At this point, the Vishnu boys pull their heads out of the sand and decide to swap the worn front tires off their car for some new rubber from another stock EVO. The trade? A Vishnu reflashed ECU should be worth a few thousand miles of rubber.
Look inside the Vishnu EVO. Stock. Antiseptically stock. Almost boring. Doesn't matter. EVO interiors are designed for function, so stock still serves a very defined purpose. Settle in, fire the engine and putt away with little more effort than yes, you guessed it, stock. Sure, clutch take-up and modulation are different, but livable-barely noticeable, really. Ride quality feels just like our Project EVO-stock with the edge ever so slightly degraded through miles and time. Still, that edge, wonderful edge that all EVOs have, is still there, and it's still sharp enough to cut miles of winding tarmac into bits whenever you want.
Lay into the throttle and the cutting begins. What seems like impossible power delivery from the stock turbo sends the black EVO into fits of brain-punishing acceleration. This is good. This is very good. With enough shove to hit 100 mph in 9.7 seconds, 3.4 seconds quicker than stock, this is the sleeper of the group. Sixty comes in only 3.9 seconds. The quarter mile is gone in 12.2 seconds at 112.7 mph. Fast. Nearly stock. Cool.
Try to put that power down exiting a turn and things change considerably. Cusco's adjustable rear anti-roll bar set to full stiff gives the car proper exit attitude, but causes other problems. The otherwise stock suspension allows lots of roll and ultimately the EVO finds its inside rear tire floating in mid air. Despite its clutch-type limited slip, every last horsepower escapes through that desperately spinning tire. This kills lap times. Vishnu finds itself only .14 seconds faster than the stock RS around the track.
It took one launch in the Works EVO to find out how different a machine it is. Moderate revs and a serious dose of clutch produced wheelspin in the Vishnu car. The same technique is met with a choke, bobble and bog in the Works machine. Time for a different launch strategy. Six thousand rpm, feed out the clutch, feed in full throttle and blam, we're off. Repeated attempts produce a 12.9-second e.t. at 107.9 mph-a testament to the single-disc, organic clutch, which takes the abuse without failure.
But there are problems. Shifting trouble, thanks to a tired transmission, ultimately add several tenths to this car's quarter-mile time and boost response is off mark. The days of turbo lag are virtually gone and a mismatched turbo stands out in this group like the Pope at Monster Jam. As much as we hate to say it, turbo lag hurts the Works EVO's quarter-mile time as much as any transmission problem.
On the road course lag is a factor too, slowing lap times. Still, the Works car pounds around the road course in 1:00.76. And it's loud. With no muffler and a seriously large turbo, it's very quick on boost-getting there is the problem.
Ever wonder how well an EVO handles without anti-roll bars? Neither had we. But the Works boys think it might work on the skidpad. Engineering editor Coleman humors them and heads for the circle. The lesson here? Don't bother. The car pulls 1.00 g without the bars and 1.03 g with them.
RB Motoring fit 245/35-18 Goodyear GS-Fiorano Eagles from the right front of a Ferrari F50 to every corner of its EVO. In this very grippy crowd, Goodyears are to cornering what Justin Timberlake is to Death Metal. Still, the RB EVO circles the skidpad at .97 g, .02 g better than stock. Like we said, different philosophies. With about 48 hours to prepare for this contest, RB's car is, nonetheless, impressive.
In fact, as we jump in the car for a few laps there is still a wideband O2 meter on the floor-a sure sign some tuning has been happening. This EVO is, perhaps, the most high-zoot suspension of any car here. It has Ohlins PCV coil-overs, which, based on our short time in the car, offer a superb ride/handling compromise. But the package isn't quite complete. Sure, there's power and yes, there's grip, but it's clear this car was rushed to our test. It still manages a 1:00.79 lap time-only .03 seconds slower than Works.
Jump to the straight line test and this car is a different animal. Care has to be taken to launch it at an engine speed that dosn't send its stock clutch into a Chernobyl-sized meltdown. Get it right and it rips through the 1320 four-tenths of a second and more than 5 mph better than our stock RS. That is 12.9 seconds at 106.2 mph, thank you very much.
Bottom line here is easy. Bolt-ons. EVOs like them. Much like their DSM cousins, they respond well to simple mods. Well, that and the fourth-gear, full-throttle freeway tuning sessions the RB guys love to brag about.
Shuffling between cars we become anxious to get back in the XS EVO. This car was planned very carefully; it still uses the stock turbo, but it's clear the other parts are neurotically selected and the tuning is meticulous-and we couldn't wait to pour the coals to it on the road course. The stock turbo'd EVOs have the best response in the group. Put simply, they just feel better than many of the big-turbo cars, even if they lack the outright speed. And we're guessing it's this driveability that makes the XS car special.
There's very little missing here, especially in the braking department. What the XS car lacked in short stopping distances on day one (perhaps due to pads that weren't bedded in) it gains back on the track. It takes several laps to work up to the massive braking potential available here. We regret braking too early even after working up plenty of speed and decent lap times. And when we finally get it right, all hell breaks loose when we give it the middle pedal full-on. This car freakin' stops. The result: 59:14 seconds-the first car to break the one-minute barrier.
It goes pretty well, too. Making equivalent power to the Vishnu car, it produces a slightly quicker quarter-mile time-12.1 seconds at 112.6 mph. But it seems that maybe XS is asking too much of the stock turbo, as we can hear compressor surge under certain conditions. With this exception, the XS EVO is highly developed. Eric Hsu, who did the sorting for XS, evidently looked at every detail and is willing to risk some turbo life in hopes of exchanging it for power. Never again will we expect an XS car to be a straight-line-only machine.
Speaking of straight lines, if there is one car here that lives for going straight, it is TODA Racing's 2.3-liter stroker. An extra 326cc displacement goes a long way when it comes to adding sheer muscle. After all, there ain't no replacement for...well, you know.