(car engine sputtering)
(car engine revving)
- When you give it some throttle,
(car engine revving)
it starts the supercharger, gets it up to 5,500 rpm.
(car engine revving)
And then the turbocharger kicks in
and basically, makes power all the way to red line.
(car engine revving)
(epic music)
(car engine revving)
I'm Larry Chen.
I've been shooting car culture,
all over the world for the past 18 years.
From the best builds to the fastest races, I've seen at all.
In this series, I'm highlighting the gearheads
that inspire me in our generation.
(chill music)
The Elite Showcase is the largest modified car gathering
in all of Indonesia.
It's essentially, their SEMA show.
There were so many incredible builds there
but one definitely stood out to me
and I knew I needed to shoot it the next day.
I met up with Andre, the builder,
and we did a deep dive into this incredible Mitsubishi Evo.
Thanks for coming.
- No problem. It's been an honor.
- [Larry] This is, without a doubt,
the craziest Evo I've ever seen.
Of course, the first question is why?
- [Andre] I've built more powerful Evos for drag racing.
So this one, I build it to be a unique Evo.
- [Larry] It's very unique.
- [Andre] Yeah.
- [Larry] So then it's twincharged.
You have a supercharger set up.
- Yeah. - And then,
it has a very extensively modified turbocharged set up.
Is this a 2-liter still?
- [Andre] 2.1. So I stroke it up a little bit.
- [Larry] Stroked 2.1.
- [Andre] Yeah.
- I don't even know what to ask next.
Okay. (Andre laughs)
(chill music)
Just to explain this as simply as possible,
the air intake from the filter
has two paths directed by a butterfly valve.
On full throttle,
air is first routed through the supercharger
to help spool the turbo from idle to 5,500 rpm.
Once the engine reaches 5,500 rpm,
the butterfly valve is fully open
and air flows directly into the turbo,
bypassing the supercharger.
When this happens, there's a magnetic clutch
on the supercharger pulley
that completely disengages
and allows the pulley to free spin on the supercharger,
removing any parasitic loss of power.
From 5,500 RPM to 9,000 RPM red line,
it's all turbo power from there.
(car engine revving) (wind whooshing)
So then potentially, you can run this
without the supercharger at all.
- Yeah. - And then basically,
this is completely open.
- Yeah, correct. I try it.
- And then how does it run without the supercharger active?
- The turbo actually is very, very laggy.
The size is 76 millimeter.
So generally, it's size GT42.
And I think that's a giant for this kind of displacement.
- [Larry] How many of these sort of systems
exist in the world?
- [Andre] Around five, I think.
Two or three in the UK, one here,
and if I'm not wrong, one in the US.
The kit is sold by a guy in the UK named Norris.
And when I purchased, this, not like just plug and play.
There's still a lot of fabrication
and we still need to do a lot of things to make this work.
- The question is, where did you learn all this stuff?
How do you know how to even put all this stuff together?
- [Andre] Actually, it's my first try.
Previously, I built generally Evo,
just big turbos, drag racing, and kind like that.
So yeah, it's like a challenge for me.
My good friend and my customer purchased
and sent the car to me.
He just said he wanted a unique Evo.
- [Larry] How long did it take for you to build this?
- Around 12 to 15 months.
- And then did you have to take it down
all the way to bare metal?
- All.
- Everything.
- Everything. - Every bolt off.
- Yeah, including the suspension, differentials, everything.
So all rubbers, all mounts, all new.
The interior, we just try to match the green color.
So originally, a black SR-7 Recaro.
- [Larry] Is the body any different at all?
- [Andre] No, the body actually is stock EVO V.
The brakes, it's actually a break from EVO X.
And that's big for this car.
- [Larry] Did this ever come with drive-by-wire?
- Yeah, all of the EVO I did, I used AEM ECU,
the Infinity, and it works good for me.
- [Larry] So on this setup,
is it running pump gas or race gas or what?
- Yeah, it's running pump gas. - What is it running?
And how much power does it make?
- [Andre] Around 600.
- And it's not really so much about the peak horsepower
because you potentially- - Correct.
- Could make more.
- Yeah, with race gas.
- But it's about the response.
It's like instant response.
Compared to like if you just ran the big turbo.
