Date: 4/23/2007 4:40:00 AM
From Authorid: 21867
Yup - I've been competeing in dragracing and trackracing for almost 20 years now. Dragged everything from V8s to V8s, 4s and rotaries, turboed, N/A and supercharged. For the last number of years I've been involved in the Import Dragracing scene in my country - regularily competeing as well as writing articles for a Performance Car magazine here in my country which focusses mainly on tuned Japanese Imports. My last few cars have been all out of the house of red diamonds - Mitsubishi, just like you. Go Mitsi! Went with Mitsis as previously I was modifying and racing Subarus and simply got sick and tired of blowing gearboxes, diffs, heads, turboes ad infinitum...don't get me wrong, the Subie Impreza WRX Sti's are great cars from factory, spectacular handling and produce decent levels of power and certainly well capable of mid to low 12s over the 1/4 with simple mods like exhaust/intake/boost controllers etc...but they soon reach their limits above 350-360hp and start blowing things left right and centre. The money required to rectify those *flaws* is quite huge too...so I went with Mitsubishi, as basically they were a much more robust basis to extract good reliable power out of. For instance, my first Mitsi that I began modifying was an early E39 Galant VR4 with the now famous (or infamous to Subbie owners...hahaha) 4g63 16v DOHC turbo motor. That thing I simply stripped out a bit (as they are a bit of a whale otherwise), fitted a TD-05 20g from a later model Lancer EVO with an external wastegate, larger injectors/intercooler with custom piping, CAI with sectioned off pod-filter, 3" exhaust, ran a simple boost-tap and wound the boost up to 20psi on premium pump gas. The thing ripped the 1/4 at a 12.2 on its 1st outing. Fastest Mitsi I've owned was an early '76 Colt GSR...which I'd set up specifically for 1/4mile action, stripped, semi-tubbed rear-end with shortened B2000 van diff, strengthen Starion turbo gearbox and one mean 4g63 motor (actually, it was the one out of my old VR4, I just worked it up a fair whack more). That motor ended up sporting a worked head, modified valves, forged bottom end, cams, custom intake manifold, 720cc injectors, fuel pressure reg, big walbro pump, Apexi AVC-R boost controller and Apexi S-AFC fuel controller...as well as a GReddy T67 turbocharger, Tial external and 3" mandrel exhaust. It used to crank a nice health 340 odd kilowatts (thats close to 500hp) to the rear wheels on pump gas and 20psi. On C16 gas and 26psi it was making around 400kws at the wheels! Even with the semi-tubbed rear and running a decent set of slicks traction was an issue...well, it was more a)the power delivery of the turbo would just bake up the tyres when the boost came on, making it rather twitchy till you get it into 4th, and b)the short wheel-base of the Colt GSR doesn't lend itself well to gob-loads of power...so it'd get quite squirelly and want to basically fish-tail itself all down the 1/4. Still - managed a 10.67 in that before moving back to 4wd Mitsis. Other Mitsi's I've dragraced: Lancer GSR (1.8lt DOHC turbo, 4wd), basic bolt-on mods for a 12.7, E84 Galant VR4 (6a12tt - 2lt, v6, twin (tiny TD-025) turbo 4wd), again relatively basic bolt ons such as intake, exhaust, intercooler, and boost controller...that also ran a best of 12.7. Various Lancer EVOs (EVO2, EVO3, EVO5) all carded easy low 12s, the E3 ran a best of ll.8. My current car is a Lancer Evolution 8-MR. I've set this one up more for tarmac racing...and its also my fun drive on the street car...sunk most of my efforts into improving on the already formidable handling with the usual adjustable Cusco suspension, full nolathane, strut and H-braces, larger brakes, lightweight Advan RG alloys with nice sticky Yokohama street-legal 'semi-slicks'. Motor work has been quite relatively mild...slightly peakier cams, larger injectors, GT30R turbo and custom manifold, external, larger intercooler, exhaust, intake, fuel pump, Apexi Power-FC blah blah...the EVO-8 is making a nice healthy 320kws at all four wheels on quite mild boost and pump gas...and absolutely blitzs the track like it was its Daddy. I've taken it for a 1/4mile blast a few times just to see what it'll do, even though its not set up to be a 400 metre eater...its still carded 12.1 with an extremely soft launch, so quite capable to producing a high 11 if I didn't nanna it. Any tips for you?? Umm...just keep at it. Experience is crucial. You can take a highly experienced driver and put them in an average car and they'll be competition for a newbie in a much more powerful one. Some people think that dragracing is a no-brainer, just get in, mash the gas and drive straight...in reality theres a WHOLE lot more to being competitive than that. Experience will help you lower your reaction times, improve your launch, gear-changing/flat-changing, just *feeling* how the car is performing and altering your reactions to suit it to squeeze the very best time out of it possible. FWDs...ahhh yes, dragraced a few of them in my time too...but they were principally Hondas. Traction - as you know - is the main issue...everything about the car, the way it transfers power etc, all says it wants to throw it to the rear-wheels not the front...weight distribution blah blah and all that...hence the bane of FWD dragracing it simply sitting there wheel-spinning (or worse - axle-tramping) your way through 1st and 2nd any time you even THINK about stabbing the gas pedal with a decent power FWD. There are of course some VERY quick FWDs in the dragracing scene...but they have had some huge amounts of development into their handling and power delivery. What I found helpful was to actually stiffen up the rear end a whole lot...basically to fight against that shift in weight transfer/momentum that throws the car back and thus lifts the weight off the front when you launch - hence lots of tyre-smoke and very little forward momentum until it hooks up = slower 60fts and ETs. I used to fit these things called Spring Blocks on the rear suspension coils...they are basically spacer blocks that you can bolt into the coils (used for vehicles that tow heavy loads to stop them for bottoming out in the rear) and retard the compression of the coils under load. I also ran lower and stiffer coils as well as shorter shocks (or adjustables) up front to create a bit of forward rake to the shape of the vehicle and also further impeed that whole rearward weight transfer on launch. The tyres I used were a decent set of semi-slicks...with very low pressures. Was the 35psi you were running in your tyres before or after you let them down a bit...as 35psi is waaaaaay too high, it wouldn't allow for any wall flex and greatly reduce the possible contact patch (and thus available traction) of tyre tread on the tarmac. So maybe just drop them down further and see how you go...if you spin up, drop em a bit more...if you start bogging, raise them a bit. A bit of trial and error will be invaluable.  |
