First, Its the Colt Speed Intercooler:

This intercooler is actually made by ARC re-branded by Colt Speed. I was originally looking for the ARC one, but they got bankrupt and all their products were discontinued. So I got this one brand new from a member in the forums at a good price which is exactly the same.  Even Colt Speed in Japan didn’t have any, so I was lucky to find it. This intercooler is 2.5″ thick and only slightly larger than stock but is designed much better for better cooling efficiency. Advantages:

- It has a patented unique fin design which increases cooling efficiency significantly
- Inlet and outlet are designed in a way to avoid air turbulence inside
- Air flow speed in front of radiator is increased by 31.5% which results in better cooling and more air going through to the radiator which reduces water temperature.
- The intercooler is lighter than stock
- Only slightly larger than stock so there is no increase in turbo lag
- Its JDM, looks good and rare

Other intercoolers like AMS and ETS are great, but are heavy (increase around 15lbs in front of the car), have much bigger volume (which increases turbo lag), reduce the airflow to the radiator, and rated for over 700whp (which I will never get to). So this intercooler is the best for a street/track car. Its only disadvantage is that its very expensive, and very rare (not produced anymore).

Second, I got a Ralliart front strut bar:

I’ve been wanting this strut bar for some time and was planning to order it later on, but suddenly, I heard that the company Ralliart got bankrupt and all their products are discontinued. I contacted many companies for it with no luck, until I contacted DSG performance which were able to get me one from Japan. The main advantage of this strut bar is that its made from aluminum which is significantly lighter than stock which is made from steel. For a track car, you always want the weight to be as evenly distributed between the front and rear as possible. The Evo is much heavier up front which makes the car an understeer pig. Adding a heavy intercooler will only make it worse. So the intercooler and this strut bar will help reduce weight in the front.

Also, Im happy to have a Ralliart part in my car. Ralliart is now bankrupt so at least I have a piece of their history

I also go the AMS downpipe:

This is by far the best flowing downpipe for the Evo X, it completely replaces o2 housing and downpipe. Its made from cast stainless steel construction with no mild steel flanges and is 3″ wide at its narrowest point. Other steel downpipes are not designed as well and were proven to break. And I got it as a gift, so can’t say no

Note: This process is for reusable aftermarket filters only. Most stock air filters are paper-type, therefore they are not reusable.

Items Required:
- Shop towels
- K&N (or equivalent) cleaning spray
- K&N (or equivalent) air filter oil (for oiled filters only)
- Sink

Step 1
Use the cleaning spray and spray the entire air filter on both sides. Spray until the air filter starts to drip. I usually use 1 bottle for 4 cleaning sessions. Now let the air filter sit on a shop towel for about 15 minutes so it soaks up the solution.

Step 2
Under a sink, apply water starting from the inside FIRST. This step is important to prevent the dirt from going in further into the fibers. Once all the dirt is out, apply water on the outside as shown to remove any remaining debris.

Step 3
Let the air filter sit on a shop towel until it is completely dry. I prefer to leave it sitting overnight. If you are using a dry-type air filter such as AEM Dryflow, aFe ProDry or Amsoil Synthetic Nanofiber, you can reinstall the air filter onto your car once its fully dried up. Otherwise, continue to step 4.

Step 4
Using the air filter oil, spray the oil evenly onto the air filter. I prefer to spray each area once and then move on to the next until I’ve covered the entire filter. Make sure you don’t over-oil it. Leave the air filter sit on a shop towel for another 15 minutes to let the fibers absorb all the oil. Reinstall the air filter onto your car.

For reference, this is what you should end up with:

Before

After

The event was a lot better than last year’s in my opinion. Even with the dust that hit today, there was far more spectators watching and cheering as the drifters slide their way between the cones. The parking lots were actually pretty crowded when we got there, so we had to park far away and walk the distance.

The day started with one of Red Bull’s own pro drivers drifting in this RWD converted Subaru Impreza STi, showing everyone how it’s done!

Along with a few drifters from last year’s event, we saw a bunch of new cars and faces today, starting with this modified 350Z.

Even though it’s a V6, the driver of this Chevy Camaro showed great control and transition skills. I believe he was also a Red Bull pro driver.

Surprisingly though, a large majority of the drift cars consisted of Mitsubishi Evolutions, in fact 4 out of the 5 finalists were Evos!

Most of the Evos resorted to pulling on the hand brake hard to throw off the car’s balance and induce drifting.

Another 350Z rippin it up at the car park.

Gobs of power on these two American muscles created quite an impressive smoke show!

Even with the incredible amount of body roll, the driver of this Holden Commodore managed to hold a good steady line through the sweeper.

I basically left all the connections plugged in unless I’m dropping the car off to the dealer for warranty work. The system starts up as soon as you switch on the ignition and turn on the AUX, where it will go directly to the main menu.

You navigate your way using the supplied remote controller. First you’ll need to go into SETUP to correctly set the parameters. In this case all you really need to set is the TYPE (in which case mine would be NISSAN 3). A table with all the cars and types is listed in the manual so make sure you take a look at it.

That’s pretty much it as far as setup. Now you can go back to the menu and hit DIGITAL to view the gauges in digital format as shown above. The large numbers are basically your current numbers and the smaller ones are the peak. You can view them as either 3 large digital gauges with a visual read out or 6 smaller ones.

You also have the option for analogue type gauges which are more for the traditional users. Similar to the digital gauges, you have two viewing options, either 1 large analogue gauge with 6 smaller digital ones or 3 large analogue gauges.

Of course the cool thing is, you can change the parameters to your liking and choose which goes where. You also have a bunch of other options. You can change the background color (I opted for a carbon fiber scheme), the color of the gauges and needles and the option to log, save and replay data as shown above.

