Evo Soul

Conti Had a very simple yet effective animation on what sets All Season and Summer Tires a part from Winter Tires.  Yes its basic and has no sound but watch and you will get an idea on how your tires react on the road surface.  Play close attention to the flexing of the tire material as it spreads itself over the ground area at all temps.

Source of this video can be found at http://www.conti-online.com/generator/www/us/en/continental/automobile/themes/car_tires/winter/ov_winter_en.html

Regardless of what brand you choose, you should always be riding on tires rated for winter.

In someways I think I have beat to death this topic, but since I keep getting emails about them, I think I will take another shot.   I will come right out and say it.   When it comes to lighting, I am not the smartest guy in the world, far from it.   Everything I learned the old fashion way.  Trial and error.   And Trial and Error = money wasted.

10 Years ago I got my very first car, and like alot of cars out there it was an import.  Great car, bulletproof you could say, but one of the biggest pains in the ass is the headlights would always blow out, more so on the passenger side than the driver side.   Funny thing was, that it wasnt the OEM bulb that was blowing out, but the aftermarket (cool looking at the time) halogen bulbs.  I tried bulbs from ebay,  Eurolights, and other no name brands and slowly worked my way up the chain to find quality bulbs that A) looked good B) last longer than a year.   I finally arrived at what I thought was the top quality stuff.   Stuff from PIAA.  And once you said PIAA 10 years ago…  everyone said it, they were the top dog.   Or so i thought.  My choice, the Super Plasma GT-X from PIAA.

Word on the street is that they enhanced lighting much better over OEM.  and for a while it did.  Gave me maybe 30% more light and they were alot better looking at as well.  Unfortuantely, 2 months later one of the bulbs failed.  (damn)  so i went back to the Big box store I bought them from (Canadian Tire) and put thru a warranty claim.  Keystone sent a new set, and then bang. off the races again.   Low and behold, another blow out.  &#*#.  Went back to Canadian Tire did the same thing.   It was on my 3rd blow out without a year that made me say to myself I just wasted 69 bucks.  *they are price bulb.  Was it the technology?  was it the brand?  what the hell was wrong.   It was when I asked around and digged deeper I discovered the problem.  And it was something that the ordinary and even the smart guys would have missed.   And this comes down to the main part of this article.

Now I will start off by saying,  Different manufacturers have different levels of manufacturering and tolerance quality.  The reason why I say this is because I found it funny that my OEM bulbs (now 4 years old at the time) were still working no problems,  everytime I had a blow out i would put them in and they would work no problem.  Why was that GE OEM bulbs.   And thats because no one on earth mades so many bulbs, they go thru layers and layers of batch testing.  its one business they are good at and thats why they score so many OEM contracts.   But why,?  why is that?    Because GE tests these bulbs for all conditions possible when in the hands of a car owner.  And one of the things that just kills bulbs, and I mean kills a halogen bulb is voltage / power variations.    What do i mean?

Let me give you more specs to work with.  We will take my old (now burried)  honda Accord car.    I had a stereo system in it for like 3 years,  a 200 watt amp one 12″ sub in the back, and a nice indash sony deck.   Sweet (well for 2001 it was) .   And I would turn that thing up and just soak up the music.  What I did know is that I was murdering my headlights via the voltage spikes and drops happening during each beat of the song.   See when I was buying the stereo, I wasnt sure if I should get a capacitor or not.  When I mentioned it to the Futureshop installers (bestbuy company now)  he first laughed and said, this thing isnt pulling anywhere near the amount of power where you would need a capacitor.  So I beleived him and installed it just as is.   (BIG FRIGGING MISTAKE)

I murdered not only PIAA bulbs (3 sets) Euro lights (2 sets) and my favorite halogen bulbs at the time (about 5 sets) over the span of 4 years.  I figured, this is what these bulbs have to offer, its just the nature of the beast, you want nice looking lights, you just have to keep buying replacements.    And that was just sooooo wrong.   I didnt realize that power variation kills bulb filaments.    This is why they tell you in school when your young not to play with the lights by flicking them on and off.   But let me go deeper and explain.

Crutchfield.com use to have great articles over the time, stuff with diagrams packed with alot of information, lately over the years they have updated things and made it more basic.   But I remember a great diagram that illustrated what happend in a car when you had an audio system that was to powerful for your amp.   It was great it would show / explain how your power system worked in your car and how it would attempt to balance / compensate for any drops or dips in your power requirements.

For the sake of making a over simplified point.