- [Andre] Yeah, correct.
- [Larry] So then what does the owner actually do
with this car?
- Leave it at my house.
- So that way you can enjoy it?
- Yeah, he never drove this car.
- Never? - Never.
- All right.
(upbeat music) (singer vocalizing)
(car engine rumbling)
(car engine revving)
The owner wanted something unique.
The owner wanted something that really is so rare
but he's never driven it,
and it's existed for a couple years now.
What blows me away
is I've seen that so much here in Indonesia
where the owner just lets somebody else drive the car.
- Yeah, yeah. - But they just own it.
And they're enjoying it from the outside.
It's interesting.
I've never really seen anything like that in the world.
Because especially in the US, if you owned a car,
you're gonna want to drive it yourself.
Unless it's a collector car, you just let it sit.
- Yeah, I know. - You know, but
the thing is this is still getting driven.
- Should be.
- So how many kilometers
is on this thing? - So basically,
the RallyArt speedometer is brand new.
- Yep. - So I got it from zero.
- [Larry] Oh, okay.
And then since you rebuilt the engine,
it pretty much has this many kilometers on it?
- [Andre] Yep.
- 224?
- Yes.
- That's it? - 200 plus, that's it.
- [Larry] And there's air conditioning in this.
- [Andre] Yes, it's a must here in Indonesia.
- [Larry] Yeah, every single car here,
all the performance cars have air conditioning
- Because we don't have any winters.
You guys in the US, I saw a lot of them remove the AC.
- Yeah. - Damn, look so good.
- Yeah. (laughs)
(car engine revving)
(Larry laughs) (car engine revving)
This is so...
It sounds so different from the inside.
- Really? - It sounds so different.
- [Andre] Do you notice the change over?
The sound? - Uh-huh.
(car engine revving)
Oh, I think I heard it.
(car engine revving)
Oh, my God.
- [Andre] And you can hear it.
(car engine revving)
- [Larry] Oh.
(car engine revving)
It goes... (imitates engine revving)
(car engine revving)
That changeover sound,
(car engine revving)
I've never heard anything else like it.
- I like the power band more. It's like...
It doesn't stop pulling until red line.
- Yeah.
This is such a unique build.
I feel like there needs to be more of these kind of builds.
Like this is such a good way to get rid of turbo lag.
- Yeah. Yeah.
- It's very distinctive.
You first hear the supercharged whine,
it sounds like a supercharged vehicle.
And then you hear this weird sound,
the... (imitates engine revving)
And then that's when the valve opens completely
and then it just becomes a full on turbocharged car.
So then if you're shifting,
for example, from second to third, the valve stays open.
- Yeah. - Right?
Because the... - Valves are open.
- Is it RPM based or is it throttle based?
- Basically, it's 3D.
So RPM based, throttle based, and load based.
(chill music)
- So is the Evo platform
really popular here in in Indonesia?
- In a street racing and drag racing, I think, yes.
One of the most popular and one of the fastest as well.
- [Larry] Were there a lot of Evo Vs
that were sold in Indonesia?
- [Andre] Actually, no.
Legally speaking, the Evo sold here
only came from six until then.
- So the Evo VI was available to the Indonesian market.
You could buy it from a showroom floor?
- Yeah.
- But the Evo V, unless it was imported when it was new,
it's impossible-
- It's impossible. - To get one
into this country. - Yeah.
- Unless there's certain, like a gray area.
- Yeah, and some of them is a rally car
that's been restored to normal car.
- Right, so some of 'em
were probably brought into this country.
- Yeah. - Expecting it
to just be off-road only,
but they're used for on-road.
- Yeah, now. - Now.
In the US, the Evos are a dime a dozen.
Evo VIII, IX, X, they just get thrashed
because they were relatively cheap.
At one point when they were new,
they were under $30,000, I think.
Here in Indonesia, it seems like
there's a bigger sense of pride for these vehicles
because there's so few and far between.
You can probably count how many of these
there are in the country, huh?
How many Vs are there?
- [Andre] Maybe 20?
- 20? - 20. Yeah.
Not much.
- Well, you know, and that's why
you take care of what you have.
And on top of that, the price level is so different.
(chill music)
(audio booming)