Archive September 2009
MOD 2009 – The luxury treatment
Driving a tri-colored race prepped Mitsubishi Galant VR4 around Rochester does not gain you very much respect on the road. It stands out like a sore thumb, people have no idea what they are looking at, and nobody looked at the car as anything with performance before it was painted.
Saturday morning we rolled into the Mitsubishi manufacturing plant in Normal, IL, which was hosting the 2009 Mitsubishi Owners Day, where we received nothing but respect and love for the car we were driving
. From the first thumbs up by the guy at the front gate to the team of people who came out to support us, there could not have been a more humbling, amazing place to be with this car.
Through the many members of GalantVR4.org, we earned a friend who also worked at this Mitsubishi plant. While were were expecting to have some place to park the car where everybody could see it, we could not have expected the 
accommodations that came out for us. We had a reserved section to park, right in front by the main stage, and across from the Welcome Tent, making it a premier location. A few minutes after arriving a tent was given to us to use. As we started unpacking the car and feeling humbled by the level of gestures being offered towards us, two guys walk up and offer to wipe down the car. They heard we drove all day yesterday and wanted to help by cleaning it off for us. Not only did they clean the car, but they were smiling the whole time, happy to be there. It was enough to bring a tear to Tim’s eye.
From the respect that we received from the workers, to the thanks that we received from the GalantVR4 group, we are certainly not accustomed or deserving of such praise. We were treated to dinner, handed a beer and felt very welcome among the group.
0Lesson 342 – Ask advice when you can
Last year we had some powerband issues. That is to say we had a lot of power, not really applied where we need it in the car. We weren’t going to pass by the opportunity to get some advice from AMS while we were there. So we drilled around for questions, asking the Turbo guru and Eric, the sales manager for some advice.
Here we discuss the turbo itself, and how it is scaled into the car itself. Granted we are back on the L1R turbo and the main focal discussion is getting the powerband down, lower in the RPM range.
Being on a budget, and not particularly having anybody step forward with another setup to run, we will probably be looking to decrease Tim’s intake manifold back to stock with a mild porting job as a first step. We are also considering a smaller intercooler to address turbo response AND cool air to the radiator. While we didn’t overheat on One Lap, Tim has been able to get the car warmer than expected running it hard at Watkins Glen.
We did get the close up introduction to the AMS 750R turbo they released in June. It sparked a good debate on the leading fin edge, which up until this point was thought to be crucial in designing it with a knife edge, not a the machined groves.
0MOD 2009 – Pictures Compilations
I like being behind the camera, but have found it challenging to be part of the activities and take photos too. Luckily other people are loaded with cameras and pictures as well, taking some of the pressure off.
Curt Shambeau’s Gallery from GalantVR4.org
Galant VR4 Thread posted by Polish
Galant VR4 Thread Pictures Request from Curtis
0AMS pitstop
Coming this far west with the car, we knew we wanted to at least take a visit to AMS outside of Chicago.
Of course being in need of a couple vband clamps certainly made it an important stop that would make the rest of the trip easier.
Eric was nice enough to give us a tour of the shop, fabrication areas and 
warehouse. It is easy to see why they are one of the largest shops around for import tuning. They have the most cleanily and organized shop I have ever seen and seeing the amount of in house fabrication certainly is a testiment to how much they put into their products.
After a chat about turbos, intake manifold sizing and the fate of the free world at we know it, we headed to the parking lot to install the new exhaust clamps. Of course halfway through the process it started raining soaking us pretty good.
Familiar Pit Stop
The last time we drove west, we stopped at the first service center on the Ohio turnpike.
It is the natural gas stop for the car (which just got 23.6MPG) and our bladders. In May it was pouring rain and we were scrambling to fix a mis diagnosed water in the intake problem. This trip we took some time to look at some extra noises we were getting concerned over. Like clockwork we found some areas in need of attention.
First is the alternator noise. Flashback Wednesday of this week, when I replaced the alternator bracket. I missed the important step of tightening the pivot nut after tensioning the belt. So the alternator was
walking outward instead of sitting firmly in place. It hadn’t yet managed to loose the nut, but was a head smacking manuever and one demerit in my team logbook. I do have some defensive arguments, but in the end I missed that one. Props to the team for not calling out my jackassadry as they knew I already was punishing myself.
The other problem we have is that we are destroying V-band clamps on the exhaust. We will be buying some from AMS if they have anything in stock. After some big hammer work and some bracket bending, they should easily survive 5 more road hours, which is all we really need.
Now however we are mildly behind schedule, trying to get out of Ohio, which fails to have one piece of scenery, beyond that of a field, to look at.
Sean is at the helm for this leg, accepting the highest levels of mockery and scruitiny for his, so far perfect, road driving skills. Tim and I are busy napping and raiding Seans luggage for the baked goods supplied by
his wife.
