Evo VIII "Off the Rack" Build Up

[Team AMG]

When it came time to built the Next Generation of XMODS, Radio Shack started with a clean slate. The Evolution Series cars bear little resemblence to the Classic cars they were designed to replace. They are reported to handle better, go faster and be easier to work on. That alone was meant to appeal to the younger set these cars are popular with.

I purchased my Mitsubishi Evo VIII and some accessories, spending about $160 for everything I needed to make this car my flagship of the Evolution Series. I bought the Stage 2 motor upgrade, Racing Suspension Upgrade, Suspension and Steering Upgrade, Metal Bearing Set, All Wheel Drive, Logic Lights, and Body Kit with the car. I'll address each of these items one at a time. Please understand that the choices made are my own, and do not reflect on the quality of the parts involved.

I started with the body, I had wanted the "wild" version of the body panels since I saw the car online. The panels come with a set of front fenders, rocker panels and rear fender blisters all molded as one unit. It also has specific end caps that can only be used with this body accessory. There are also 4 spacers to bring the tires out to the edge of the widebody panels. I tried this body package out for a few hours, and found a few things lacking.

The spacers do not allow enough threads to adequately secure the nuts to the wheels. I had 3 wheel failures before deciding to switch to the vented front fender set, and the alternate ends caps. There are two stock style rear wings, one with a carbon fiber decal, and that was chosen, as was the carbon fiber hood.

I reinstalled the logic lights next (they were installed in the widebody), placing the bulbs in the appropriate hole, and securing the wires temporarily with masking tape. After charging the batteries I tested the lights and was very happy with the results. I had some decent headlights, tail lights with brake lights, and a realistic looking car.





The chassis modifications were by far the most labor intensive of the entire project, so I started by taking the chassis almost completely apart. I installed the ball bearings and all-wheel drive at the same time, and while care was taken the task took about 45 minutes by itself. I tested the car with the AWD system, and found that I had lost an enormous amount of power. I took it apart 3 times to make sure nothing was binding up in the driveline, it was fine. I would say my overall speed and accelleration was cut by 1/3rd. While the handling was much better, the trade off was not worth the handling increase. I immediately removed the AWD system, and I cannot recommend this upgrade for any serious racer.

Once the bearings were installed all of the suspension mods were made, which unfortunately required the partial disassembly of the rear gearbox again. The only height changes allowed by this upgrade is to raise the car by 1/16th of an inch, or 4" on a full sized car. The "lowered" setting is indentical to the stock parts. While it does also offer a set of tunable springs, it's an expensive upgrade for the small amount changes it allows to be made with the car. Regardless, it was installed and all of the coil sets were tested before the hard (red) coils were selected.

The High Performance Suspension and Steering set is a better upgrade, and offers a tighter turning radius by means of three tie rods. I have the tightest turning set in the car, and I can crank a circle of about 14", which is half of what my Classic XMOD can turn. This upgrade is moderately recommended.



The two chassis (stock on the left) sat about the same height once everything was finished.

The last thing that I installed, and the most highly recommended of all the modifications, was the Stage 2 Motor Upgrade. The www.xmodrc.com website calls this a "Stage 3" motor, but essentially it is a 30,000 rpm replacement for their 27,000 rpm stock motor. The package lables it as a Stage 2 motor. What's great about the motor and the way the chassis is designed is that you have 6 gear ratios you can dial in, from speed to drift. I decided to use the green 23 tooth 2nd gear because there is a full range of power settings I can have without switching it. There are 4 green pinions, giving me a 4:30, 4:41, 4:01 and 3:67 gear ratios. Each ratio has it's own spacer, and switching pinions takes only a minute, removing two screws and just changing one gear and the appropriate spacer. A heat sink is included with the motor set.

Testing of the car in 2WD with the Stage 2 motor was hair raising. The car screams, and I had a moderate gear ratio installed. Needless to say I was pleased with the results.




I installed a set of the more expensive plastic chromed wheels and some soft tires, and set out to do some one-on-one testing against a 100% stock car. Both cars were given a full set of charged Ni-Cads, indentical tire compounds and run on the same, wooden floor track.

