My '95 Lancer Evolution III GSR the other money pit...

Hello All

Loads of you will remember my readers ride for my mk1 Leon Cupra here:

http://www.seatcupra.net/forums/showthread.php?t=277598 , no? Well you should it's had over 37,200 views! I was very fond of this car, pleasure owning it; unfortunately it came to a bitter end when the other half was challenged by a solid concrete pillar in a multi-story car park:



Thankfully the thread still exists even after some minor inconveniences experienced in the last 48 hours, it will remain to help any of you looking to modify your mk1 leon cupra, some very useful information provided and of course you are welcome to contact me for any specific details help, if I’m not occupied with changing nappies I’ll be more than happy to help.

Anyway, after a bit of thinking, I thought I can't be without a weekend 'fun' car so here it is, it may not be a SEAT but it sure is a true petrol heads car, it’s a ’95 Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution III

Many of you might not know they ever existed or perhaps seen one before as Evo’s were not officially imported to the UK until the Evo 6, All the ‘early’ (1-5) Evo’s are grey imports as they say. I’ve owned a few in the past and know them quiet well. Why a ‘3’ you might ask yourself, it’s not the prettiest Evo, but I sure do love ‘em, the old skool box’ish shape, the minimal ‘curves’ and raw appearance couple with the fact that this is basic technology at its best. The Evo III was driven by legendary rally car driver Tommi Makinen:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?NR=1&v=QghKeBA82Ws&feature=endscreen

Who some of you may associate more with a Evo 6 TME. The early evo’s are basic in sense compared to the newer Evo’s where they don’t have many driving aids such as AYC (Active Yaw Control) which was introduced on Evo 4 onwards, The Evo 1-3 have just a raw all time 4WD system, a 2.0 ltr turbo lump, you and the car!, a true rally Group A and Group B (Evo 2) legend. Here’s a video from an early Top Gear episode this was an Evo 1:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AoLFXMT_hD8


Is it coming together now? Ok, let’s begin. After departing from my last Evo, an Evo 2 back in 2007, loads of water running under bridge since then, married, kids, leon, I decided to go back to an Evo, and here it is:



The '95 Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution III GSR

After hunting for a few months a nice clean straight one, I came across the above. It was owned by a long term fellow enthusiast from MLR (Mitsubishi Lancer Register) who's been a member there since '99, his brother has won the 2011 CLASS A MLRSS in his Evo 9. Needless to say it's been looked after well, using a mixture of quality mods and a unique styling approach. I've even traced this car back to it's original UK owner / importer, it was imported in 2007, a grade 4.5 this is how it looked:





The aim is to get the car looking as OE/Standard as possible, like it did in the above pictures.



Quick Specification:



Engine:

Standard ECU
Upgraded (blue) Timing and balance belts
Walbro 255lph Fuel pump
Sard FPR
Engine Damper
Greddy Type-R BOV
Spal slim line Rad Fan
Mocal 19 Row oil cooler and braided lines
Greddy Intercooler
All Alloy Custom boost pipes
Custom Cold Air Intake comprising of Alloy intake pipe, M’s factory K&N filter with heatshield. Air scoop in bumper feeding straight to filter.
NGK Blue silicone upgraded Ignition leads
Black silicone Rad hoses
Cusco 1.3bar rad cap
De-cat
HKS exhaust


Body:

Truth front bumper
One-off Truth Canards
Rear Arches Professionally flared and painted
Rear aerial removed flushed and smoothed
Window surrounds wiper arms and scuttle panel all painted satin black.
6000K HID hi/lo conversion ?


Chassis:

Endless 6pot Front Calipers
Tein Type HA suspension with pillow ball Top mounts front and rear
Full geometry settings and alignment at Steve Hill Motorsport
Front and Rear Strut Braces
Jay’s Racing Flitch Braces
Brand new PF.01 pads
Genuine Brembo E6 front discs
Front Lower Control Arm and Hubs conversion, giving extra castor and Track Width
Factory Option Front LSD
Rear Factory plated LSD
Rota Torque 8x17 ET35 wheels in white
235/45/17 tyres
Cusco Hyper Gum Shifter bushings
Battery relocated to boot in Sard Alloy Battery Box


Interior:

E8 FQ300 full interior
Recaro SPG lightweight Bucket seat on drivers side
Sabelt 3” inch 4 point harnesses (Black)
Deep Dish Steering Wheel
Alpine MP3 Head Unit
Ralliart Gearknob
HKS TYPE1 anniversary Edt. Turbo Timer

My boy seems to like it:



Please excuse the K&N decal on the very rare limited edition genuine Ralli Art gear knob... i've only had the car for a few days, i've not had the chance to work my magic on it, sorry if this offends 'you'. Also if the 'gap' between the door and the arch offends 'you' this is because the rear arches have been professionally flared by a well known arch flarer based in London, these early Evo's already have a slight gap on the rear doors which is visible more at certain angles, all normal in the early Evo world.

