Here's the thing about a little boy; you can tell what type of man he's going to grow up to be by the kind of toys he plays with. If he's throwing the old pigskin around or playing catch, you most likely got an athlete. If he's playing war and messing about with G.I. Joes, he'll probably end up serving in any of the four, err, five (if you really want to count the Coast Guard) branches of the military. If he's playing with computers and video games, odds are he's Asian, good with math and uses Coke bottles to enhance his vision, so he'll end up a programmer. If he's playing with Rainbow Brite and Barbies and wanting to become an altar boy, you need to go on and shake the sh*t out of him.
Calvin Lin from Walnut Creek, Calif., was into a different set of toys. Toys with four wheels. Building cars out of LEGO blocks at a young age, Calvin grew to collect Matchbox, Micro Machines and Hot Wheels. When he got his My First Tool Set, he was busy assembling, modifying and racing Tamiya RC cars. And all of this frivolous foreplay lead up to his graduation gift: a brand-new '93 Acura Integra GS-R. Finally, a real car to monkey around with.
After learning how to wrench on the Acura, Calvin would go on to tweak a '93 Toyota MR2 Turbo, '92 Mitsubishi Galant VR4, '01 Subaru Impreza 2.5 RS (that he performed a turbocharged '02 EJ20 swap on) and an '03 Mitsubishi Lancer Evo VIII. He even opened up his own tuning shop with SpeedElement Performance to turn his passion into a career. But like the toy cars he played with as a boy, these experiences would all be practice for his pice de rsistance, the '06 Mitsubishi Evo IX RS that's before you.
And why might you ask did he purchase this vehicle, especially when having owned an Evo VIII, prior? "The buzz about the MIVEC system on the Evo IX and its potential over the Evo VIII made me want to purchase the vehicle right away," Calvin says. His intent? "To build a recognizable shop vehicle to promote our services at SpeedElement Performance and to build one of the sickest, all-purpose time attack vehicles this side of the pond," he says. And the pond he's referring to we think isn't the very happy San Francisco (cough, gay, cough) Bay, but the Pacific Ocean. Judging by the modifications done to the Mitsu, there's a good chance of it too.
Cosworth cams, valvesprings and head studs allow the portly Garrett GT30 to wheeze through the Full-Race manifold, custom SpeedElement intercooler piping and Blitz front-mount intercooler. The upgraded Walbro fuel pump and PTE 1,000cc injectors feed the hungry turbo and the Sun Auto Hyper Force Voltage System and Denso Iridium spark plugs aid in the digestion of the combustible solution. An AEM EMS acts as the electronic hypothalamus for the ravenous 4G63 motor.
Keeping the turbo system reliable is a TiAL 40mm wastegate to prevent boost creep and a GFB blow-off valve to thwart compressor surge. Hanging below the rear bumper is a full 3-inch Sun Auto exhaust that's paired with a custom down and test pipe, which lets the Garrett turbo exhale. With all the extra power, the notoriously weak Evo clutch was replaced with an Exedy twin-plate unit.
The other quotient to any good time attack vehicle is the chassis. While you might notice the lack of a rollcage, this doesn't mean it's lacking on body braces. An ARC front and Cusco Type 40 rear strut bar prevents tower flex up top. The Tanabe rear lower arm bar, Cusco front lower arm bars, Whiteline front (26mm) and rear (24mm) sway bars and Whiteline suspension bushing kit stiffens the bottom of the chassis, reducing body lean. When it came time to dialing in the suspension, the Ohlins Flag-L coilovers weren't providing the adequate rebound, so Calvin and the SpeedElement crew tested countless spring rates until they came up with the very secret 12kg up front and 10kg out back that we can't share with you. Oops. You didn't hear that from us.