Project Evo VIII Update 2 – Why I Will Forever Recommend English Racing

This is an update on what happened to Project Evo VIII during spring/summer 2013. The conclusion to this story will be shared soon.

Chapter 1: The Departure

My friend Aaron and I had taken off work so we could take my car down to English Racing in Camas, WA to get a laundry list of stuff done to it. My main goal was to have the car make around 400whp. We were debating whether or not to leave Thursday evening and get a hotel or just crash in the parking lot and wait for everyone else to show up. Start of business was 9am and it was a projected 4.5-5 hours of travel time to get there. So we decided to set off, it was 9pm Thursday night.

The drive was great! No traffic, good tunes, my best friend, things were golden. We drove through Mt. Vernon. We drove through Everett. We drove through Seattle. We drove through Tacoma…and on and on and on. I couldn’t believe that there was so little traffic but then again it was pretty late on a Thursday night. Once we hit Olympia there was a ridiculous amount of fog. I could barely see 20 feet in front of me and the shitty part was it was smack dab in the middle of road construction. Once we made it out of that we stopped to get gas. Since we needed to show up with 1/8th tank of fuel we were trying to calculate how much gas to put in the car given the horrendous gas mileage I was getting. We figured it out and made it onto the highway and instead of crashing somewhere we decided to just head straight to English.

Chapter 2: The Wait

Finding English Racing is no easy task. They moved last year and GPS does no justice in finding this place. Road signs were misleading and everything looked the same. There wasn’t a sign of a gas station anywhere to ask for directions. We ended up driving past the place at least twice until my headlights barely hit the sign. Cheering, we pulled into the driveway of a house. We double checked the sign and it indeed said English. There were two Evos parked in the driveway and there was a garage/shed type thing with the word “Racing” on it. I figured that this had to be the spot, but there was a house right next to the garage. It was also 1:45am and I had the feeling that we were going to wake someone up. I killed the car and we stepped out to dead silence. The street that they’re located on is nothing but horse ranches and vineyards and it is actually very beautiful when it’s not 2 in the morning.

We sat back in the car and decided we would try to fall asleep. Let me tell you, sleeping in an Evo is not easy. This was by far one of the top three most uncomfortable cars I’ve ever had the pleasure of sleeping in. Aaron and I were coke’d out on energy drinks and there was no way we were going to sleep, plus it dipped down to 32 degrees and we were freezing our asses off. We decided to head out and find some food and some blankets. After some searching we stumbled upon an IHOP. We were saved! We dragged our asses inside and got some grub. The food was great and the coffee was warming my bones. We were both getting the “itis” and were starting to fall asleep in the booth. We agreed that we needed to get blankets and head back to the shop. As we were leaving, the 32 degree weather slapped us both in the face. We were once again, wide awake, and miserable. After we found the WalMart and got a NASA approved sleeping bag, we headed back to the shop. Once again, it was quiet and cold. We bundled up under the sleeping bag and tried to fall asleep but it was now 5am and the sun was starting to come up. We giggled for a little while from being delirious and finally dozed off for a whopping 2 hours.

Chapter 3: Meeting Team English Racing

At around 8:30am I could hear the normal happenings of a shop around me. You know the sort: impact tools, operating lifts, good tunes. The windows were completely fogged so I stepped outside only to be blinded by the baking sun. I walked through the front door of the garage and was greeted by Myles the manager (gringotegra on the forum).

He said he was going to let us sleep a little bit but I told him I wanted to get started as soon as possible. Without hesitation he rallied the troops and they made room to bring the car into the bay. I woke Aaron up and we started to meet all the guys. We pushed a white Evo out of the bay and pushed mine in. Two of the guys (Jake and Steve) got to work while Aaron and I hung out in the waiting room. They had a big screen TV with Forza so we were set. After some time I asked Myles if he could show us around and let us see the shop. He agreed and took us out back.

