DRT would like to congratulate the Leroux racing team on their first and second place finish on the CARRERA DEL MILLON in the Dominican Republic. Juan Carlos Leroux (Acura TSX) and Jorge Leroux (08 Civic SI) Run the DTS series in the Dominican Republic.

As we all know the first generation was very good, one of its key features was its PLUG AND PLAY. AEM now returns with many improvements such as better drivers for the injectors, coils and outputs.

Please click here to continue reading this article at Boostiao.com

RELEASE OF SERIES 2 EMS FOR HONDA’S

The new series 2 ems for HONDA’S now available form AEM.

New part # 30-6040,30-6050,30-6052 and 30-6060

call us to place your order as these ems will sell fast.

Place your orders for the NEW AEM Series 2 EMS for the Toyota Supra available now.

Other cars to come soon

This Unit is for the 2006and newer civic’s

October Special on HONDATA FLASHPRO.

$895.00 INCLUDING INSTALLATION AND TUNING ON OUR DYNOJET.

This offer will only be for the month of OCTOBER SO PLACE YOUR ORDERS.

We are an Authorized Dealer for DSS Axel’s Please give us a call for pricing.

photographer: Henry Z. DeKuyper

As far as buzz and hype are concerned it could be argued that the WRX is on the played-out side of the equation but the current lack of buzz does nothing to change the fact that the Subie is an outstanding platform nonetheless. The car has been scorching U.S. pavement four wheels at a time since the 2002 model year. In that span of time the performance-tuning industry has been at warp speed. The development of parts and tuning strategies has been as frenzied as a pack of Great White sharks in a swimming pool full of seal pups during lunch hour. Harsh visual but you get the idea.

Turbo magazine has chronicled the big-power players from day one, culminating with the January 2006 cover car, Puerto Rico’s Big Valley STi. This beast pumped 720 whp and was a decent launch away from a 9-second quarter-mile time. The big-power cars are the tip of the spear and while it’s great to see the maximum potential of the EJ engine unleashed, the true beauty of these cars is how good they are out of the box and how much faster they can be made with only a few relatively minor enhancements.

The silver ‘02 sedan you see here takes the less-is-more, minor-means-mojo approach. It has been modified in all the right places with the daily commute, not stratospheric dyno numbers, as the driving force. Owner, Anthony Sanchez also addressed other important aspects of the motoring experience-suspension, brakes and the cockpit. Sanchez may be familiar to hardcore readers as he is the owner of the ‘Bet Money’ Civic cover car from the November ‘05 issue.

Duck under the hood and you’ll find a GReddy turbo upgrade as the big player. The upgrade, which costs in the $1,695 to $1,995 range features a Mitsubishi T518-Z turbo and is designed to retain the stock exhaust manifold. The wrenching and tuning on Sanchez’s REX, just like on the Civic, was performed by DRT of Woodside, New York. The stock top-mount intercooler looks kind of small in pictures but until you hold one in your hands it’s hard to appreciate how small it really is. For improved efficiency, and a by-product of good looks, a GReddy FMIC kit was added. In a strange twist of fate, HKS hoses were used to connect the I/C pipes and an HKS SSQ blow-off valve snuck under the hood.

When upgrading the turbo on a stock engine you better pay equal attention to the fuel system. In many cases misguided wisdom from enthisiasts has said I am only running four psi more boost. But you have to remember we’re talking about volume, not pressure here. A bigger turbo will move considerably more air at the same psi; up this bigger turbo by 4 psi and you could be dropping the hammer of a four-wheel grenade. To this end Ralphy Estevez and the DRT crew followed up the boost upgrade with a high-capacity fuel system featuring a Walbro 255 lph in-tank pump and 650cc injectors. The 650cc squirters flow 35 percent more fuel than the stock 420cc units and are more than ready for the prescribed target boost of 24 psi.

As for tuning, the car came together just as AEM released its WRX EMS system so Ralphy was quick to secure one for this project. “Tony wanted a kick in the pants, but an off-boost tune aimed for reliability,” says Ralphy. “He wanted the car to feel like it had a stock ECU in it. I waited a year for that thing and I was told the one we got was the first box out of AEM’s headquarters.

After extensive dyno tuning the Subie proved generous, pumping out 420 whp and 305 lb-ft of torque. Ralphy is quick to point out that getting the peak power is just a matter of using fuel and timing in relation to the air/fuel ratio. For off-boost, part-throttle tuning-the keys to driveability-an advanced understanding of the combustion process is required. The WRX’s clutch has been fortified for bigger boost with a tried-and-true Exedy twin disc.

We’ve all heard how the all-climate safety of Subaru’s all-wheel drive makes it the smart choice for near-freezing locales, but the dry grip the WRX can generate with minimal manipulation is awe inspiring. And like the rest of the car it doesn’t take much to really pump out the gs. For Sanchez it was as simple as the correct set of JIC adjustable coil-overs, namely JIC SA-1s. A street unit with the usual ride-height adjustment inherent with coil-overs and five-position damping adjustment for added grip or commuter ride quality, the SA-1s are ready for any scenario.

The braking system was upgraded all the way around with Wilwood components. Wilwood has complete kits for the front and rear of the WRX. The front kit sports 13-inch GT Racing rotors, Wilwood billet Superlite calipers with six-pistons clawing at the rotors like a rabid pit bull at the height of its fever. Wilwood’s rear axle upgrade uses 12-inch GT series rotors and four-piston Superlite calipers to balance out the stopping power. The Wilwood kit retains the factory ABS system and parking brake function, which fits Sanchez’s commuter profile to a tee.

The final footwork item is the rolling stock. Sanchez rides on 215/40-18 Yokohama Parada Spec-II rubber and well-used, gold-dipped Prodrive aluminum.

