Recaro Race Seats - Import Tuner Magazine

Because of this, we were grateful for the B&M short-shift gear mechanism that cuts shift throws by 25 percent, sharpening both up and down the gearbox. It's really great when you are driving blindingly fast, as upshifts can be performed in the blink of an eye, while heel-and-toe downshifts under hard braking are also made easier. The only downside is the aluminum knob, which was cold and slippery in the wet weather. As the knob also lowers the overall shifter length compared to the tall, leather-bound factory knob, our hands slipped off a couple of times during quick upshifts. Having said that, if we were doing a track event, we would wear grippy driving gloves anyway.

The lightweight Kevlar-backed Recaro race seats and Schroth FIA-approved four-point competition harnesses do their job to perfection, holding you firmly in place irrespective of cornering and braking forces. Braking, by the way, is very good indeed thanks to the standard big Brembo anchors. You can just see the bright red calipers through the spokes of the 8.5Jx18-in. AZEV alloy wheels, which are shod with 235/40ZR18 Pirelli P-Zero Nero tires, similar to the ones used by RalliArt for tarmac stages of the World Rally Championship.

Unfortunately, the new AZEV carbon wheels that were due to go on the car did not arrive in time for our visit. This new patented design saves up to 2.5kg (5.5 lb) per wheel, lowering unsprung weight significantly.

Speaking of carbon, MSD, an O.E. supplier to big names like Porsche and Maserati, provided the bright yellow color-coded parts for the dashboard, center console and door panels. These, along with the MSD aluminum pedal set, considerably liven up the drab black plastic cabin.

The final cabin additions are less obvious. Folia-Tec, the specialists in window tints and stick-on effects like wood or carbon, provided the subtle scratchproof tinted window foil, also said to prevent dazzle and cut UV radiation.

In. Pro, another well-known German accessories company, who made a name distributing clear or colored turn signal assemblies for a wide range of cars, now makes a fighter aircraft-style Heads-Up display. This uses LEDs and a special foil to project basic driving information like speed and revs onto the windscreen in front of the driver.

In a car like this, you're usually driving hard and fast, and the only thing you're listening to is the motor. But for the moments when you're stuck in heavy traffic or just cruising along, the Pioneer digital radio and satellite-navigation system comes into its own. This is a high-powered system with a detachable subwoofer bass tube housed in the trunk.

All the aftermarket components fitted to the Eibach Evo VII work very well together, creating a somewhat extroverted, but coherent, show car. After seeing this, we cannot imagine a plain yellow Evo VII with a bland black plastic interior.

As a driving experience, this modified car really blew us away. We seldom have as much fun as we did on those slippery back roads, playing rally driver.