Source Interlink Media held its Super Lap Battle finals at Buttonwillow Raceway Park’s Race 13 clockwise configuration today. All of the ink and paper outlets should have the complete story in a few months but if you can’t wait here are the dirty deets as reported by our boys at Everything Time Attack. It looks like David Empringham took/ate/slathered with hot sauce the whole enchilada in the Sierra Sierra Evo VIII with a 1:45.061. This is not too close to the 1:43.523 overall record held by Nobuteru Taniguchi in the HKS CT230R Evo VIII but an impressive time nonetheless for a car that is very much still in development.

The Sierra Sierra Evo is a bit of an enigma in the time attack world, like someone who eats their waffles with syrup and no butter (now THAT’S messed up). This car is built to FIA GT3 specs in a field of cobbled together tuner cars. On another note, this 8 will be retired after this season, as Sierra Sierra is already hard at work on an Evo X with a Cosworth built 4B11. Hit the jump to see some more good times from Buttonwillow.

Continue reading "Spoiler Alert: Super Lap Battle Finals Results" »

Who knew that a Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution was capable of a 221 mph standing mile run? The ultimate in JDM performance, this EVO II is an amazing tribute to the tuner’s ability to outperform larger displacement engines. Extensive work went into rebuilding the entire vehicle for this run, and the small two liter was pushed to the limit. With an original OEM spec top speed of 112 mph, this car nearly doubles that top speed within one mile, from a dead stop launch!

All-wheel drive and a lightweight chassis create a very high horsepower to weight ratio. The total power of this vehicle is unknown. How much power do you think it has? By the sound of boost, engine grunt, and high RPM red line I would guess somewhere around 600 to 800 awhp. To run this kind of power in the EVO II, a complete rebuild is required. High strength transmission and drive line combined with race quality engine internals is the only setup that will withstand this kind of boost. Chances are, it won’t last for long even with the best parts to run the type of boost required for a 221 mph standing mile.  For more information about the 221 mph Lancer, visit Tampa Sports Car Examiner.

The AMS Performance Evo is the ass kicker of you. It literally has only three actual events under its belt in its current guise. And somehow the AMS crew has been able to coax big numbers from the new 4B11 despite the lack of a G, a 6, or a 3 in the engine designation. Not only is the car stupid fast but AMS has plans in place for more power and even better aero with the aid of a flat bottom floor that has yet to be installed. If you would like to continue reading just click on the “continue reading” link for more, including a muy bonito StreetFire.net video.

Continue reading "This Evo X Punches Time in the Face" »

I saw that a few of you guys wanted to see some more Evo Wagon material, so I headed to the treasure chest of car photos that is Minkara and found this shot of a tuned Evo IX Wagon running on the circuit in Japan. I don’t think a station wagon has ever looked more evil…

By Mike Garrett

The EVO X seems to be a bit hit in America and is quickly becoming a popular tuning platform. The Chicago-based AMS shop is one of the leading proponents of US Evo tuning and they built up this ‘silver bullet’ street/Time Attack machine. They got the car fresh from the dealer with only a few miles on the odometer and started to tear it apart. The guys at AMS started the build with one thing in mind, and that was to create a street drivable, time attack machine. So it needed to be lightweight and it had to pack a serious punch. Continue reading at Speedhunters

GM and Chrysler have been stealing all the headlines recently, but several foreign manufacturers are having a rough time, too. Just looking at June numbers, Mitsubishi sales are down 41% from last year, while Suzuki’s sales are down a whopping 78%. As a result, Yuuki Sakurai, chief executive of Tokyo-based Fukoku Capital Management Inc., is recommending that both carmakers “withdraw from the U.S.” He added that “it’s time for them to decide whether they pay a high price to continue business there or stop the bleeding.” Mitsubishi Motors President Osamu Masuko said, “We will never give up the U.S. market.”

What do you think? Should they stick it out and hope for better times, or get out? Bloomberg via Autoblog

I was on the phone just now with Andy Barnes from the UK Time Attack/NFS European Drift Series and was discussing our plans for AWD month with him. He suggested I look up this brand new Evo 8 drag car run out of the UK from an outfit called JR Motorsports… The AWD 1400bhp car has been built to a target of 6 seconds if you can believe that… Madness! We are going to need to send a Speedhunter round their shop to see what this car is about.