The shop is a decent size with 3 lifts, engine building area, and room in the back for more cars. I was wondering how they were always swamped with work when I only saw 4-5 customer cars in the bay, including mine. Then Myles took us out to the dyno which is in a separate building. When we walked out back of the shop there had to be 30-40 cars sitting there. Evos, DSM’s, Subarus, Hondas, and Nissans with the majority of them were waiting on parts. We met Aaron O’Neal, the tuner, who was also a really cool dude. His philosophy and thought process on tuning is something else and I could sit and listen to him for hours about building cars. He’s truly one of a kind.

Everybody was swamped with work. There were about 5-6 technicians in the bay all working on serious projects while Aaron was on the dyno and Myles worked the computer and phones (which were constantly off the hook—I actually felt kind of bad for the guy). Every now and then we would come out to check out the car and hang out with the guys.

Lunch time was at noon and Lucas the owner came out to greet us and get to know us a little bit. He offered to take us to lunch which was cool. We walked out to his cars and he asked which one we wanted to take. To the right was an Evo 8 that made roughly 500whp and to the left was a super clean Cadillac CTS-V. I had heard stories of the Caddy and how it was crazy fast so we opted to go with that. Come to find out this thing makes around 550whp with a supercharged LS8. It was nuts. We went to a place called Killer Burger which is a local burger joint and it was off the hook. When we walked through the door all of the guys were there waiting for us. It was awesome because Aaron and I got to hear everyone’s story and really got to know everyone.

After lunch, Lucas took us back to the shop and we hung out and played some more Forza. While we waited Aaron would come in and grab us every now and then to head out to the dyno to see what he was working on. A customer had brought in a 2005 STI with rotated turbo, big FMIC, and some other bolt-ons. We were curious to see what he would put down and surprisingly it only made about 340whp. My guess is that he’s being restricted by the stock intake manifold but hey, I’m not an expert. Aaron finally came in and told me he was taking my car out to the dyno. The moment of truth had arrived.

It was time to rock and roll. The beauty of the O2 and external dumps is that when you’re not in boost it’s just like the stock exhaust and super quiet but when you get on it it’s crazy.

The car wasn’t holding boost correctly and wasn’t making nearly the right amount of power as it should have been. It finally made 330whp at 24psi and Aaron got super pissed and took the car back into the shop to figure out what was going on.

The ugly truth was found. A hole in my intercooler (courtesy of Washington State Ferries) had opened up even more when under the higher boost pressure. There was no way to fix it, so we decided that I would come back in a month or two with a new one and we’d give it another go. While we finished buttoning the car back up we headed back out to see an 8 second Supra on the dyno.

The really funny thing was the poor guy with the STI. When he found out I made 10whp less than him with a golf ball sized hole in my intercooler, stock turbo, and a stock block, he wanted to drive his car off a cliff. All of the guys were heading to the track but since I was tapped out for cash, Aaron and I decided to get an early start heading back. It was about 9pm and if we left them it would put us home around 2am so we decided to go for it.

Chapter 4: The Bittersweet Ending

Before we left, Aaron the tuner said he dialed the boost down and that there weren’t any issues with getting on it. The improved response was just incredible. It was basically a brand new car and at WOT the thing just screamed like a banshee from hell. Even in 5th gear all I had to do was put the pedal down and instantly spooled to 14psi and kept climbing. We decided to take it easy because of no stickers on the license plates we didn’t want to draw any unnecessary attention to ourselves. Our first checkpoint was in Centralia. We pulled up to the pump and I have to admit, it felt good filling up for $3.51 a gallon. I know it’s not getting amazing mileage, but it’s better than what it was before the tune.

Once we fueled the car and ourselves, we headed back out onto the highway. I decided that it was time to see what this thing could do. I shifted into second gear, made the turn onto the on-ramp and punched it. The car instantly threw us in the back of our seats and screamed as we made our way onto the highway……BOOM!!!! tick tick tick tick tick tick….oh..my…God.