Very clean straight solid car, which is very hard to find these days:

Modifications wise it's got the usual bolt ons, but quality ones from Japan, everything is branded.


Engine Bay:



Needs a clean, i'll get round to it.

Interior:







Might replace the lightweight Recaro bucket seat for the standard Evo 8 bucket seat.

Big 6 pot Endless brakes at the front:



This is a pretty dear kit worth a fair bit on it's own.




Very humble sounding HKS exhaust for an Evo, usually are very loud this one almost sounds OE

My plans? well to take it slowly, I've just put down a substantial deposit on a new house me and mrs have been looking at for some time I just couldn't pass this car up when the opportunity arose, it's purely a weekend toy, 'fun' car, but here's a to do list anyway:

Boost Controller (Cana belive it ain't got one! suppose that's a good thing)
Evo 8-9 Pistons
Possible bigger turbo or Hybrid TD05
Aftermarket ECU , Haltech E8 or a plug in like EMC Link

Aiming for around 350-400Bhp

Restore it's looks to OE, I want it to look completely standard from the outside like it did when the originally importer owner had it:












I'll let the pictures speak for themselves, car is pretty much stock performance wise, 270Bhp @ 0.7 bar maybe more due to the big breathing mods it's had, should be running around 1.3 Bar once I've giving it some loving.

A great amount of time and effort to get this car by the previous owner to get it spot on, the chassis is superb: turn in is razor sharp, Grip is awesome and the chassis has been setup so the throttle can be used to rotate the rear making it a fantastic, enjoyable drive. The car is very versatile/reliable and can be daily driven, fast road used a tracked or sprinted, a true all rounder. All the area’s which let down the early cars have been addressed and this car benefits from many extremely rare and now obsolete parts making it truly unique and only the best quality parts and fluids have ever been used proven with a comprehensive list of receipts filling a folder by some of the best Evo tuners in UK. Thankfully Ralli Art or Xtreme as they are known now are not from from me

To be honest it's tastefully done and looks purposeful but I do prefer the OE look.


Clean? :



You decide!


Flared arches:

This parts used on this car were sourced from the owners ex 'JUN demo Evo III':



JUN for those of you who don't know: http://www.junauto.co.jp/index-e.html/

Crafoo said:

Looks like a total minter, good find fella.

As you said you don't see many early Evo's about on UK roads but it looks like you've got a corker there.

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Thanks mate, precisely why I purchased an early Evo again, I could have easily bought a newer one, the budget was there but something about old skool cars, and early Evo's that swayed my decision.

Apparently I've been told by someone here that this is a 'CHAV' car... it makes me happy that you disagree

yellonvi-R said:

Mint still rockets these are. I miss my old evo3 (white) was a missile, some punks tried to steel it though and can yiu believe £250 for a new lock set lol that was bout 3 years ago!! You mightve seen it im round hallgreen shirley ill keep an eye out for this

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I think I remember your 3 mate, I sold my last one around 3-4 years ago, Silver E2. Your more than welcome to stop and chat fella, but are you sure you'd want to discuss things ? apparently a member here thinks this is a 'shed'

yellonvi-R said:

One question though? 2.0turbo??? Not 1.8turbo?

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Yes, all Evo's are 2.0Ltr Turbo's, Evo's 1-9 use pretty much the same basic 46g3 engine albeit with changes 'tweaks' as the car's evolve ... the Evo 10 uses a different set-up, a different engine a '4B11T ' still a 2.0Ltr turbo.

There is a 1.8ltr turbo model in the early shape, it's called a 'GSR 1800 Turbo' uses a different engine, very rare though.

If circumstances allow it, i'll still be around here, after all I have made a fair few friends, and believe it or not I still get loads of PM's asking me for advice on the modifications I carried out on the mk1 LC, the 'master' of the Toyo 'eBay' intercooler hehe ..

I'm still looking for a daily hack to compliment the fleet that's beginning to occupy the drive, saw a nice SEAT Arosa for the mrs or even a nice mileage muncher Leon TDI.

Thanks for looking, enjoy the thread / pictures.