By Rod Chong

The coolest part of this clip might not actually be the crash itself, but the way that the second driver, after going up on two wheels, manages to keep his Subie from flipping. And while I understand there’s a fair amount of luck involved in such a maneuver, I don’t think I’d be able to manage something like that even if I had all my fingers and toes crossed. It’s pretty clear from the first second that the Evo driver isn’t going to be able to navigate the turn—the angle is just too steep—but fortunately most his speed is lost before he makes contact with the statue. Think the driver and co-pilot were able to right the car and keep going? I’ll give them a 50/50 shot…

I’m extremely grateful for the support of this trunk project from MOST of the community. As readers of this blog already know, this trunk was one of the first products that Bulletproof invested in to develop. This trunk was never going to exist but we paid Do-Luck Japan’s R&D costs to build this trunk for us because we felt that the US market would enjoy it. And so far many people have!

At the same time there are still some people that just don’t get it…I just read 11 pages of posts on a message board about this particular client’s car and the trunk in particular. There were at least 5 people asking for someone to make a knockoff of the trunk. Are you serious? This trunk was not going to even exist because Do-Luck is already hurting from the knockoffs and they obviously don’t have the R&D budget to do so many new projects these days. I went ahead and helped them pay the expenses (removing their risk to make these trunks) just to have people ask for more knockoffs!? The Evo community needs to become more aware of what is going on with this industry and what these particular people are doing to it. Continue reading at The Real JDM

Its been a while since I’ve posted any content for the Lancer Evolution. This is one of the first new developments I’ve seen in a while for the CT9A that was worth posting. Sorry for the delay in new material to all you Evo fans out there.

We released pictures of the bumper in prototype form (unpainted) to the Evo community a couple of months back. The response was not favorable, although I understand why since it didn’t look too good unpainted and from that angle.

Now that I see it on a car, I feel better about it and I’m guessing others will like it as well. What do you think about the new Varis design?

Continue reading "Varis Evo 9 New Bumper" »

Tom came to us to help him get some high end JDM goodies to finish off his project. Apparently he heard the rumors (we kept it quiet back then) that we took over Do-Luck’s distribution in North America. Tom wanted to get a hold of the Do-Luck full kit, which Tom thought was relatively unattainable at the time. He actually made me confirm with him multiple times that I could get him the parts because he was so nervous about it! In actuality it was no problem at all and couple of months later Tom was able to receive all of the JDM goodies he dreamt of! Continue reading at The Real JDM

Evasive Motorsports have been busy building a demo car for Voltex Japan. The car has been fitted with a front lip spoiler and diffuser, along with a rear carbon wing and hood scoop. The front spoiler works very well with the car and I’m sure it will help in generating downforce. Especially after seeing some of Voltex’s earlier creation inside a windtunnel. The double bladed carbon wing needs some getting used to, but I’m sold.

For more Voltex goodies you can log onto the Evasive Motorsport blog.

By Jeroen Willemsen

This bad boy was over in the Mitsubishi booth at NYIAS. Featuring carbon fiber body panels and a 3.0 liter V6 turbo-diesel, this Lancer Sportback was designed to be a serious contender in the Dakar Rally. More pics after the jump!

Continue reading "Racing Lancer" »

Mitsubishi has been treading water in North America for a while now. With the exception of the Mitsubishi Lancer models, their offerings have been lackluster at best. Their sales numbers seem to back this hypothesis, and it will take some vastly different products to make the car buying public to come back into Mitsubishi showrooms. And so, with their backs against the wall, Mitsubishi took the wraps off a couple of significant offerings here at the New York International Auto Show. Continue reading after the jump.

Continue reading "NYIAS: Three New Mitsubishi Models: Lancer Sportback, Outlander GT and i-MiEV" »

Last week everyone was very happy to see the EVO go away. So who goes home this week? First three CarDomain members to correctly guess who gets eliminated in episode four before the show airs get CarDomain beanies!