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This year Rhys Millen didn’t bring his RMR PM580 that he’d driven in previous years, instead he was piloting what appeared to be a modified Daytona prototype that was cleverly dubbed the RMR PM580-T. The engine bay houses an 800+HP Garrett turbocharged V6 as well as approximately ten pounds of gold foil. Seriously, if something could have been wrapped in gold foil, it was.
Even if it’s a bit rough around the edges, the Enviate looks like a bill board of all the things I wish I could afford. Actually I do have Continentals on my wagon, but that’s about as far as any similarities go with this beast.
Once all the photo ops, hand shaking, and baby kissing was over with we headed back to Revolutions Performance in Colorado Springs to wrap up the final tweaks with the car. The intake tubing path was re-routed higher up into the scoop of the rear clamshell to help reduce intake temps, and some ducting was also added to direct cool air to the intake and then through the radiator at the rear.
Wider vents were also added to increase airflow through the two side mounted radiators, again trying to combat the massive amount of heat produced by the twin turbo LQ9. Even with the minimal number of miles on the body the side radiators were already showing abuse from the rocks that were kicked up by the sticky Continentals, so a couple of mesh screens were attached to the openings at the rear of the front wheel wells to block debris.
Sometime in the early hours of the morning on Wednesday the fumes we had all been running on for days began to run out and any flat surface suddenly became a perfect sleeping spot. In all seriousness though the parking lot was still radiating the warmth it had acquired throughout the day and Cody was not the only one to take a quick nap on the pavement. Once all the details with the Enviate were triple checked we all grabbed a few hours of sleep before heading up to the mountain around 4am for the first practice sessions of the week. At this point there was a combination of emotions for most of us; excitement to finally see the car attack a section of the mountain, relief at making it to this point, and a tinge of nervousness that something might go wrong. I don’t think any of us had anticipated what would happen next.
Stay posted because PART 2 is coming soon!
