New Evo runs 1:00.1 at Wakefield Park in Testing

The Tilton Interiors/Insight Motorsports Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution 9 RS, affectionately known as "New Evo" ran 1:00.1 at a supersprint event at Wakefield Park at the weekend. Without a doubt, this marks New Evo as a worthy contender for the Pro Class title at this weekend's long awaited World Time Attack Challenge.

New Evo has had very limited track time due to the delayed build. Leading up to last weekend, New Evo had been stationed at Eastern Creek in the hope of getting as much track time as possible before the 2011 World Time Attack Challenge. However, the weather was not kind; only limited testing was possible due to rainy weather.

The supersprint event on Saturday at Wakefield Park was a chance to shake off any remaining development gremlins and a chance for driver Garth Walden to get comfortable with the car. Insight Motorsports Director, Scott Kuhner, was confident that New Evo would be competitive. This confidence proved true as New Evo set a blisteringly quick lap time of 1:00.1. Scott believes that this is the fastest time ever by a time attack car at Wakefield Park.

While I cannot confirm the above as Wakefield Park's track records seem rather difficult to track down on the Internet, I can confirm that New Evo's Wakefield Park time puts it in the company of some very fast cars and competitive drivers. It is faster than Jamie Whincup in his Formula Ford (1:02.0803) and John Bowe in his Nations Cup Ferrari 360 GT (1:00.2219). And it is only slightly slower than Simon Wills in his Holden V8 Supercar (1:00.0527).

I realise that my comparisons of cars that competed under different motorsport regulations might irk some people. All I am trying to say is that New Evo is quick and it will be a serious contender at the 2011 World Time Attack Challenge.

Driver Garth Walden is certain that "this car has 58's in it, no problem, but needs more track time. Plus there are some technical issues to sort out". Considering that the tyres used last weekend at Wakefield were hard and "only" 265's, Walden's sureness seems justified. At the 2011 World Time Attack Challenge this Friday, New Evo will be wearing a fresh set of 295’s (Yokohama A050 295/35ZR18 to be precise) wrapped around Rays RE30 rims.

A note to our readership, please feel free to send me a link to more up-to-date track records for Wakefield Park. And see you this Friday and Saturday at Eastern Creek for World Time Attack!

New Dry Sump for "New Evo"

We have a new dry sump system for "New Evo", the Tilton Interiors/Insight Motorsports Evo IX RS, which will make its motorsports' début at the World Time Attack Challlenge at Eastern Creek, Friday 6 August and Saturday 7 August.

As I mentioned in an earlier post, Insight Motorsports Dry Sump Systems, we developed our original dry sump system and tested it on the racetrack, bolted into the original Tiliton Interiors/Insight Motorsports Lancer Evolution IX RS, which we now affectionately call "Old Evo".

To be fair, Old Evo and New Evo are the same age and the exact same model apart from the exterior of the former being white and the latter being silver. New Evo is just more extreme. We have taken lessons learned in the heat of battle and engineered them into our new designs.

Take for example, the dry sump pictured fitted to New Evo:

The kit includes:

• Timing cover with internal pump elimination and braced sprocket system
• Billet sump assembly with stainless steel cap screws
• Peterson R4 high volume 4 stage dry sump pump
• ATI balancer with spline drive assembly
• Goodrich G-Line Kevlar line from sump to pump
• Drive belt and 50% drive sprocket

In 16 days, the Tilton Interiors/Insight Motorsports Evo 9 RS will be competing in the Pro Class of the 2011 World Time Attack Challenge, running the Insight Motorsports dry sump system. We are proud to be able to supply you with race proven technology. The complete kit is available for $7950+GST.

Systems for non-Evo applications are available on request. For example, Scott Kuhner has fitted the dry sump, with a Peterson 6 Stage R4 Drag Dry Sump Pump, to his legendary Stanza. Already famous for a best of 9.4 seconds at WSID, the Stanza will hopefully be making her comeback soon, although she was still semi naked last time I photographed her, with her 4G63 (i.e. Evo engine) and bird eating turbocharger proudly visible.

HKS GT600 Kit for R35 GT-R - A Landmark on the Way to the "Speed Region of the Limit"

You might recall that HKS invited us to "the speed region of the limit", which we determined would be somewhere north of 800hp for the Nissan R35 GT-R via the HKS GT800 kit. We have accepted the invitation to this other worldly place and we are well on our way in our test R35. But, along the way to the GT800, we thought that we would stop off at a landmark - the GT600.