Inside, a set of Sparco buckets are installed along with matching fabric for the rear seats; even the Sparco logos were copied on the bench seat backs. An HKS boost controller is housed in the center console, a Blitz turbo timer is perched on the steering column and an air vent has been cleverly sacrificed to mount an Auto Meter boost gauge. An AEM Uego gauge is mounted to the left side of the dash for the driver to eye that all-important parameter-the air/fuel ratio.

“As you can see this is more of a show car than a street killer like what we created with the Civic,” says Ralphy. “But [the] WRX has a much different target and, like the Civic, it really hits the bull’s-eye.” We’d add, with the ease and finesse of a Zen archer.

 
 

If you know the name, its because a) you follow sport compact drag racing and you know Estevez is the crew chief for Manny Cruz?s 199mph Duttweiler powered Cougar and that Estevez has campaigned a nine-second twin turbo Civic in the Hot Rod class b) you own the Fast and the Furious DVD and read the acknowledgement that the Movie was based on an article about Racer X, who is ? you guessed it, Rafael Estevez.

After strapping the Matrix down securely, Estevez propped up the hood and installed the Ignition Wire Inductive Tach Pickup Lead that will serve as the umbilical cord of information to the processing PC.

  

Before running the dyno tests, Estevez recommends we run a simple air/fuel ratio (AFR) check to see if tuning the AFR would produce any significant horsepower gains. We accomplish the test by installing a MoTeC AFR exhaust probe into the exhaust tip of the TRD exhaust can. Connected to this probe is a digital readout that we place on the dash ? within view of Estevez while he puts the car through its paces on the dyno.

A couple of quickies on AFR. Air/Fuel Ratio measures the amount of air molecules per fuel molecules that are leaving the car uncombusted (combustion is never complete in an engine because of the short combustion cycle). Over the years, scientists and engineers that much smarter than the staff here at UrbanRacer.Com (not a hard feat for the most part) have determined that 14.7:1 is the ideal AFR, scientifically known as Stochiometric. In other words, if your engine is spewing 14.7 air molecules for each fuel molecule out the exhaust, it is running at an ideal efficiency ? you?ll get the best gas mileage.

AFR?s lower than 14.7:1 means your engine is running more fuel than the Stochiometric condition ? commonly known as ?running rich?.

AFR?s higher in number than 14.7:1 means the engine is running less fuel than the ideal efficiency ? commonly known as ?running lean?.

Engines normally make the most power at a slightly richer condition that produces an AFR of 12.5:1 (12.5 molecules of air for each fuel molecule). Most factory-tuned engines tend to be tuned to a leaner condition for fuel economy and durability issues. Most modern cars control the AFR automatically through an O2 sensor that tells the ECU what the AFR is at a specific time. The ECU will then adjust the amount of fuel introduced into the combustion chambers based on programmed fuel maps to achieve the desired factory set AFR.

  

Starting with an AFR in the 19 range at idle, Estevez slowly brought up the revs and the AFR quickly and expectedly was remapped to a near stoichiometric 14.83:1. However, when Estevez floored the gas pedal and the revs quickly swept past the 4,200 rpm range ? activating the VVT to an more aggressive valve timing overlap, an impressive 12.60:1 flashed on the LCD readout. Pretty aggressive considering the usually conservative tuning of factory number crunchers.

Happy with the factory fuel maps, we went back to the business at hand. How much horsepower was this 1ZZ-FE producing with a rear section TRD exhaust as the only engine performance modicifation?

Estevez ran through several pulls on the dyno before he was satisfied with the data. With the final dyno graphs in hand, we were really shocked at the results. The first run was a baseline run of sorts for us. Peaks of 124.9 hp and 120.7 lb.-ft. torque were charted on the first graph. Not bad. Remember, this is wheel horsepower and the factory ratings of 130 hp and 126 lb.-ft. torque are at the crank.

  

Next up, to simulate real world driving conditions, a 40,000 cfm fan at the head of the Matrix was flipped onto simulate the air conditions found at highway driving speeds. The ram air-like effect of highway driving air was instantly reflected on the next dyno pull ? 129.0 hp and 123.7 lb.-ft. torque. Now, we?re talking. We nearly equaled the factory crank horsepower and are just shy of the torque, could this TRD exhaust really be responsible for all this power?

  

No time to think. Still hungry for more power, we decided to remove the filter element from the factory box to simulate a high flow intake. Estevez runs the Matrix through the revs one more time. Looking at the last dyno graph, we found out that the Matrix was pushing out 130.0 hp at the wheels! Factoring in the normally accepted 15% driveline losses to the factory rated 130 crank hp gives us a theoretical 110.5 baseline wheel hp ? which translates to a whopping 19.5 hp gain! Even using a more conservative driveline loss percentage of 12% still yields a 15 hp gain ? still phenomenal! Remember, this is only a rear section exhaust system that we are talking about. A quick check of average retail pricing around the Internet has the exhaust costing anywhere from $550 – $650. That kind of money is still cheap considering the 15% percent increase in power that we saw (using the 15% driveline loss percentage).

  

Even when we applied the SAE correction factor for our results, we were still impressed. SAE correction is applied to standardize all hp and torque ratings by removing the effects of ambient weather and barometric weather conditions ? which control the density of air and affects the performance of your engine. Using SAE corrected data allows people dynoing a Supra, say at 90-degree temps and 100 feet below sea level compare their data with a Supra dyno?ed at 60-degree temps at sea level. The max SAE corrected ratings for our Matrix XR equipped with the TRD Sport Exhaust were 125.6 hp and 118.6 lb-ft of torque. Now we had proof to support our seat of the pants evaluations of the TRD exhaust.

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Jayson’s evo on sports compact magazine