XS Engineering's stock-bottom-end-EVO VIII: 446 HP & 378 FT/LBS to the wheels. | 
Procharger Equipped and ready to rip. 364 HP and 300 FT/LB to the wheels yield 12.9 ET's on the stock tires. |
Mazdaspeed RX-8. The new front bumper is begging for an intercooler. | |
Walk, walk, walk. It's ironic. We are at SEMA, and that's all it seemed like we did (we worked -RC). Here we are, in the middle of the North Hall surrounded by the automotive version of the Lakers: an Evo VIII, 350Z, RX-8, and STi. Too bad they were all riding the pine.
I can't seem to pull myself away from the STi in Cusco's booth. I kept thinking to myself how it would feel to drive it...I'm predisposed to driving a FF, so it's a big deal for me. Just then, my phone rings. I normally wouldn't pick it up since I'm already in heaven. But I do anyway, just in case. It's Ricky. "Chimpy, come down dude, we're going to the Yokohama deal." Deal could mean anything. Each time I walked by a booth, I couldn't help but stop and look. I had to pull myself away so that I could go to the "deal".
We walked out towards the back of the Convention Center, and through a black curtain reminiscent of those 4th grade plays on stage in the cafeteria. My brain was already experiencing sensory overload, but this took it to a whole new level. Bright orange cones were lined up everywhere. We were greeted by a squadron of some of the cars we were drooling on inside the show.
Yokohama's Proving Grounds offered a few of the industry's top tuners to bring out their project cars so that we could tear through the cones. The mini course was setup to test each car's acceleration, cornering, and lateral grip. It seemed surreal to me. Andy Cheng from HKS greeted us. "So, who's gonna drive?" It's a question that we hear all too often, but not in this context. Ricky points at me.
I jump out of the gate and into the HKS Mitsubishi Evolution VIII. One of the Yokohama reps signals me to go. I mash the gas pedal and the car pulls to 60mph in what felt like 2 seconds (actually it's 4.5). I slammed on the brakes and went through the emergency lane change. Wow. The HKS 2835GT turbo begged for throttle. Not much lag, and tons of midrange. Thank God the EVO comes stock with Brembos.
The course guided me to the skidpad. I'm not a steadfast fan of driving in circles, but when you're behind the wheel of a 330 HP AWD monster, it's kind of hard to just drive back to the pit. I took about 7 or 8 revolutions around the pad. Wow. No matter how much throttle I fed the car, the tail stayed planted and would not kick out. The BFG KD's were up to the task, and never faltered. I want an Evo...but with TE37's.
Yokohama and Pioneer also offered us a ride in their Blue R34. Pioneer's latest offering is then AVIC-N1 offers the reading of vehicle dynamics along with run-of-the-mill route guidance, electronic mapping, points of interest, audio entertainment for front seat passengers and the popular DVD-video entertainment for rear seat passengers. The car was equipped with an in car camera, as well as one mounted on the rear bumper. Passengers were recorded during all 3 tests and given a DVD of their rides.