Sneak Peek: Texas Dave’s Pikes Peak Evo 8

by Khiem Dinh

Khiem Dinh is an engineer for Honeywell Turbo Technologies at the time of this writing. All statements and opinions expressed by Khiem Dinh are solely those of Khiem Dinh and not reflective of Honeywell Turbo Technologies.

I was millin’ bout outside the SEMA convention hall when I tripped up on this here Evo. It’s got a big ole front splitter after all. Then I got to talkin to the owner, Texas Dave Carapetyan. Me: So where in Texas are you from? TD: Austin. Me: No kiddin’, I went to school there. Where in Austin? TD: Hyde Park. Me: No kiddin’, I lived a mile away. I used to run through your neighborhood. Hey, anyone ask if this was a STi? TD: Only one person so far. Me: Dude, that ’69 Camaro next to you is sweet. Anyway, besides being a Pikes Peak car and rally car, Texas Dave is going to take this thing to Super Lap Battle. Unlike many cars that just have horse drawn carriages full of money thrown at them, this car was built smart using a bunch of homebrew backyard Texas technology fueled by BBQ and it’s awesome.

About that front splitter, it needs to be big for the thin air at the top of Pikes Peak. The splitter is attached to two steel (I think) support rods sticking out of the front bumper. The massive end plates have a support rod at the top going through the fender to the chassis. The front mount intercooler is angled forward giving the air going through it a little more direct path out the hood. You can’t see it in this picture, but there’s an oil cooler in passenger side bumper opening. The carbon fiber duct in place of the stock headlight feeds cool air to the intake.

Here’s another view showing the headlight duct feeding nice and cool air to the intake for the turbo. If you need a reminder of why you want cool air, go back and read our guide to compressor efficiency and more. Two big sucker fans in a shroud are used to help pull air through the intercooler. You see, rally cars spend a lot of time going sideways around tight corners with the throttle pinned to the floorboard. Under such conditions, there’s not much vehicle speed to push air through the intercooler, so the fans are required. Magnus did a nice job on forming the intercooler end-tanks to try to minimize the pressure drop of the air flowing through. Notice that all the lines running near something hot are wrapped in insulation for protection. The valve cover even has the gold tape stuff to reflect the heat transfer from radiation coming off the Full-Race exhaust manifold.

Texas Dave has himself here a Full-Race twin-scroll setup with two Tial wastegates. You can see how even the lines to the wastegates and turbo are protected by insulation.

The front fender has a big ole hole in it. Something about letting air and dirt out or something.