I’ve known Kez and her partner Nghia for a while now.. Some of you may remember this feature of Nghia’s S13, which is roughly the time I got to know them both a bit better. They used to come out to JDMST meets together and have a good chat in the good old days when I had time for such things haha.. In my experience, they are the loveliest couple.. Always ready to help out and hook a brother up, so I have a lot of time for them both. It’s glad to see them moving on to bigger and better things as time goes on, with Nghia having traded up from his 13 to a Chaser as well! This will be coming in a future edition, pending a magazine publication.
On to the car. Kez has been building this Evo patiently and for some time, and I think the care and attention to detail really shows.
As you’ve already noticed, the Evo 9 has probably the only set of CCW LM20s in the country. And not in just any size: 18×9.5 +13 all round. To be able to fit them, Kez has done a bit of guard work, having rolled the rears, but more importantly, taken advantage of Nghia’s expertise as a fitment guru.
Silk Road RMA8 coils keep the car planted, with 9kg springs front & rear, as well as allowing for heaps of adjustment.
While the car might not have a huge amount of engine mods, there is still a very respectable 220kW at all four. Air is being sucked through a K&N filter in a custom airbox, pushed through 3″ intercooler piping, controlled by a Haltech ECU, and finally ending up in a custom 3″ tucked up stainless exhaust with centre straight through muffler & 3 1/2″ straight pipe. One other supporting mod is a high torque 5-puck button clutch from Direct Clutch Services. Kez specifically mentioned how impressed she was with how they’ve looked after her.
So it’s really mostly breathing mods and a little bit of extra boost (set at 20psi) that help this Evo jump from about 209kW at the engine, to 220kW at the wheels. Not bad.
The standard interior doesn’t need too much messing with. It’s all business.
Check out the OEM Recaros.
Was great to see it in the flesh again when the Evo came out to play at the latest Downshift meet in March. I hope to keep seeing both the cars and Kez & Nghia well into the future.