Jim buys a audio system,  its rated 1000 watts,  and he drives a 1.7 accord or something.   When he starts kicking that music hard, in the beginning his car is fine but as time goes by, he car alternator has to work harder and supply power to compensate for the drop in battery power.   Generally your alternators job is to run the car and charge the battery,  thats it, but in this case, the battery was being so depleted in an uneven kinda way that it was constantly switching back and forth to charge the battery and meet the requirements of the audio system, in some cases, what might happen if the battery drops too low, your audio will just trip out and stop working until power comes back up.   But what you dont see happening on the micro level is.   Your headlights are being surged with power on every beat.  And that is something that will decrease the life of your halogen bulbs.

But you dont need a killer audio system to see that happen.  If you drive a slightly older car, say 2002.  If you sit there in park say in a dark garage,  with the A/C on, and just wait, you will see that when your cooling radiator fan kicks on your headlights will slightly dim.  when the fan stops (30 seconds later) your headlights might be slightly brighter then when you started.  This all has to do with the load placed on the battery.  Remember the job of your alternator is to recharge the battery.  thats a load on your car and it will be visible.

One final example, similar to the previous.  be in a dark place like a garage,  sit there with the car running.   While in park give the car a bit of gas,  you should see your headlights get a bit brighter as you tug on the gas.  Remember your alternator generates more power as the RPMs climb.   This is what I would discribe as variation in power.    Even if its 2% or 5% or in some really old cars 10 to 15% that takes a toll on your headlights.

Getting back to what I said about build quality and tolerance.  PIAA or any other company may hook up 1000 bulbs from a lot and test to see how long they will last.  to make an over simplified example, run them for 3 months straight,  maybe only 10 might fail,  and they might say, ok thats pretty good, failure rate is low, and its acceptable.  But you now know, its not.  for people that put a higher demand on their car.  now thats just PIAA, what about companys that do even weaker tests, and have higher failure rates, they might not car and push bulbs out the door anyway.   Hense why when it comes to no name brand bulbs, they kill them selves left and right.

Pretty Depressing story right?  But there are steps you can take to preserve your halogen based stuff if you find yourself in the same boat as I was in, and I will review what this stuff has to do with HID based technology.  ;)  thats enough for now.

I was talking to a Japanese contact which I have come to call a friend about what may or may not be going on at Mitsu HQ.  (DISCLAIMER:) I will fire this off straight from the start.  This is pure speculation, nothing has been confirmed nore is there any strong evidence to support such talk.

Now I can get on with it.  When I heard this speculation, there were multiple reasons why I took interest.

1) There was talk that either Mitsu is or some time ago was speculating at integrating Sharp’s Plasmacluster technology into their product line up.  That said, it just so happens that I have been using Plasmacluster technology in my home.  What is Plasmacluster ION technology?  Simply put,  Its one of the most effective methods of air / environment purification to date made by Sharp, (the people who make TV’s and other popular electronics.)  Ya ya but what does it do you ask?  I think sharp puts it best.

“…Originally developed as an air quality technology, Plasmacluster Ion attacks impurities and diseases in the air….Plasmacluster Ion generates positive and negative ions in the air. These ‘cling’ to airborne impurities and diseases, attacking the cell membranes of their bacteria. In turn, this neutralises them.” - http://www.avianfludefence.com

Now if it sounds a little far fetched or played up, think again.    Dont think the Japanese arent clued in.  Like with their Cellphones and Cars, they are light years into the future in many aspects.  Dont be fooled, they had this Virus H1N1 and H5N1 influenza stuff figured out decades ago.  They have been tightening their healthcare game like 10 years ago and now this technology is everywhere.   I remember asking some of my japanese friends about Plasmacluster technology products for like 2 years.  matter afact, its so integrated now that its in just about everything.   Integrated into lights, TV,s Refrigerators, Ovens, Microwaves, A/C systems.  I am talking about Everywhere.  Hell the Japanese government has put these systems into their own government offices and even military bases / research labs.  Its advance stuff, and about 99% effective at eliminating viral and bacterical threats.

Anyways getting back to the speculation, and I swear I hope its true.  The technology works extremely well.  And it would go along way to enhancing the ownership experience for Mitsu Fans.  Toyota already has this technology integrated into Its Hybrid Camry (North America).

Thats good news for all you chain smokers out there that love smoking with the windows up.  The smell generally dissapears in a very short time.  I dont smoke, but I like knowing I am in a clean zone.  Hell, I spent 1500 dollars putting these devices all over my house 2 years ago and my life long seasonal allergies stopped ever since….

2)  That said there is another reason why I hope its true.  I am not happy with the performance of our Air system. There are a few things that drive me a little crazy when trying to drive my car.  Like the whole issue with windshield condensation.  You driving along, say on a cold night, and you see the windows fogging up, the only way to get rid of it is to activate the A/C system which in turn activates the dehumidifer.  Now, I have owned a few cars in my time, I admit this is my first Mitsubishi.  But all of them dont seem to have this issue.  You turn on the windshield vent with outside air coming in and presto… fog is gone.  Using ones A/C system in the Winter time strinks me as a little wierd dont you?

