Project EVO MR - Engine Bolt Ons Part 2

By Cheston Chiu

In the last edition of Project EVO MR, we were at Cobb Tuning SoCal in the middle of bolting on a bunch of parts.  As you may recall, we are wanting to give our EVO a nice boost but don't want to get too much beyond the basic bolt ons because we don't want to stress our SST transmission too much.  We want to be able to daily drive our car with occasional track use without problems.

So far we are working on getting the AEM intake, ARC intercooler, Cosworth intake pipes, AMS downpipe, MXP exhaust and the Cobb boost control solenoid with Access port all fired up before some tuning to make it all work.  How much power are we gonna make?  Let's take a look and see.

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Nerd's Eye View: Inside Fredric Aasbo/Papadakis Racing's Amazing V8 eating 2AR Toyota Engine 

By Mike Kojima

A couple of years ago, a lot of knowledgeable people, myself included declared that the turbocharged small displacement 4 cylinder engine was dead in the sport of Pro Drifting.  Dead, uncompetitive and obsolete.  We sung the praises of the latest new generation of domestic V8's like the Chevy LS, the Chevy SB2 and the Ford Coyote.  For a while it seemed so even though others like our own Eric Hsu predicted otherwise.

This year things are changing, turbochargers are coming back to the delight of fans and challenging the rule of the V8.  One of the most intriguing and successful applications of new turbo technology is the Toyota 2AR engine developed by Papadakis racing and driven by Fredric Aasbo.

The 2AR is a 2.5 liter all aluminum inline 4 that is both lightweight and stout at the same time.  Papadakis racing has proven that it can operate reliably for a long time at exceedingly high power levels.  It's taken about 2 years for Papadakis racing to hone and develop the 2AR into the potent package it is today and the story and parts behind it are interesting indeed.  Check it out!

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Motovicity's Ticket To Ride Scion FR-S Update- Eibach Pro Street-S Coilovers

By Mike Kojima

When we last left off, we had just gotten a load of AEM stuff for the Motovicity Ticket To Ride Scion FR-S.  For this week we will be looking into the suspension, mainly some sweet street coilovers from Eibach.

Eibach's new Pro Street-S coilovers are meant for durable daily driving use on the street.  They are a monotube, gas charged damper with an all weather, durable stainless steel body.  It is great to see this sort of quality on a basic street coilover. 

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Nerd's Eye View- Ryan Tuerck's 2JZ Powered FR-S!

By Mike Kojima

Ryan Tuerck has always been one of our favorite drivers in Formula D.  A consistent and solid performer, Ryan is always right there in the season end points race mainly due to his consistency.

Ryan has been known for his work in Nissan S chassis and had driven for Gardella Racing for many years in various Chevy platforms.  For 2013 Ryan has a new ride in an exciting car, a Scion FR-S.  Now the FR-S is a pretty exciting car but the flat 4 Subaru based engine is just not up to the task of propelling a competitive Formula D car.

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Motovicity's Ticket To Ride Scion FR-S Update- AEM Electronics Gauges, AQ-1 Datalogger and High Performance Fuel Pump!

by Mike Kojima

In our last update for the Motovicity Ticket To Ride Scion FR-S project, we discussed the attributes of the HKS Legamax Exhaust.  Now we will be adding another bunch of cool parts from AEM Electronics to both monitor performance and to supply fuel for our engine.

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Nerd's Eye View: The Dyson Mazda ALMS P1 Prototype

By Mike Kojima

I am old enough to have been around during what I consider to be the golden era of American road racing in the 80's.  In this time we saw the rise of IMSA with the outrageous GTP prototypes and the exotic sort of production based GTO and GTU cars.  SCCA had Trans Am and even CART Open wheelers were sporting awesome technology rivaling Formula One but with closer more exciting racing.  I was lucky enough to have been a fan during this time and later on in the decade a participant.

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Motovicity Ticket To Ride Spotlight: KW Suspension 2013 Mustang Variant III Coilovers

By Mike Kojima

As we collect parts for our Ticket To Ride 2013 Ford Mustang, our focus has turned to the suspension.  In our last segment of Ticket To Ride, we looked at some sway bars, braces, 4 link geometry correcting links and a Watts link from Whiteline to make sure that the Motivicity machine is well on its way towards world class cornering performance.

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What's In My Pack?

By Mike Kojima

Dora the Explorer has a magic back pack that holds just about anything she might need.  I have a back pack too, except it's not magic or cool.  I often wish it had the ability to come up with stuff I need, like a spare engine, corners of a car, a frame table and other things for tricky situations when I am out in the field.

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Making the Fast Car Faster with a Wilwood Big Brake System!

By Mike Kojima

Edik Stepanyan's Integra was already one of the fastest cars in the MPTCC series.  To make matters worse for his competitors Edik has been hard at work during the off season dialing in the car specifically for MPTCC rules.  In the previous year Edik's car was set up for NASA's H2 class which meant his car was not built to the full extent that the MPTCC's rules allow.

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Project 370Z - Improving Grip by Tuning a Cusco RS LSD!

By Mike Kojima

So far with our Project 370Z we have been focused on dialing in the chassis.  After some track time, it has become apparent that the rear differential is the next handicap in achieving faster lap times.  Although the Z has a viscous limited slip diff from the factory,  our testing has found it to be highly inadequate.  In fact it is hardly a limited slip diff at all, allowing a lot of inside rear wheel spin, even out of medium speed corners.  In some street tire testing at Buttonwillow our lap time was being limited to the low 2:06 range for configuration 13CW.

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