My heart sank beneath the floor boards. Aaron and I were both completely silent. I pulled off immediately on the next exit and parked in a gas station. Fighting tears, I composed myself to get out of the car and check for leaks. There were no fluids but the knock/ticking was very apparent. I sat back in the car, defeated, with no idea what to do. Aaron tried to console me but there was no use. I had just paid $3500+ to grenade my car. There was no making me smile for the rest of the night. What was worse…we were 100 miles from the shop, and 175 miles from home. No friends, no money, just screwed. We decided to limp the car to a nearby motel and crash for the night. We figured that we’d devise a plan in the morning and figure a way out of this mess. This is where the guys from English Racing really blew me away.

I sent Myles a Facebook message around 1030pm that read something similar to this:

“Hey dude, shit just hit the fan and I think I blew up the car. Can you or Aaron call me ASAP?”

About 10 minutes later he called me. I explained to him what happened and he said that he’d forward my number to Lucas and that he would call me in the morning. Not even 5 minutes after hanging up with Myles, Lucas calls me. I told him what happened and he agreed that we were in a shitty situation. He told us to get some rest and we’d figure something out in the morning. Now remember, we’re 100 miles from the shop, and 175 miles from home. Aaron and I had decided that we would probably just get a rent-a-car and run home with our tails between our legs, but we were at least going to get some sleep.

The next morning I was woken up by a phone call from Lucas. He told me that TJ (a technician) was on his way with the truck and trailer to get us and bring us back. I couldn’t believe it. On their day off, they were driving WAY out of their way to help us out. Eventually TJ arrived. He wanted to take a crack at figuring out what was up with the car. I started it for him and he told me that it definitely didn’t sound good, but he couldn’t pin-point what the issue was. We loaded up the car on the trailer and headed back to English Racing. Along the way we got to really know TJ. He was the one that designed the external dump for my car (which is genius by the way). When we made it back to the shop Lucas was tuning his friend’s car. He came out and told us that once he was done tuning the car, we’d figure something out. Aaron and I were not looking forward to having to drive another 5+ hours back to Oak Harbor in the middle of a Saturday.

So I ended up throwing my car with the rest of the girls waiting for parts. TJ and Aaron said that they would tear it apart on Monday to figure out what the issue was. Could be something small, could be catastrophic failure. I wasn’t going to get my hopes up with my win streak. Lucas finished tuning and came out to talk with us.

Lucas: So what’s your guys’ plan?
Me: I’m not sure. I guess we’ll get a rent-a-car and head back.
Lucas: Well, I have a plane and could probably fly you guys back if you’d like.
Me: Are you serious?
Lucas: Yea, I’ve been looking for excuses to fly the damn thing.

I couldn’t believe it. Not only did they pick us up and bring us back, but now we were going to be FLOWN back home. We gathered our stuff from the car and hopped back in his CTS-V as he took us to the airport. He pulled in front of his hangar and there was a 1965 Beechcraft Bonanza V-tail S-35. This thing was ballin’. He did the pre-flight checks and we all hopped in. Lucas taxi’d to the run way and we took off! It was all surreal I couldn’t believe that the owner of English Racing was flying my best friend and I back home. We saw the mountains and Seattle and everything. Our average speed was 180mph so we made it back in about an hour and some change. While we were flying Lucas was explaining to us how you are pretty much real-time tuning while you’re flying in order to get the most efficiency out of the plane. We landed on the island and hopped out. Lucas told me that he’d keep me posted with the car and we wished him happy flying as he took off.

My wife came and picked Aaron and I up. She didn’t look super thrilled, but hey at least we flew back to Whidbey Island for free. Even though I probably grenaded my car, I still had an epic weekend, and made some new friends. I will forever recommend English Racing to everyone for the rest of my days. The knowledge of the workers, customer service of the management, and overall friendliness of everyone is unrivaled. For now I await the phone call with the news as to what they find with the car. I’ll keep everyone posted.