Anyways I thought I would throw that out there for your own consumption… if you want to read up on exactly how plasmacluster technology works, you can go to the sharp websites or you can take a look at this simplified training manual left open on a sharp corp website for employees I think http://www.sharp.com.eg/pdf/PCI.pdf

When I glance over the countless threads on evolutionm.net and other websites I always see people on average who beleive that HP is everything.  In some respects it is, but in others TQ is a far better measure of actual power.  Part of the problem is this fast and furious generation that think HP is the end all stamp of actual power.  To be honest its not.  Some cars such as Audi, Subaru, Mitsubishi and others who focus on low end power; tend to keep there perspective fixed on TQ.   HP is great for straight aways and drag racing, this is where Honda’s and their VTEC engines really earn their stripes.  I always see threads that ask the question,  which car would win a 2008 2.0L lancer or Honda Si.  The truth is, the Honda would win on a track with straight a ways or in a head to head drag race.  Dont even think about doing it either.  Unless you A) gut your lancer’s inside and take everything out B) you get serious with CAMS and all the N/A mods you can get, then you have a chance.

But why is this?  This is the marketing problem that Mitsubishi failed to address when designing the lancer.  And in an industry like this, just like the rule of thumb, Sex Sells, so does Horsepower.  If you ask a power question to someone who owns a EVO  or A SUBARU, I am pretty sure they will say, “give me the TQ numbers, thats what I really care about”.  This is because our cars, have a TQ engine which is meant for the track.  And when your racing around corners and zooming left and right you want that low end power so you never miss a bit.  Its a very different driving experience then making a Honda Civic Scream at ultra high RPMs.  The difficult thing with a civic is to master the shifting to keep that car in the zone where you know VTEC makes power.  Simply put some cars are design and optimized for TQ and others are HP, some even bridge the gap and fall right in the middle and balance the two.  One finally not, lol the CIVIC is not as porky *heavy. as the Lancer, even if you gut the lancer interior.

This is something to keep in mind when you are looking to add mods to your car.  Do you want LOW end TQ or high end HP gains.  Alot of Lancer owners get this wrong.  Even though the evidence stares us all in the face.  I am more or less pretty new to the Lancer scene, I was in the Honda and Mazda world, but if you look at the dyno sheets you will see that our 2008+ Lancers produce more TQ than HP (on the dyno) especially when you start dropping mods in there, you start to see the TQ numbers getting further and further away from the HP peak.

That said, you dont want to ignore HP, there are great products out there, although my own verification tests failed due to my Canadian spec ECU, its already been confirmed that the AEM and INJEN intake come more or less inline with their stated HP / TQ numbers.  The INJEN Cold air intake provides an amazing 9HP and 3TQ (Dyno JET).  And the AEM intake provides a more level and overall gain of 5.3 TQ and HP(mustang dyno).  It provides that power sooner and across the entire power band vs. the INJEN’s power in waves along the RPM range.  Both are great options and are equal in most respects, the only beef I had about the AEM is that they didnt officially support the CVT transmission, which is sad, because that is the intake that would benefit the CVT the most due to the CVTs low end driving range.

I didnt want to get too complicated with my small article here but i just wanted to raise awareness to those out there who are looking for options for their car.  When you are looking at Dyno sheets and trying to make up your mind, give a little bit more weight to the TQ curve.  Unfortunately manufacturers/Vendors are still making products which conflicts with the proper logic for the lancer.  

Related and unrelated readings: (these following articles arent the end all of the TQ VS HP debate but it will give you a different perspective when it comes to HP and TQ)  So that said, dont run away thinking you know the ins and outs of the HP and TQ debate, there are a few schools of thought and different camps.  Dont take these articles as the bible either.
http://www.team-integra.net/sections/articles/showArticle.asp?ArticleID=2 
http://craig.backfire.ca/pages/autos/horsepower 
http://www.procivic.com/pages-horsepower_torque/index.html

EVOSOUL

To add further to the CVT transmission debate I highly recommend reading an article found in Gears Mag.  Written by Sean Boyle.  Now the articles are titled JATCO CVT and Daimler Chrysler, but this doesnt mean it has nothing to do with Mitsubishi.  Remember Its a known fact that Chrysler and Mitsubishi have shared techonlogy and approaches for sometime now.  Furthermore, JATCO makes transmissions for these two manufacturers as well as Nissan about a decade, maybe longer.  The CVT design for the SRT Caliber line should be almost if not exactly identical to the one found in the Mitsubishi lancer.  So hopefully after reading this, it will add to the speculation to the CVTs boost potential

 http://www.gearsmagazine.com/images/issues/3_2007/2007_03_38.pdf

 and the conclusion to this article can be found here in part 2
http://www.gearsmagazine.com/images/issues/4_2007/2007_04_04.pdf