Numero XVI – Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution VI GSR
Around 1999/2000 Mitsubishi had the Evo 5 and 6 for rally purposes and I dreamt of owning one, one day. Back then I actually made a website on the Evo’s for our I.T class in High School – it probably still exists in the black hole somewhere!
I picked this up at the beginning of 2015 at a great price as it needed a bit of love.. A friend previously owned it and the only modifications were a 3″ turbo back exhaust and a new Koyorad Radiator. The idea was to just keep it as is (stock), but it never pans out that way with me.
How it was stock:
The first bit of attention required was to replace the clutch with a new Exedy heavy duty replacement. With the help of some friends (thanks Dylan & Chris!) we did all the work ourselves on my garage floor! Apart from a flywheel bolt rounding, which required a callout of ‘The Thread Doctor’, it wasn’t too bad of a process and if I have to do this again it will be much quicker.
What was funny though, was the snowball effect of the mods – we kept saying ‘while it’s apart may as well upgrade turbo’, ‘while it’s apart may as well get coilovers’.. you know how it is! And before you know it I had bought an Evo 9 turbo, along with a GT Pumps turbo dump pipe which has a larger outlet, and relocated battery kit so the air filter is at the front/headlight corner. Along with this I upgraded the fuel pump to the popular Walbro GSS342 (255lph). Comparison of the stock Evo 6 and Evo 9 turbos below, the Evo 9 has a MUCH larger compressor housing.
With this all fitted I sourced an Apexi Power FC ECU and sent it to All Star Garage in Perth. It ran up 265hp @ all 4 hubs on 98 octane. I was a bit disappointed with this, but I left it as is for a while and focused on upgrading the suspension with some Ohlins coilovers, a Cusco strut brace, a Whiteline 24mm rear sway bar, Whiteline caster bushes and Cusco camber plates. The new ride height was much better. I also added the JDM rear taillight/reflector inserts.
Happy with this for a while (I should have stopped here!) I then entered the 2015 Perth Targa West City Sprint, so I grabbed some 235/40 Federal 595RSR tyres with some OEM 18×8.5″ Evo X wheels. To get the most out of the brakes I upgraded to some RDA slotted discs with QFM A1RM street/track brake pads, HEL braided lines, and also had the Brembo’s freshened up in metallic green.
The event along the Perth riverside foreshore was fantastic, learning lots about the car driving hard. A limiting factor was certainly some understeer from the street tyres under braking, compared to everyone else in front running proper semi slicks such as the A050.
I finished 18th overall out of 70, so not too bad on Street tyres.
I guess from this point you could say it got more serious. Wanting to do better the next year, I ordered some MCA Red Coilovers with a 9kg/9kg spring rate and street/track valving. Man, the difference was like night and day, felt much better than the Ohlins and this was even before the wheel alignment! MCA (Murray Coote Automotive) know their stuff and are time attack champions in Australia, so their recommendation and popularity is justified.
With suspension sorted I then focused on more engine power and decided to go down the path of Ethanol E85 fuel, and ordered:
_Tomei Poncam R 270 degree cams
_Tomei cam gears
_Hypertune exhaust manifold, ceramic coated
_Bosch EV1000 injectors
_ECK Coil on Plug ignition kit (C.O.P kit)
_Walbro 450lph E85 pump
_Evo 7 ECU for v7 Tephra rom
_ARP 11mm head studs
_Grimmspeed 3 port boost solenoid
_AEM Wideband 02 sensor
A handy tip with fitting the Walbro 450 into an Evo is to drill out the little return flow restrictor, or else you have serious return flow problems!
With this all installed, I had Tokyo Motorsports in Perth dyno tune the new setup and it came back with 382hp / 285kw @ the hubs, on 1.75bar.
Just wow – with an extra 120hp at the wheels it was feeling pretty mental, with rapid acceleration. When tuning with E85 you can throw much more timing and boost into it and it totally transforms the motor.
Pretty happy with it how it was I entered an RAC DTEC track day for some more race experience, and the car was great. More seat time for more experience!
Next up was I managed to source a genuine Tommi Makinen Evo 6 front bumper through a friend at Mitsubishi, so I grabbed that quick smart along with some new clear headlights to freshen up the front end. She was now looking pretty perfect!
Soon after it was due for a timing belt change. When getting this done the boys noticed that the teeth of the crank was not in time with the cams, a couple teeth off. They reset the timing but then advised best to get the tune checked. Just before I sent it off I had the stock Evo 6 intercooler replaced with an Empire Performance bar and plate intercooler kit. So off it went back to Tokyo Motorsports where they checked the tune and adjusted it a bit, finding a ridiculous extra 20kw at the wheels, and at less boost! We can only assume the original tune was not as efficient as it could have been with the cam timing out, and the new intercooler propbably helped also.
Now making 409hp / 305kw at the hubs, 500nm torque, on 1.6 bar / 23 psi
With the new found power/suspension setup, and some old RE55s semi slick tyres in tow, I re-entered the 2016 Perth Targa West City Sprint. This time finishing 5th overall out of 61, and 3rd in the 4wd class! There were a couple places here and there where I could have improved, but I’ll try next time 🙂 Pics and video of the runs of the stage below.
Update: Sadly, the time came for our young family to make the jump into property, so I had to let this beauty go into the hands of another enthusiast, and for that I am happy at least! What will be next?
Final specs below:
Motor:
Stock 4G63 internals
Tomei Poncam Type R 270 cams + Tomei gears
Evo 9 TD05HR-16G6C-10.5T turbo
ARP head studs
Bosch EV14 1000cc injectors
Hypertune exhaust manifold ceramic coated
GTPumps 70mm dump pipe
3″ exhaust
ECK Performance COP kit (coil on plug ignition)
Evo 8 MR BOV
Koyorad thick radiator
Custom hard intake pipe with pod filter
Intercooler hard piping kit
Dryden Motorsports battery relocation tray
Evo 7 ECU with v7 Tephra tuned by Tokyo Motorsports
Grimmspeed 3 port boost controller
Walbro 460lph e85 pump hard wired
Making 409hp / 515nm on E85 (25psi) – Tokyo Motorsports hub dyno
Driveline:
Exedy HD clutch
HEL braided clutch line
Suspension:
MCA Red coilovers 9kg/9kg
Cusco strut brace + brake stopper
Whiteline 24mm rear sway bar
Whiteline front control arm caster bushes
Wheels World alignment
Brakes:
Rebuilt stock Brembos
RDA slotted & dimpled rotors front & rear
QFM A1RM sport/track pads front & rear
HEL braided lines
Calipers painted lime green
Rebuilt master cylinder
Interior:
Greddy Profec B EBC
Defi Racer Boost Gauge
Exterior:
Evo X rims (18×8.5) with Federal 595RSR’s
Added the JDM boot reflectors
Evo 6.5 TME front bar & lip
New front headlights/side lights
Amazing build!