By Mike Kojima and Aaron Guardado
After we prepared two cars as seen in part one of this series. We proceeded to enter them in a destruction derby, the infamous Orange Crush event at the Orange County fair. We faired ok, making it through most of the event with only minor injuries despite the car’s taking some enormous punishment
By Mike Kojima
When we last left project EVO IX we had just tried out the most basic bolt on mods and ended up being pretty pleased with the results, picking up nearly 30 whp from stock with just a few hours of work including dyno time. Drivability was improved as well making our experience a win win situation
Inside the 800-hp X-Games Fiestas - Update 1
By Dave Coleman
An American rallycross is an autocross in the dirt. A European rallycross is an explosion of rally bundled up and barely confined within the grounds of a racetrack. Roughly speaking, take every european rally car that has ever been banned for being too fast, turn up the boost, and then run 6 of them, wheel-to-wheel, in a sprint race that alternates between pavement and dirt. When a team of Swedish rallycross fiestas crossed the pond to run Pikes Peak and the X-Games I wanted to know more. How exactly do they get these Miata engines (the Ford Duratec is also known as a Mazda MZR) to 800-hp, and how do they harness that power and make it usable? This story is everything I know, updated frequently as I learn more...
Motoiq Staff Report
The first ever composite fuel rail for Mitsubishi’s Evo VII-IX is here. Skunk2’s Composite Fuel Rails are made using a proprietary carbon-impregnated, aerospace thermo-polymer composite—a material that’s 33-percent lighter and 60-percent stronger than aluminum. Skunk2's composite material insulates fuel from both radiant and conductive heat transfer underneath the hood, resulting in more horsepower and torque. The composite material has ultra low thermo conductivity so underhood heat is not transfered to the fuel resulting in fuel temps up to 100-degrees F cooler when compared to aluminum. This results in denser fuel and greatly reduces the chances of vapor lock, crfitical when volitile running fuels with a high alcohol content.
It only took one turn for all my doubts to disappear. It had been four and a half years since the Rally beater last turned a wheel in anger and I was, only moments earlier, quite skeptical that it could still do it. When I dropped the hammer at the start of stage 1, I still had no idea if the car would work. After all that time parked in your driveway, nothing you can do on the pavement will tell you if your old box still handles well in the dirt or if you still remember how to drive it. But as the SR20 wailed and the gravel flew, the beater's normally rough, clattery ride smoothed out into a gloriously fluid set of arcs, slides, and various maneuvers named after old Scandinavians. I had almost enough time to start giggling with boyish glee before the engine turned off.
Engineering a car is a series of compromises. When Nissan decided to make the 240SX a slow, soft piece of suck, it was a compromise calculated to make it durable, quiet, easy to drive every day, and cheap to build. When I decided to take this same worn-out, 300,000-mile piece of suck and make it fast, I was naturally sacrificing some of that comfort and undoubtedly some durability.
We recently evaluated a set of G-Spec lines for the Nissan 370Z. The G-Spec lines also fit the Infiniti G37 Sedan and Coupe. We installed them on the Killer B which is starting to become our official 370Z Project demonstrator vehicle. The Killer Bee is a Sport Package 370Z with the standard factory big brakes. Although the Sport Package 370Z has exceptional brakes, some improvement can usually be found by installing braided steel lines. This is because stiff braided steel lines do not expand with pressure like the stock rubber lines
Although you might think that Destruction Derby is the simplistic smashing of cars, it is actually a pretty sophisticated formula with an evolved set of rules that allow a high level of safety and competitiveness with a very low cost of entry. Destruction Derby has a rich history dating back over 50 years and the rules and regulations have evolved continuously since then. Let us discover what is inside a typical car preped to the maximum level of the rules.
By Mike Kojima and Sarah Forst
You are bummed. You don’t own a Honda, STi, EVO or some sort of popular sport compact car. Maybe you have an old school Celica, Corolla, Cavalier, Neon, Hyndai, Geo, Saturn or a similar ride that does not have tons of aftermarket support. Maybe you want a spiffy all polished stainless system but can’t get a pre-made offering that you like. Maybe you do have a popular car but it has a ripping turbo system and no one makes a good pre made 3” system for your car. What to do? Well we will show you how to roll your own system that will be as good as, maybe even better than a commercially made system, probably for less money as well!
In our last edition of Project Low Buck SR20DE, we stated our goals to obtain a decent amount of naturally aspirated horsepower and good track day drivable reliability from an underdog plain jane SR20DE without braking the bank. Fulfilling these goals would also create an engine with excellent street driving characteristics as well. All of our engine work will be done on the cheap with a tight budget in mind but with plenty of attention paid to minor details that can really help an engine live under the stress of track day pounding, perhaps the most abusive environment that a grass roots enthusiast will subject his engine to
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