You also have the ability to connect extra sensors such as oil pressure and EGT (Exhaust Gas Temperature). Don’t be too excited though, these extras will come at a price. Extra sensors from HKS will run you anywhere from about $80 to $150. Not only that, but you’ll also be needing the Interface kit which is another $90.

Q8Mods.com Review: I really like the digital layout and simplicity when compared with the traditional analogue gauges. With all the wiring hidden, no one was able to tell I have installed anything, which was exactly what I was going for. All the gauges can be switched on and live with just a flick of a button. No need for any drilling to mount a gauge pod or hacking up the interior to install a poor fitting A-pillar gauge mount.
A couple things I didn’t like though. First is the price which really starts to add up when you buy all the extras. Second thing is the use of a remote controller. A more integrated interface which can use the existing buttons would’ve been even better in my opinion. All in all it’s a great alternative for those who are looking for a clean and relatively simple way to monitor their engine.

If you’re interested in buying one, contact Omar at BSP (97294294) and he’ll hook you up!

Q8Mods.com Final Rating: 8/10

The countdown and the first firework of the night about to explode

Red, white and green flames

Fireworks starting to become intense

How the night ended.

After owning my Evo X for a couple of months, I decided to start moding it to get abit more out of it. From factory, the Evo is an amazing car which is fast and handles very well, however its  tame and sounds way to soft. After a lot of research from people and forums, I got to know exactly what is needed to turn my poodle to a monster.

Above is the dyno run I made after I installed my mods and tuned the car. You can see my dyno run when my car was stock here.
My car is now making 337whp and 315wtq. an 80whp and 70wtp increase from stock which is very good considering the few mods that I installed.

Mods installed:

- Perrin catback exhaust – replaces the restrictive exhaust to a high quality light weight full 3″ exhaust which sounds amazing. Its quiet when cruising and brutal when at full throttle
- AMS resonated test pipe – replaces the restrictive stock cat to a straight resonated pipe which improves air flow and keeps the noise to a minimum
- AMS upper intercooler pipe – the stock intercooler pipe is made of low quality material and tapers in the middle. The AMS pipe is a full 2.5″ aluminum pipe which improves airflow to the intercooler
- AMS cold air intake – a full 3″ intake system which places a K&N cone filter to behind the driver side front bumper, which makes cool air from outside to be drawn into the turbo.
- Perrin EBCS Pro – replaces the stock boost controller to a 3-Port Electronic Boost Control Solenoid for better boost control and response.
- AEM boost gauge and AEM air to fuel ratio gauge – added 2 gauges which are critical to always monitor the engine.

Installing parts is worthless if you dont properly tune the car. So I decided to do an E-tune with 4wstuning.com, a specialized tuning company in the states which can tune your car through emails. (I will be posting about that in a separate post)

Pictures:

Perrin catback exhaust

AMS resonated test pipe with sensor spacer to avoid CEL errors

The engine bay

AMS upper intercooler pipe

AMS cold air intake

Perrin EBCS Pro

AEM gauges

Impressions:

WoW. The car has transformed to a whole different animal. The car is much faster, much more responsive and just keeps pulling hard to red line. One of the biggest problems of the Evo when stock is that power drops very quickly after 5K RPM, well not any more, the car at first gear takes off like a rocket and keeps pulling like a mad man to redline.  The sound of the exhaust, the intake and stock BOV is now incredible, I rarely turn on the radio. I’m very pleased with the result and how it drives. Exactly how an Evo should be

That’s all Folks. Hope you enjoyed looking at the pictures as much as I enjoyed taking and editing them. Thank you.

The cool wall. Awesome pictures of GulfRun 6

Khaled Al Fraih on Al-Rai TV talking about the event

The winners getting their awards

Group photo of the winners

GulfRun Trophy

Mighty Car Mods consist of a couple of guys from Australia with a common interest in cars, DIY projects and production. With a solid grounding in TV/audio production, and car modification, they decided to combine all these skills to create some fun, slick videos to share with other people around the world with the same interests.

The above video is the first episode of season 3. They have collected $4,500 from their fans to create an MCM show car and have documented the whole process on video.

I have seen most of their videos from the previous seasons and I must say they’re extremely funny and informative. I highly suggest watching their videos. I will update this post with the next videos of the build.

The HKS Camp 2 is basically a monitoring system for all the sensors in the engine. It allows you to read, monitor and log parameters such as water temperature, oil temperature, oil pressure, boost and so on. It can read up to 24 different signals and view up to 6 of them at the same time.

The neat thing about this system is that it eliminates the clutter and mess of installing analog gauges on the dash or A-pillar. To install it all you need is a car equipped with a screen. You can hook it up directly to the factory screen or you can use an aftermarket one.

As you can see, the package comes with the main unit, OBDII (On-Board Diagnostics) cable, remote controller and receiver and audio/video input wires. The installation manual provided goes over the install process quite well. If you are unsure about the installation, it is recommended take your car to a qualified technician to install it for you.

I decided to tackle this myself as it was a pretty straight forward install for my car. For reference, this will be installed in a 2nd generation G35 sedan. I chose to install the main unit under the passenger foot rest and hide all the wiring inside the center console. The package comes with double sided tape and zip ties, so everything is provided for you.

I disassembled the center console area around the shifter and ran the wires from the passenger side to the driver’s side to connect it to the OBDII port.

Then I hooked up the wire for the remote control receiver and taped it as shown.

For the OBDII wire, I ran it from the center console and hid the wiring under the dash. For the A/V input wires, I ran them from the center console to the center glove box and hooked the inputs into the factory A/V source.

Once everything has been connected, zip tied and taped, I popped everything back together and switched the audio settings in the car to AUX. It works!

Stay tuned for a complete review of the HKS Camp 2 system!