The track was a 59' per lap, 15' X 10' PVC pipe walled course, with 10 turns and a full length straight for speed. The upgraded car was run first, times were in the 5-8 second range, and handling was good despite a lot of wheel chatter in the tight sections of the course, a harder tire would have helped and allowed the car to drift the corners a lot better. I got 11 minutes of racing out of a full charge and running as hard as I can.

Next was the stock car, and the changes were immediately noticable. Times were slower, 10-12 seconds were normal, handling in the coners was better than the upgraded car because of the softer suspension, and in the tight section of the track the cars handled close to the same, but out of the corners onto the long straights the modified car ran away with the test. After 18 minutes the batteries gave out, giving 7 minutes more running time with the stock motor. I should say that the stock motor, although turning a slower RPM, gives an amazing amount of torque.

CONCLUSION:
You don't need a lot of upgrades to make these cars work. Some suspension and tire upgrades are enough, if you want that extra boost, the Stage 2 motor but at the cost of run-time. Compaired to a Classic (Gen 1) XMOD, these cars are faster, better handling, easier to work on....what more do you want?

[SVTwannabe]

WOW, I dont know why no one has replied to this thread. This is great, I really appreciate the info. I was thinking about buying a XMOD EVO car and do stuff to it. But I am happy to know this info.

I do have one ? however. I was a bit confused about the suspension. You say at one point it raised it, but in the end you said they were the same. I was just wondering if in the end did it sit...higher, equal, or lower.

Thanks again!

SVTwannabe

[Torres]

hey Team AMG

thx for the info.......now the hard part is which car to choose from.......lol

[Team AMG]

SVT,

There are two suspension packages for the Evo's, one has springs and a pair of shock towers in it, the other is a tie rod set. The two shock towers are to give the car either a raised stance, or a "lowered" stance. When converting to the lowered stance I compaired the stock towers to the optional lowering towers and noticed they are essentially the same part but in a different color. I ran to the garage and got my micrometer, and they are identical in their vertical offset. In other words, the same stock parts in an alien green. I still put them in, mostly because the tie rod would be green as well.

The springs give 3 compression ratios, yellow being the softest, blue then red the hardest. Again, on my car I kept the stock green upper and lower shock pieces to just be cool.

What I would suggest as far as parts are concerned:

The tie rode set, for quicker steering.
The suspension set, if for nothing else the springs.
The Stage 2 motors, because speed is indeed life.
And of course, the bearings, because friction is a terrible thing.

[SVTwannabe]

Thanks for clearing that up. I really didnt plan on buying another car for a while, but I think you talked me into doin this sooner...maybe tonite if the checkbook is ok

[Team AMG]

A little post script for this story.

I did some testing this weekend of the car at a local playground that has a painted concrete tennis court. Perfectly smooth and great traction, I set up a long, open course using empty soda bottles, the longest straight was about 45' long.

BTW, here's how the car looks now, with the addition of some decals from the ol' model box.





Anyway, with a Stage 2 motor and a road course gear set up I was cranking some pretty good laps out, but I noticed the car began slowing down, and pulled into the "pit" on the next lap. It seems that the high speed left hander was pulling the stock right rear tire off the rim, and as it rode on the inner part of the rim it rubbed, and slowed the car significantly. A quick change of rubber on the rear end solved the problem. Another tire change to a set of hand turned silicone tires improved the traction even more, but not being able to drift a few of the corners slowed my lap times.

I ran over 20 minutes with the motor/gearing set up, with no lights. I switched out batteries and ran some laps with lights, it was cool watching the brief brake lights on some of the tighter corners before accellerating away. Again I ran over 20 minutes before noticing the car slowing from battery drain. I should note that the batteries were not RS Nicads but matched Sanyo's I bought at my local big scale R/C shop.

The Fresno XRL has secured this area for it's events beginning in February, so we have a great place to race. More pictures coming soon.

[RodsRUs]

LOL
that looks really good looks like a rally car for sure now
i hope thats the look you were looking for!