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modifying my car. This is just the latest installment. The latest round of mods 
started with the engine and ended with the suspension.

Engine mods included a slight bore to 83mm from the 81.5mm stock. A new 
92.8mm Euro stroker crank was sourced from VAG and went through a series of knife 
edging and balancing along with all the other appropriate parts. That brought 
displacement to a 2.51 liter figure. A beautiful set of coated Wiseco forged 
pistons were next. All new bearings and the like were used to reassemble 
everything. An equal length Stainless Steel tubular manifold was matched to my 
one-off GT 35R turbo. Also added was a Turbo XS Pro-Gate 48mm wastegate that I had 
sitting around for a couple of years. Next was an HKS Type II Racing BOV to 
evacuate charge air when required. Dave Jones was concerned about my 2 1/2" 
charge air plumbing so we went to 2 3/4". Brendan Rudak did some custom modifying 
of their new cast end tanks so that they could be welded to my 4" thick FMIC 
core. 

The custom downpipe is a full 3 1/2" from the turbo back. 3R welded a 3 1/2" 
V-Band clamp to my turbine section to get me a full 3 1/2" turbo-back exhaust. 
We also added a new Aeromotive adjustable FPR and we upped the injectors from 
440cc to 550cc. Speaking of fuel, we added a second Bosch 044 fuel pump to 
replace the stock pump in the tank. Since the turbo mounts so far out and since 
we don't use a MAF we were able to mount an HKS mushroom filter on the inlet 
of the turbo. Once thse items were in place all new custom chage air plumbing 
was fabricated to match up with the 034 cast intake manifold. This mani is not 
intended to be used with the AAN in an S-car so there was lots of fabricating 
required to make things fit and work. MY Big Bore Throttle Body was mounted 
and everything else buttoned up to look pretty stock to the untrained eye. Stock 
except for the polishing. I sent as many things as we could pull off of the 
engine at this point to be polished including the motor mount housings and the 
water manifold under the intake manifold.

To keep the SW issues at bay we went with an AEM stand alone EMS. This was 
not an easy mod because it required an almost total rewiring of the electrics 
from the fire wall forward. The challenge was compounded by some electrical 
glitches that were buried somewhere in the stock harness. In addition, the AEM 
stuff did not communicate very well with things Bosch so we replaced almost all 
the sensors and things like that with new non-Bosch stuff. The good news is 
that 13 years and 170,000 miles of heat and wear were done away with and along 
with a new engine, I have a new electrical system. The stock coils were replaced 
with Hyabusa motorcycle coils and the POS were replaced by an MSD CDI. After 
getting the car fired up and some baseline dyno runs I was tasked with a 
conservative break-in. After the first 2,000 miles Dave raised the boost to 12 lbs. 
We then discovered a coil problem as boost was coming on we would lose one or 
more coils. Sound familiar? There was definitely an electrcal hardware issue 
raising its ugly head and everyone including AEM was thinking it was the MSD 
CDI. AEM had one in the works, but it just wasn't ready for prime time. The car 
was very driveable, I just had to be gentle with the boost in the lower gears 
and keep the boost at 12 lbs which is where Dave wanted it anyway for the 
break-in. Now lets talk suspension.

While all this engine work was going on I finally got my S6+ 28mm front bar 
mounted. In addition, Dave Stone finally released his beautiful coil-over 
Susupension System with Caster/Camber plates using dual adjustable Koni shocks. 
Thanks to Brian Billotti, I was able to nail the spring choice from the getgo at 
450lb fronts and 500lb rears using Hypercoil. The suspension finally went on 
over the Labor Day weekend and we also got a little present from AEM as they 
finally release their 8 Channell Twin Fire Ignition Module. It was driving me 
crazy that the car was ready to run but we had to trailer it to be alligned. 
Tuesday morning I arrived at 3R with flatbed in tow and off it went to be 
alligned. The car came down from the allignment hoist and I was itching to drive it. 

Oh my goodness. This car really is insane. I've put almost 300 miles on it in 
the last 2 days and it keeps getting better and better. The AEM EMS has to 
learn just like our ECUs. I had to swing by 3R to get Dave to tweak the timing 
but other than that it is just SOOOO Sweet. The car pulls like no other I have 
driven. I was stopped at a light today with 2 cars on my left in a 
left/straight ahead lane. There was one car ahead of me in my lane with a very quick 
merge ahead from 2 to 1 lane as you enter a freeway. The light changed as I eased 
out behind the guy in front and both cars on the left turned left. When things 
opened up I opened the Green Monstah up. In 2nd gear at 3500rpm, I floored it 
and spun all 4 tires. I thought the guy in front that I was passing was going 
to pass out. Quattro is a great thing. In a 2 wheel drive car I would have 
been sideways.

The suspension is simply amazing. I wasn't slouching before either. I had 
custom valved Bilstein Sports (+10% bump and +30% rebound) with Eibach Pro-kits 
in the front and Ground Control Coil-overs in the rear with 400lb Eibachs. Its 
real close in firmness to my Bilstein/Eibach set-up but the car stays much 
flatter in a turn. Some of it might be the 28mm front bar but I drove it with 
this bar and my old suspension and I didn't notice anything like what I have now. 
Another plus is the virtual elimination of bump steer. It has a very 
streetable feel but come track time we'll tighten things up even more for some real 
turning power. The turn-in is sharp and precise. Its going to be fun to compare 
the 2 side by side when we get my old suspension installed on Jeff Schroeder's 
car.

What's next you say? Well, we still have the Nostradamus thingy to work out 
on Tuesday. After that comes the Stassis Torsen Center Differential. I'm also 
exploring Status Racing seats to see if they will do any custom colors. The 
adjustable carbon fiber Spa seat in leather weighs about 15 lbs. Our seat weighs 
about 65 lbs. Yah gotta love losin 100 lbs without a diet. I told you guys 
this was gonna be long but I've finally exhausted this edition of the saga. See 
yah!

Hap, wit moh dakine ramblins not from Evahboost, Maguire