven a built STi, and the evo is very attractive to me...

quote:

ORIGINAL: Patrick
when i finally get the evo, i run ya sometime...
my current car breakdown is 1 strong RWD car, 1 turbo FWD, 1 NA FWD, 1 old beater RWD truck, and a modded RWD truck, so AWD has not been in my realm of dealing yet, but ive driven a built STi, and the evo is very attractive to me...

Ok but you have to take off your turbo since I have the N/A Impreza. ;)
Nice breakdown. :) I started in an 85 Mustang GT then got a 80 Camaro, then the good ole college commuter 88 Dodge Shadow, then a 94 GMC Sonoma that was slightly modded, then a 2001 Civic, and now the 05 Impreza RS.

i also had a shadow in college!

I had an Audi S4 before trading up to my Prosche. It had 340 HP and the Quasttro driver and I really liked it. EVOs are nine cars -- I wouldn't want one just because of the styling. But its just as much fun, and challenge, to get performance out of them as a vette or anything else.

My college car was my '04 V6 Mustang...the Corvette was definitely a big step in HP for me.....and you are truely right about 3rd gear, I've had 2 races so far and each time I didn't pull on them until 3rd gear.

did you buy your car modded, or have you done it all yourself?

I haven't added anything to my car yet, everything but the chrome letter inserts came on it when I purchased it. by next summer I should have a lot more done to it. Kinda hard right now cause I have a wedding coming up in Sept. '06 so I gotta stop spending on the car and put money elsewhere.

you wedding,or someone elses?

My wedding to my girlfriend of 3 years.

congrats!!

Thank you, I'm looking forward to it.

Interesting December issue of Motor Trend on the newstands now.
I suppose on this forum the comparison test of Z06-Viper-Ford GT is the big topic (the vette wins overall and on the road course).

But they also test four 13-second cars, which reminded me of this thread:
Dodge Charger SRT (425 HP): 0-60 in 5.0 seconds, 1/4 mile in 13.5 at 106.3
Pontiac GTO (400 Hp): 0-60 in 4.7 seconds, 1/4 mile in 13.3 at 105.9
Mitsi Evo (286 HP): 0-60 in 4.5 seconds, 1/4 in 13.3@103.4
Suburu STI (300 HP): 0-60 in 4.7 seconds, 1/4 in 13.0@103.5
Interesting that of these four "modern muscle cars" the Suburu is quickest through the quarter mile.

What is interesting is the 0-30 times for the two Japanese cars: the Suburu does 0-30 in 1.3 seconds!!!, compared to 1.8 for the GTO, 2.1 for the Charger, and 1.6-1.8 seconds for the Z06, Viper, or Ford GT:::: powerful 4-wheel drive rally cars are just "unbeatable" off the line.

On the other hand, the Suburu takes 10.8 seconds to do 30-100, the Charger 9.8 - set up a rolling start race and you take away thier one advantage.

Yeah, not to mention with the four banger awd turbo cars turbo lag is a b!tch.

Actually the turbo lag on these cars is not that bad. What I don't like about them and many others is the lack of torque, particularly low end torque. Small displacement, high RPM, turbo engines have lots of power, obviously, but like the Honda S2000, you have to rev them to get any performance. That means in day to day driving they are just not that much fun.

I have owned some real small-dsiplacement, high RPM jewels, including an 1964 Alfa 1600 Zagato coupe (95 cubic inches) about 30 years ago which could do nearly 140 mph when properly tuned (however, it would stay properly tuned for only about two hours). it would rev to 7000 RPM but had a nice exhaust sound rather than the "hornet buzz" of most "rice burners." But it was no fun to drive on the street because it was a dog below 5500 RPM.

I've grown to love low end torque (I built my vette engine for low end torque over high end HP and have never regretted it). As Iaccoca once said, "People think they want horsepower but they buy based on the torque [they feel in the test drive]." A lot of torque makes a car flexible and strong - and communicates a real feeling of power when you drive it. Cars like the Evo are fun, but mostly what they communicate to me when I drive them hard is not a feeling of power, but of noise.

