While I was at PRI in Orlando last week, I ran into Katsu from HKS USA. HKS Europe displays at PRI annually and Katsu was there helping. I’m not sure why HKS USA doesn’t display, but whatever floats their boat. Anyhow, Katsu gave me a quick tour of the almighty, fast as fuck, HKS EVO CT230R Time Attack car. I was told it only makes 520whp on an AWD Dynojet (which typically reads higher than 2WD Dynojets). This car weighs only something like 1080kg or 2376lbs. That is 1000 pounds lighter than a stock EVO! EVO owners and tuners – prepare to drool:
All carbon body panels except for the factory aluminum MR roof and steel unibody.
HKS 2.2L stroker with a GT3037 big a/r exhaust turbine, large tube exhaust manifold, GT 60mm wastegate, and 76mm exhaust. The carbon intake tube is a nice touch too. The intercooler is vertically placed and probably measures 600x400x65mm. A full sized radiator with an air separator system keeps things nice and cool. An X-trac sequential transmission is big bucks!! Note the crankcase ventilation hoses have been increased in size drastically from the stock EVO. Something that many “tuners” seem to ignore. Notice the unibody is still intact with the custom wheel wells. The carbon intake plenum with 90mm Q45 throttle body is a nice touch also. There’s nothing too fancy here: you still see silicone vacuum hoses, plastic vacuum tees, silicone intercooler hoses with standard worm drive hose clamps, etc. Personally I think too many street car guys waste their money on exotic shit like wiggins clamps, teflon pressure lines, etc. STOP USING THOSE STUPID FUCKING T-BOLT CLAMPS PEOPLE – they usually leak! If you do everything right you’re not going to have any problems.
All business here with HKS meters, EVC 5, and momo steering wheel. No bullshit STACK display from the 1980’s (datalogging is the future people) or any other unncessary stuff here. The carbon dash and shifter console is nice too.
Here you can see the HKS V-Pro ECU, HKS A/F Knock amp air fuel ratio box, a small ass battery laid on it’s side, some JDM datalogger system, and the differential pump. You’ll notice when looking throughout this car that there is no expense spared in carbon. A lot of attention was also paid to keeping the center of gravity SUPER low on this car. Everything is on it’s side or mounted absolutely as low as possible. Weight distribution was also a concentration for HKS – that’s why the differential pump was moved from the front of the car to the center.
A simple cage runs throughout the car. Of course it’s not even remotely legal for FIA or SCCA competition, but it is a Time Attack car after all, right? They don’t give a shit about competition – just smoking other tuning shop built time attack cars. You can see the custom wheel wells above the factory ones. It appears to me that the engine was shifted back and both front and rear subframes were moved higher into the unibody to lower the effective center of gravity. Even the driveshaft tunnels is modified which tells me the driveshaft runs a bit higher in the unibody than a stock car. HKS also added a fabricated rearbulkhead to unitize the unibody. Note that the unibody is absolutely intact. Cut to shit, but intact.
Tilton pedals and air jacks are hella nice. Notice the factory steering column and all unibody sheet metal are still there. One thing that doesn’t change from all JDM built cars is the shitty wiring!! Katsu did tell me the electronics were rushed during a recent change of equipment.
Carbon doors are sick!!
There’s Christian from COBB Tuning scoping out his competiton. COBB is working on an all carbon STI Time Attack car and I believe they are going to attempt to smoke the HKS EVO. We’ll see what he’s got up his sleeve in 2008.
