After a month of more vehicle proposals than we could count, registration for Castrol Syntec's Top Car Challenge is finally closed. Thanks a thousand times over (almost literally)--you and your cars have been considered, and after some very close consideration, we've picked the lucky reader whose car we're putting our Benjamins on to win this thing: Ryan Gates, and his '08 Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution X.
We'll get to the specifics of Ryan's car next month, but for now let's meet the man behind the wheel, and why his experience, attitude, and commitment to motorsports and our scene make him the perfect representative for the 2NR community in the Castrol Syntec Top Car Challenge.
Ryan, you have a slightly different background than most of our readers--you grew up in the middle-of-nowhere, Minnesota, racing go-karts and dirtbikes. How did you end up in the world of import tuning?
I was always a competitive kid, and got into racing go-karts when I was about 12 or so, just because they looked fun. I got into motorcross when I was about 16, and got into cars around 19, after I got sick of breaking myself on the bikes.
What were some of your motorcross injuries?
I broke my femur, compressed a few vertebrae in my back, broke all the toes in my right foot, broke both wrists, my right hand, ruptured my spleen, messed up my left shoulder--nothing too crazy.
Dave Mirra would cringe at that list! Was it worth it?
Oh yeah, I loved it all the way. But I began to realize that no one lasts too long in that line of racing, and started getting into cars at the same time, so I thought, "Why not try this?"
What was it about the imports that attracted you?
Imports just do it all better. Since I had experience karting, I wanted to build a car for road racing and time-attack, and the fastest cars in each of those sects of racing are imports, hands down.
So how did you actually begin getting involved with racing?
I had an '03 350Z that I was driving daily at the time, and began to take it out to NASA events to earn my HPDE certifications. It was a great car to learn in, but I eventually wanted something faster, so I sold it and bought an EVO IX to finish my certifications with.
How did owning an EVO X come about?
I loved my EVO IX, but once the X was released, I began hearing people talk about how much better and faster it was than the IX, so I started looking into it. Around the same time, the July '08 issue of 2NR hit stands, with JUN's EVO X on the cover, and that pretty much sealed it for me --that car was running 1:01 at Tsukuba circuit that same month, with very little modification.
So that's when you got an EVO X of your own?
Pretty much. I did some basic bolt-on mods to the car at first, and began running it in NASA TT-A time trials and street-class time attacks. It won Modified-class time-attack at its first event, and won NASA TT-A national championships at Mid-Ohio Raceway, setting a new track record in the process, with a mid-1:32.
What differences did you see in the EVO X versus the IX?
A lot, actually. The IX was a great car, but the EVO X seemed to do it all better. It's a lot more rigid and responsive to drive, it accelerates better and smoother than the IX's 4G63 engine, the brakes don't fade as much, it doesn't have the understeer problem that the IX did, and the stock drivetrain has taken a lot of abuse with no problems.
After you dropped $30K on a brand new EVO X, how hard was it to say "screw the warranty" and modify it past the point of no return?
It was easy. Maybe too easy. [laughs] I knew I needed to be more competitive, and that meant that I had to modify it. Over the winter, I stripped the car down, removed about 800 pounds of dead weight, did some stitch welding and engine work, added a full suspension, and basically got it in the shape it's in now, so I could compete in the Limited class of Super Lap Battle and NASA TT-U, but still be able to throw the interior back in and drive it on the street.