We all modify our cars for different reasons. Many go for the ‘peacock’ effect; bright colours and in your face stylings to attract the opposite sex. Others modify their car for performance, trying to decrease lap or quarter-mile times, while others chase trophies in the show scene. We don’t often hear “I intended to restore it to factory condition” at NZPC towers unless we’re talking to the tweed coat-wearing fuddy duddies in the next office at NZ Classic Car magazine. But Dirk and his ’94 Evo II just may be the first time I’ve heard that comment in relation to NZPC.

Looking at the car, it’s fairly obvious it is not in fact, completely factory restored, but that was indeed the intention – until that is a chap by the name of Brett Lee-Sang came along and ran a 10-second pass in his street driven Evo. I for one am glad Dirk didn’t go down the restoration route, as all his hard work has produced one of the best all round Evo’s New Zealand has ever seen.

Once Brett had done his Jedi mind trick, all thoughts of keeping the car standard were forgotten and, after a bit of research, the rebuild began.

Firstly, the car was stripped back to a bare shell and sent to Dr Bob at Westside Panel and Paint. Although the car looked perfectly straight, the Doctor found all sorts of ripples and three doors that had previously been repaired. These were replaced with new door skins from Mitsi. Other body mods were kept simple, such as removing the antenna, replacing front door handles with rear items to remove keyholes and removing the rear wing. The colour chosen for the vehicle is a custom PPG hue that Dirk and the Doc mixed up on site, and appropriately labelled Evo Orange.

While the car was being painted, Dirk got to work on the engine and drive train, doing absolutely everything at home. Instead of using the Evo bottom end, a VR4 item was fitted with Wiseco pistons and Eagle rods. During the rebuild, Dirk also fitted ARP studs and heavyduty ACL bearings for long-term reliability. The head, however, was a lot more complex. Dirk constructed his own flow bench that enabled him to check on improvements made to the Evo II head after spending hours porting. Once happy with the flow rates, Dirk modified the standard valves and fitted them back in, along with Crower valve springs and titanium retainers. Kelford 272 intake and 264-degree exhaust cams were also fitted and mated to homemade adjustable cam gears.

The logic behind all the headwork was to help the Garrett GT-3540 turbo spool up as quickly as possible. As with the headwork, Dirk constructed his own exhaust manifold complete with a mount for the Tial 46mm external wastegate.

Once through the turbo, compressed air is sent through a modified intercooler and custom piping up to an over-bored throttle body. Then it’s into a Performance Metalwork’s intake manifold and up to the head.

On the exhaust side of the turbo there now sits a three-inch mandrel bent exhaust with twin resonators and a large rear muffler to keep things quiet. Speaking of keeping it quiet, that’s the reason the Trust Type R blow-off valve was plumbed back into the four-inch sectioned intake pipe.

The fuel system of the vehicle is another area where Dirk moved away from the norm with the main Bosch 044 fuel pump mounted inside the surge tank. The reason for this was to stop fuel odours and to keep the pump quiet. The stock Evo pump is still in place, and now feeds the surge tank through Dash 8 lines. From the tank, more Dash 8 lines send fuel to the stock fuel rail where it is fired through 870cc Siemens injectors and sparked by an MSD Dis-2 capacitive spark unit.

Giving the firing orders is the task of an Autronic SMC ECU, for which Dirk created a custom semi-hidden wiring loom. Also assisting with management duties is a Turbosmart E-Boost, as well as a custom controller Dirk made from a household light timer.

The controller, now mounted in the glove box, works as a gear-specific boost controller, shift light controller and operates the flat shift if required. The control switches for this reside in a carbon panel where the headunit would normally have been, but now features oil temperature and oil pressure gauges along with the E-Boost.

As well as semi de-looming the engine bay, the power steering pump was relocated to the back of the block, a custom bottle made and other subtle mods, such as the rear of the headlights painted black to assist with the clean look.

The adjustable camber plates give a slight hint that the suspension in the vehicle also had a thorough makeover. All bushes have been replaced with polyurethane items and caster increased on the front struts. GAB adjustables suffice on all four corners. Down below, a custom sub frame brace was installed, as was a custom front strut brace and Whiteline 20mm rear sway bar. This setup positions the vehicle precisely on the road and makes it very confident during high speed cornering, but Dirk insists he is still perfecting it all.

With Evos and GSRs making similar power figures to Dirk’s, you usually find a locked centre diff. The reason being that Mitsubishi never intended for this power or torque to pass through the gearbox and, consequently, they break, transforming the car from 4WD to RWD in an instant.

Dirk’s car runs a four-spider centre, which has been no problem so far, although there are plans for a custom adjustable setup, not too dissimilar to late model STIs.

