When the 2011 Evans Tuning True Street Integra hit the wall on its record-setting 8.98 pass, we immediately began searching for a new chassis. While we entertained the idea of repairing the Integra, the amount of time and money necessary to bring it up to par was almost as much as building a new race car. In addition, the risk associated with repairing a chassis that was damaged as badly as the Integra (the roll cage was actually bent, firewall was pushed back a few inches) would not have been very wise. Starting with a new car also gave us the opportunity to implement a lot of innovative chassis modifications that we had planned for the Integra, but did not have the chance to do. After looking for a suitable donor car (and even being offered some from customers and friends) we decided to use our own personal daily driver, a 98 Honda Civic DX Hatchback.

The 2011 Evans Tuning True Street Integra took us nearly 2 years to build and we are determined to have the new car out in 2012. Within 2 weeks of returning from MIR WCF following the crash, we had the new car torn down to the bare shell and started replicating the strong points of the chassis work from the Integra onto the Civic. Our main reason for choosing the EK hatchback was to give ourselves a better power to weight ratio (the Integra weighed close to 2600lbs with driver when it ran the 8.98 pass). The Integra already had plenty of power for our 2012 goals, so we really wanted to focus our efforts on the chassis and lightening the car up.

We installed an 8.50 NHRA certified Evans Tuning custom bent chromoly cage and parachute. Doing the same cookie-cutter 10 point cage was not on our agenda and we ended up doing a lot of off-axis multiple bend bars. The door bar alone has 8 bends (a few of which are off axis) and fits without room for so much as a sheet of paper. The engine bay and front end were structurally reinforced using some radically new and innovative ideas (I’ve been sworn to secrecy). The biggest thing we learned with the Integra is that we don’t need to make the most power to run the fastest times (we were running the turbo at only 80-90% of its capability). We are convinced that there is plenty more E.T. to be had by primarily focusing our efforts on the chassis; there is a reason the Integra went 8’s on its third full power pass (and it’s not just because MIR is an awesome track).

We were fortunate that the engine, transmission, drivetrain, electronics, and most of the turbo kit was salvageable after the crash. While we are going to keep the engine, transmission, clutch and axles the same to dial-in the car, we are changing the electronics, fuel system, and some of the turbo system components. After bugging Geoff from Full Race Motorsports for quite some time about making a forward facing manifold, he stepped up to the plate and made one for Tony and one for us, and I believe they are now available for anyone to purchase. We are sticking with the same Borg Warner S400sx 67mm turbo as we want to maintain reliable horsepower. We can’t say enough about the durability and performance of the 67mm turbo. Every car we’ve used it on has made awesome power with ZERO failures or issues. If that doesn’t speak volumes about the quality of BW turbos, I don’t know what does.

At Evans Tuning, we know what features are necessary in an engine management system to get a reliable tune and put the power down at the track. While the gold box was first on our list, the price tag of it along with needing to build a whole new car just wasn’t feasible. We were successful using the FAST XFi on the Integra, but there were features that we wished we had and more logic-programming flexibility. We turned to AEM for the 2012 season. After speaking with Devin Pearce from AEM at great lengths we got on board to use the new EMS 4. We opted not to use a PNP box since we are planning to create an entirely new engine harness. The EMS 4 is a very basic standalone (4 coils, 4 injectors, 8 inputs/outputs), it can do everything we need with in a simple, small, lightweight package - a perfect fit. In addition, we decided to try out the new AQ-1 datalogger and 4-channel wideband controller to help with our data collection. We are also using other various AEM products like the EPM, high output inductive coils, pressure sensors, temp sensors, and more to give us a complete logging package. We are excited to have an engine management system that can control everything (boost, power management, fans, pumps, datalogging, etc.) all in one box. It’ll be nice to turn the car on and just drive (no more switches in sequence!!).

We were hoping to have the car up and running at Summer Slam; however, our tuning schedule and shop projects for customers have taken up quite a bit of time. We are now concentrating a large majority of our effort on the last bit of fabrication and wiring before the car goes to our body and paint guy, Rafael Ortiz. Rafael is a long time customer of ours who does awesome body and paint work. He did the glass and paint on the Integra front end and we are more than thrilled to have him on board to help us get the new car looking top notch. We’re planning to debut the new race car at MIR on July 29th.

Although many may be focusing on our goal from 2011, we’re focusing on an entirely new goal for 2012 - 5.80s in the 1/8th on 24.5” tires!

 

wow that cage work looks out of this world!

keep up the good work guys, your rebounding in the right direction for sure!
its good to see people not giving up after going through the battle you guys have!
your correct, its not the car the makes the BIGGEST dyno numbers, its the one who can put their car down that track fastest.

i look forward to the PB's along with records!

 

Are you guys going to use an air launcher for the chute?

 

So is this car going to have a wing to help prevent what happened with the integra ?

 

Looks like its gonna be a bit hard getting in and out. Looks good.

 

Nice! Cant wait!

 

that is what i was thinking...

...and with how high that Parachute Mount is I would be a bit concerned with lifting the back of the car off the ground (we have a bit of experience with that actually happening with poor parachute mount placement and using too big of a parachute)

 

+1 on those comments door bars look like they will be fun to get in and out of. and that chuts mounting is very high

 

The tug of the chute needs to be even or higher the CL of gravity... A low anchor lifts cars

 

im sure they looked into the chute placement after last year. great stuff jeff and andrea.

 

Not having a wing on the integra had nothing to do with what happened that day on the track. Good luck Jeff and Andrea i know you guys will achieve your goals this year.

 

Looks fantastic!!

 

omg whats wrong with that cage?

 

No, standard mechanical pull style chute.

It's going to have a wing, but that's not the reason the Integra crashed.

It's actually really not hard to get in and out of. The car is currently on jack stands and I have absolutely no issues getting in and out of it. Not sure if it's the angle of the picture, but it's not as extreme as everyone is making it seem.

Exactly. It doesn't matter where the parachute itself is located. What matters is where the tag line is. This tag line is about 20 inches higher than where the Integra's was. We've never seen a tag line this high on a FWD drag car, but the way we made the chute mount we can easily make adjustments to the tag line and chute location, if necessary.

Nothing that we or NHRA are aware of.

Here is a picture of the door bar with the door panel installed from inside the car. Hopefully everyone can now see why we did what we did.

 

looking good. like the new fuel cell. thanks for your old one

 

Beautiful fab work guys, car looks amazing. Can't wait to see you guys out again. I think I know why the door bars are made like that...

 

Can't wait to see you guys back at the track so I can hang with my little homies lol

 

chute looks too high, but then again im not that bright!

good luck with the new build...

 

I like the idea of the chute mount being higher, seems pretty logical to me! Best of luck!

 

Oh.... Well from the outside view it kind of looked like it

 

Looks great, good luck this year.

 

door bars till "look" aful

 

Great look, It will be a beast Soon wish you all the best.

 

Way to be innovative! That bar will do exactly what its suppose to do if it comes to it. Keep up the good work!

 

HAHAHA, Thats Awesome! Need Racecar (looks around) Hey you, daily. You're up!

Thats how racers roll. Props for the come back