When it comes to building EVOs these days it seems that most are falling into a formulated idea, much the way Hondas have suffered the past few years. One person does something interesting and everyone else bites into. Take for example the Voltex aero kit, sure it's an excellent looking setup, but it seems as if people dare not build an EVO without one. When sifting through the sea of EVOs at this year's Nisei festival, this purple-to-pink flopping IX stood out like a sore thumb.
I'm by no means the authority on building cars, let alone anything on the Mitsubishi platform, but I really like what Paul Gongora has done. To me there are really three aspects to the build of any particular car: the overall stance/appearance of the vehicle, the physical cleanliness and quality of the build and finally the philosophy behind the build. It might just be one of my anal quirks since most people tend to throw the philosophy portion to the wayside, but it truly makes or breaks a car in my eyes.
Paul's philosophy for this build was straight-forward and executed brilliantly. It's simple, build something different that makes sense and looks right. He essentially pieced together an HKS Kansai Service catalog vehicle, despite what the current hype might be. "Make sure you do you" Gongora tells me "Don't follow the trend, set the trend." I couldn't have said it better myself. Anyone else with like-minded themed builds, will also agree that it's not something you get right on your first car, and Paul's case is no exception.
It takes time to listen to the voice inside your head and create something well-thoughtout. Usually our first car build consists of whatever new part we can afford at that time and immediately slap on the car, rather than saving and combining parts that function in unison. Gongora's first build was a 1998 Honda Prelude, a car he didn't speak too highly of. He did modifications that were popular at the time, such as a front-end conversion among other things, but when all was said and done something just didn't feel right about the car. "To me the Prelude was a baby step..." he says "[built] with other people's influences."
I went on in conversation for a while about how I don't understand why so many people are unable to build cars for themselves. I see it all too often on Internet forums, people make polls like "what wheels should I get?" or "what color should I paint my car?" I suppose some might ask for reassurance, but the majority just want to build a car to impress other people. I really think our scene needs more individuals building to the beat of their own drums, even if that means doing something wacky like a Daewoo with an RB26, if that's what makes the owner happy, I'm into it. "I felt that after the Prelude, I wanted to build a car for myself" Paul agrees.
When he first picked up the EVO he had thoughts, as many of us do, of keeping it stock. Needless to say, the plan failed miserably as Gongora started collecting many of the parts you see on these pages. When the time had come and the car was all together the "keep it stock idea" had crashed, burned and smoldered to a crisp. Although he had to wait for a number of parts to arrive from Japan (and is still waiting on others), he was able to assemble this wineberry monster in a matter of a year. "I learned patience not only in my team life, but in my personal life."