Doing more with less, Ryan Gates Blazing Mitsubishi Lancer EVO X

The Attainable Goal, Ryan Gates Blazing Mitsubishi Lancer EVO X

By Mike Kojima, photos by Jeff Naeyaert

In the pages of MotoIQ, we have been focusing on some of the fastest cars in the Time Attack scene.  So far these cars have been exotic and far reaching in their level of modifications and nearly unobtainable for the average guy.

The Gates EVO X uses all off the shelf AMS goodies, from the 2.2 liter short block to the 900X Turbo Kit.

If you're into the Time Attack scene, no doubt you're well aware of Ryan Gates and his winning 2008 Mitsubishi Lancer EVO X; Ryan has been tearing up the Time Attack record book with an unheard of winning record.  In the 2009 Redline Time Attack Season Ryan blew up the record book with an amazing 7 wins in 7 events in Modified Class.  Ryan also scored wins at the Buttonwillow Superlap Battle Finale and at the NASA Road America Time Trial in the TTB class.  That’s an amazing 9 wins in 9 events entered! Ryan is about the only guy in racing that we know that's batted 1000 for an entire season!  Amazingly the all winning 2009 season also resulted in 7 lap records out of 9 events as well!

The 4B11 engine has been converted to run on E85 so a large diameter fuel rail and 2000cc min injectors gives plenty of fueling headspace.

The winning streak started in 2008 when, Ryan and the then new Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution X quickly proved to be one of the USA's fastest Evo's, quieting the critics of Mitsu's latest iteration in the Evolution series who claimed that the new EVO was too big, too heavy and too soft to be taken seriously. Along the way, Ryan became one of the USA's fastest Street class drivers and his Evo X came to be one of the most recognizable cars on the Time Attack circuit.

AMS charge tubing reduces restriction between the intake to the throttle body.

Heading into 2009, The Gates311 Evo X was transformed into a much lighter, much sharper Modified class car. The upgrades to the car performed awesomely, allowing Ryan to dominate the U.S. Time Attack scene in Modified class. Although Ryan's car is the most winning car in Time Attack history, what piqued our interest in it was the fact that the car is actually quite simple, a car that anyone could build, mostly out of off the shelf parts.  When compared to technological terrors like the Sierra Sierra EVO VIII, the FXMD NSX and the Tomei STI, the Gates311 EVO is really a well massaged street car with a cage.

An AMS cold air intake with a K&N air filter gives the engine plenty of air.

Starting with the engine, Ryan stuck to all proven off the shelf items from the gods of all things EVO, AMS. It is interesting to note that Ryan's long block was completely stock for the dominating 2009 season.  For 2010, Ryan has stepped up with an AMS 2.2 liter short block.  The AMS short block steps the 4B11 engine up from 2 liters to 2.2 by greatly increasing the bore size 4mm to 90mm so the stroke and the rod ratio remain stock.  This means that the engine can still rev well while maintaining reasonable piston speed unlike some of the old 4G63 stroker combinations.

The AMS 900X turbo system uses a cast stainless exhaust manifold, a Force Performance Turbo and a Tial wastegate.