I thought about teasing you slowly with every detail of the modifications involved in the GT600 kit, but instead I will just hit you with the dyno sheets. Our standard R35 GT-R made 296 kW (397 hp) ATW in stock trim on our Dyno Dynamics 4WD dynamometer.

We started here...

Followed this map...

...and ended up here.

Fitted with the HKS GT600 kit, our R35 GT-R made 379 kW (508 hp) ATW. Keeping in mind that this power was measured at the wheels and accounting for transmission losses, HKS certainly delivers its promise of 600 hp at the engine. In fact, this is probably a little bit conservative and I would expect this combination to make slightly more than 600 hp at the engine. Nevertheless, the forces between rubber and road are what count. In this regard, we have made an improvement of 28%! Furthermore, the odd flat spot in the power curve has disappeared. For the record, the first (stock) power run was recorded in 4th gear; however,  we needed to record the second (GT600) power run in 3rd gear because the engine was hitting the rev limiter in 4th gear before it reached maximum power.

Where to next? How far can we go?

It will probably take me a few posts to explain everything that is included in the kit as well as compare the HKS parts to the stock Nissan ones. I can tell you this - most of the parts are shiny, but none of them are there just for looks. Stay tuned!

Laser and Press FPV Ute Makes 770hp ATW. Next Goal = 1000hp

The Laser and Press FPV BA Ute is now up and running with a new engine built by Insight Motorsports.

For the moment, power is "only" 770hp ATW with boost limited to 16 psi for the run-in tune.

The Insight Motorsports-built engine features twin GT35R turbos mounted on custom manifolds with EGT sensors. The internals have been upgraded to handle more stress and include Carillo rods.

The twin-turbo engine is supported by virtually the entire MoTec catalogue, including M800 ECU, CDI-8 ignition module, E888 Expander, PDM (Power Distribution Module), LTC (Lambda to CAN module) and ADL3 Advanced Dash Logger.

Copious amounts of E85 are injected into the engine in precise quantities by the 8 ID2000 injectors. Once the bugs have been ironed out and the engine is run-in, the current combination is expected to exceed 1000hp, which is the goal. Stay tuned!

Evo IX: Stock versus Turbo XS Exhaust & Flash Tune

I know that there is a bit of interest out there about the sort of gains which can be made on the Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution engines with just the fitment of an aftermarket exhaust. In fact, the gains which can be made are quite substantial. Moreover, I have proof.

Here is a comparison of a stock Evo IX engine and the same engine fitted with a 3 inch Turbo XS exhaust and a flash tuned ECU.

The latter combination yields a 26% gain in maximum power. Most notable, however, is the massive gain in torque across the entire rev range. On the street or on the circuit, this would result in a much more flexible and useable engine.

Flex Fuel Testing on Mitsubishi Evo 9

These are the results of preliminary testing of our Flex Fuel test car, a Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution 9.

So what is Flex Fuel? It is a system which allows you to run E100 (100% ethanol) or 98 RON unleaded petrol or anywhere in between on the same car with the same fuel system.


The test car is an Evo 9. In order to manage wide range of parameters of the flex fuel system, it is fitted with a wideband O2 sensor, fuel composition meter, Insight Motorsports Evo twin pump upgrade, ViPEC V88 ECU, Xspurt 1000 injectors, fuel pump controller and digital individual cylinder knock control.


The test engine is an 124000 km old Evo 9 engine (as per the photo) that is totally standard mechanically apart from the aforementioned support system improvements and a Turbo XS 3 inch exhaust.

Once more road testing with varying levels of fuel composition is completed, we will replace the wastegate actuator since it has been limiting the boost due to its age (original turbo remember). We expect the engine to run about 20 psi, which from our experience should produce close to 260 kW ATW on E100.

The next step will be to install an adjustable fuel pressure regulator to allow for an increase in fuel pressure. This will allow higher injector flow capacity and therefore more boost.

Flex Fuel kits will be offered from early 2011.


This particular car has a 700 hp race engine ready for installation and will also be setup with Flex Fuel.

Jim Hunter Motorsport Subaru WRX Wins Eastern Creek 8 Hour

The Jim Hunter Motorsport Subaru WRX, driven by Jim Hunter, Gavin Bulla and Barton Mawer, has won the inaugural Eastern Creek 8 Hour. At the end of a grueling and action packed 249 laps, the Jim Hunter Motorsport team was ahead by a single lap.

The WRX was running the new Cosworth plug-in ECU, the first in Australia, and was tuned by Insight Motorsports' Scott Kuhner. Congratulations to all involved in this landmark victory.

Check out the official press release.