Lee, i have always felt that the top gear acceleration tests were a bit uneven. take, for example, the test between the new Mustang GT, and the new Charger RT. the top gear accel test, from 50-100, or something like that, takes the mustang some 10 seconds, while the charger did it in like 5 or 6. the reason that i think it does this is because theyre testing an MTX mustang, and an automatic charger. if youre in a manual car, and youre going 50 in high gear, for one, your not in the correct gear to tear up to 100, but even if youre gonna try, you put the hammer down, and youre no where near the power band. on the other hand, with the charger in an atx, you put the hammer down,a nd the auto trans drops into passing gear.

the test that you posted has the charger, which i know is an auto and the gto numbers would dictate an auto, as 13.3 for an mtx ls2 would be awful. on the other hand, the Sti and Evo arent offered in autos.

i am, however, shocked that the STi won the 1/4 contest. do you know what years the imports were?

Top gear tests are worthless anymore because so many cars have overdrive top gears. But the 30-100 times I compared were based on the acceleration numbers in the test, not just top-gear runs, just the difference between the 0-100 and 0-30 times, and indicate how fast the cars are in a rolling-start drag race (the type you typically run on the street). Here, the EVO and STI will get killed by just about any big V-8 -- I would not be suprirsed if a stock Mustang GT coulnd't take one 30-100, although I haven't checke4d.

The charger is available only with a 5-speed auto but it still is pretty fast. For a daily driver I prefer an auto, at least if it is "smart": I have a 5-speed Tiptronic in my Porsche (maybe the smartest automatic i've ever driven) and it makes for a quicker car in traffic than a six-speed would be, and its reasonably fast (quarter mile in 13.5). Despite the transmission, from 40 up it is a bit faster than an Suburu STI as I dueled with one on US 64 one day: about what you'd expect since it weighs a bit less and has 320 versus 300 HP.

my current DD has an "auto stick" and while i would prefer to have gotten a stick, a knee problem prevented that at the time. however, as autos go, this one gives you a great deal of control. the reason that i asked about the years of the imports, is because the newer Evos are a little stronger, and the IX and newer have larger turbos, stock.

I've gotta take the time to get behind the wheel of an EVO or WRX. I've never had the chance to drive on of these AWD sports cars to see how they feel. The only turbo charged car I have driven is my friends '03 VW Golf GTI which had a decent amount of power (but then again I was driving a V6 Mustang at the time and had no idea what real power was).

I drove a Suburu STI (the new model) recently and it really is okay. It has reasonable low end torque -- I was a bit surprised, but is still going to be a pain daily in traffic. These are good cars, powerful, a bit noisy and jittery, but more quality and feel than I expected, and with a nice "attitude."

I really prefer a good auto-stick type auto trans for a daily driver, particularly if you have little low end torque and have ti dice with traffic. The problem with driving a car like the Honda S2000 (I hate to pick on this car, but I've never driven a car that had less torque down low in comparison to power up top) is not that you have to shift all the time to get any power. What I displie is that you have to a n t i c i p a t e shifting when you need it, its a constant effort to think ahead, etc.
When I bought my Porsche I was concerend about low end torque so I got the Tiptronic. It has paddle shifters on the steering wheel but what I like best is that it is very smart - its adapative and after several months just seems to knows when to shift hard, soft, when to hold a gear. But the best part is that you can force a downshift: I know most auto transmissions will kick down if you floor the car, but the Prosche has a feature nothing else I've owned had. I can force a downshift -- even a double downshift, by just "tapping" the throttle (push down hard but only a bit -- its the rate of push not the distance that does it) then let up in the blink of an eye, -- so short of a time the engine hardly has time to repsond). Similarly you can force an upshift by letting up instantly on the throttle just a bit, then back down. It takes practice but it is the coolest feature in traffic.