The Mitsubishi Evolution MR Club Spec of TMR Performance has
cracked into the top five at last weekend’s 2011 Quit Targa West, and the
highest placed showroom specification car of the event.
On roads dominated by supercars, while the Nissan GT-Rs of
Steve Jones and Matt Sims and the Porsche GT2 RS of Jim Richards filled the
podium, the Evo X MR of Dean Evans and Toni Feaver claimed fifth outright,
taking their Hankook-shod Lancer to some third-fastest stage times, and never
slower than 10th, while showing the consistency that kept them in
the top six outright for much of the 212 competitive kilometre four-day event.
The TMR built Evo X is based on an up-spec MR model, with
SST twin-clutch gearbox, and a TMR power tune to 290kW, on 98-octane fuel.
“It’s probably as close to a production car as you could
get,” explained TMR’s Alan Heaphy. “We fitted a three-inch exhaust, put good
coil-overs under it and a set of brake pads, and that’s about it. To put in
those times, and to place fifth outright on an event that favours supercars
like the GT-Rs and Porsches, it’s a fantastic value-for-money package – the Evo
X was worth $75,000 and competing against cars at least twice its price. Dean
and Toni did a fantastic job and both car and crew ran faultlessly all event”.
For Evans it was also a personal victory, having had his
first ever crash in 16 years of racing at the 2010 event in the same car: “last
year we were punished hard for a small mistake, but TMR did a great job
rebuilding the Evo, and to come back and claim a top five in a showroom spec
car is the perfect way to thank the TMR crew and the car, and Hankook Tyres for
its ongoing support.”
Evans and the Hankook TMR Evo X have now claimed 1st
in Showroom at Mt Buller Sprint 2009, 2nd at Targa Wrest Point and
Targa Tasmania 2010, 6th outright at Targa High Country 2010 and now
5th outright at Targa West 2011 capping off strong results for what
is a very cost effective way to experience top level motorsport.
