Another day in history

Yup, my fortunes just keeps getting better and better ^^ eventhough i keep digging deeper and deeper into poverty X-p haha...

a senior colleague of mine have been prowling the market for an Evo... he wants the latest evo he can find that is within his budget, 120k... and that'd be an evo 7...

He finally got it over the weekend, and brought it over to the office today :-) and i must say, it's quite a find ^^



The awe-inspiring Evo...


Pingu making a model fit to turn eyes sore... X-p


Everyone's all over the beast... :-p (the vinyl on the evo says: "Spirit of competition" ^^ lovely words indeed... what is evolution without competition? :-p)

The car is pretty completely modded, any further would probably require internal modifications that would be both extreme and costly... it's got aftermarket parts all over the place, hks intercooler, apexi fc commander ecu, rsm, brembo brakes, single-plate racing clutch, exhaust-God-knows-what and etc X-p

I jumped at the opportunity of taking the car out for a ride X-p and what a ride it was... the speedometer was still the stock 180kph, but with a car like that, that narrow band of speed limitation is just another number... X-p

My much respected senior colleague drove us into the Duke highway (our usual proving grounds :-p) and stopped by the roadside...

I was so eager to get started, that i didn't really adjust my seat properly :-p the clutch, being a single-plated clutch, is heavy and quick to grab the flywheel... the evo started off slow, and with a tap of the throttle, launches itself forward...

There's no dramatic sudden kick-in-the-butt turbo boost or anything like that, the ride's pretty smooth, and the rev just keeps on pulling until its 7k redline... and with pretty closed gear-ratios, and a really nice short shift, shifting through the gears up till top gear is a real breeze, and before you know it, your speedometer is already knocking the wall... :-p

the glare of the sun blocks the view of the RSM, so i never knew how fast i was going, but on a highway with decent sparsity of traffic, one can make an intelligent guess that over 200 kph is not unreasonable.. :-p

We had probably hit 250kph, and the car just seems to keep on going O.o but unlike Hanz's former superb neo (cruising at 200++ kph was a real breeze, and comfortable and quite enough to enjoy his In-car entertainment system) the evo just abused us with its wonderfully blaring exhaust note... X-p not that i'm complaining... :-p

The clutch being a racing clutch, catches the flywheel without any slip... so for noobs such as myself, it requires a certain finesse (that i have not attained :-p) to change gears without the car lurching...

The powerband of the evo is so wide, that the torque just keeps on coming from even quite a low rpm... perhaps as low as 3000 rpm, and it just keeps on going until the redline... :-p having a very wide powerband, it makes rev-matching quite difficult... X-(

Say for example i was running in 3rd at say 3000 rpm, and down-shifted into 2nd, I would need to rev-match the revs up to close to the redline to make sure the shifting is smooth... any lower than that, then the revs would be too low and the car would lurch forward, trying to force match the engine speed and the wheel speed...

Such a car would make machine-gun downshifting (as i would call it X-p) possible only under very hard braking, where speed is scrubbed off at a blistering speed, faster than the eyes could bulge out X-p

The brakes on that Evo is phenomenal O.O it employs aftermarket racing brembo brakes (noticeable from the screech of the pads when the car is stopping, bcoz the exhaust wouldn't bother in the background X-p) thus one can expect nothing less in stopping power...

The car is quite balanced :-) I could scrape off excess speed as fast as i could pile them on the speedometer X-p such characteristics would be pretty handy on the touge ('~,)

The only qualm i have on the car is the power-steering... if there is a weak link, that would be it... and what a weak link it is :-( with all the entry and exit speed that car is capable of, it's rendered useless by the disappointing steering...

The power-steering is not speed sensitive (i don't know whether stocks are like that or that was purposely made by the previous owner) thus it remains light and detached even when running at excess of 200++ kph O.O now that's a thought to really scare the bejeepers out of me.. X-p sadly i noticed that only when i was taking a turn while running in excess of 200++ kph X-p

While going straight, i noticed there's hardly any feedback from the steering, which i attributed to perhaps the stability of the car and the smoothness of the highway surface... but that trait rears its ugly head in a turn, and really caught me wetting my pants... X-p

It completely takes out the fun in the car.. :-( you don't know whether you're running at the limit of the car and its tyres or not... and before you know it, the tyres are squealing, and THERE'S NOTHING FROM THE STEERING TELLING ME THAT!!! O.O

I felt i could push on, but the tyres are telling me otherwise, while the car's computers were making algorithms that would shame even Einstein in trying to keep me from getting into a mess X-p and in all that, the steering tells me only nothing... it's so detached, the car suddenly feels like a luxurious beemer O.o (not that i've ever driven one before X-p) it feels sedated, it feels detached, it feels unnatural, it feels.... luxurious... X-p

That really took the wind out of the whole excitement of driving that wonderful piece of tuning history... :-( and a pity that is... i've pointed it out to my senpai, hopefully he'll see to it soon ^^

That kind of feedback with that kind of speed would definitely kill someone eventually... hopefully my thoughts are untrue, and the truth is far from it... God-forbid... apart from that, i can't wait to have the old lady back and join the crew X-)

the cast is ready, time for the show to begin X-) arr...
shiver me timbers... X-D