When installing the new centre diff, Dirk changed the front diff ratio from Evo (3.909) to GSR (3.545), which allows him to finish the quarter mile in fourth gear and exceed 180kph in third. This new lower ratio is attached to a Ralliart front limited slip diff and the box now also features a custom double synchro fifth gear.

Once the clutch pedal is released, a custom single plate clutch grips an ACT chromoly flywheel with the aid of a 3000lb pressure plate and transfers power through the stock driveshaft to the rear.

The rear diff was also replaced with a mechanical LSD and matched with GSR gear ratios. However, the biggest change down the rear is how the sub frame was modified to solid mount the diff, as per drag cars, such as DOCILE.

Another unusual modification was changing both front and rear hubs to five-stud items, allowing a greater choice of wheels. But, it wasn’t choice Dirk was after as he already had bronze 17×7.5- inch Rays Engineering Volk TE37s in mind.

At first the combination of bronze and orange sounds kinda ghastly, but it is this very combination that makes the car stand out from the crowd.

If you look a little closer at the front rims, you may notice the Wilwood Dynalite four-pot front callipers clamping on Evo 5/6 DBA 320mm rotors. This combination of small calliper and large rotor has meant the unsprung weight remains identical to the factory setup, but with far greater breaking area.

Down the rear, standard callipers are still in place, but clamp EBC pads to slotted DBA discs for greater stopping power.

The downside of the big brake rotors is that 17- inch rims are now the smallest that can be fitted to the vehicle. This hasn’t deterred Dirk from taking it to the strip, however, and at a recent meet in full street trim with Falken tyres, Dirk managed to run an 11.16-second quarter mile time at 207kph.

Unfortunately, on his first trip to the circuit it was pouring with rain, but undeterred, the car ran a 1.29 around Manfeild, making it seriously quick for a streeter.

With those sort of times in the wet, something tells me we are bound to see a lot more of this car on the circuit in months to come. Then again, being so close to a 10-second quarter mile it’s fair to say we will see him back on the strip as well.

I’d say Dirk has done exceptionally well in his quest to make this car the ultimate all rounder, as there are not many vehicles in the country that will run these times, then sit pretty in a show and scoop awards.

But from all accounts the next car he has in the build is going to be even more serious… isn’t Evolution great?

Tuning Menu

Engine: VR-4 4G63B block, ported head, modified chambers, modified valves, Crower valve springs, titanium retainers, Kelford 272/264 in/ex cams, custom cam gears, 4-inch intake, Performance Metalwork’s intake manifold, oversize throttle body, custom exhaust manifold, Garrett GT3540 turbo, Tial 46mm wastegate, custom intercooler, Trust Type R blow off valve, custom surge tank, Bosch 044 fuel pump, standard fuel pump, Siemens 870cc injectors, MSD Dis-2, 3-inch exhaust, Autronic SMC ECU, Turbosmart E-Boost, remote oil filter mount, solid engine mounts.

Driveline: Evo II 5-speed gearbox, GSR gear ratios, Ralliart front LSD, custom 4 spider centre diff, double synchro 5th gear, ACT chromoly flywheel, custom single plate clutch, solid mounted rear diff, custom 5-stud conversion Suspension: GAB coil-overs, polyurethane bushes, chromoly subframe brace, custom strut brace, Whiteline 20mm rear sway bar

Brakes: DBA 320mm Evo 5 discs, Wilwood Dynalite 4-pot callipers, EBC pads

Wheels/tyres: 17×7.5-inch Rays Engineering Volk TE37, 215/40R17 Falken Azenis St-115

Exterior: Removed aerial, door locks, rear wing, side strips, custom Dr Bob paint

Interior: Sparco Evo front seats, Momo wheel, Ralliart gear knob, Auto Meter boost gauge, oil pressure gauge, oil temperature gauge, custom launch control/shift light controller

Performance: Approx 300kW @ wheels, 0-400m: 11.16@207kph full street trim, pump gas

Driver Profile

Dirk

Age: 25

Occupation: Maintenance fitter

Previously owned cars: RS Legacy, 92 GSR (current)

Dream car: JDM style Evo VIII MR set up for circuit and touge

Why the Evo? I built it as my idea of the ultimate all round street/drag/circuit/show capable Evo

Build time: 16-months

Length of ownership: 4-years

Dirk thanks: Dr Bob, Chris & the guys @ Westside Panel & Paint – 09 818 6237, John & Jarred @ Andrew Simms Mitsubishi, Peter @ Ralliart, Garry, Kevin & the guys @ Japanese Performance Carparts – 09 2998269, Kent @ Speedsource – 021 439668, my old man for putting up with my car madness & my brothers for crewing for me.