Yes, I own a tardis... No, I am not a Timelord.
My car is affectionately known as the Tardis, not because it's driven by a retard (debatable) but because it's interior is much bigger than it looks from the outside. It's a MY06 Ralliart Colt (ADM) with a few mods. I'm pretty fond of my little car which gets driven daily to work and then occasionally gets a proper workout at the track. I'll list the highlights...
This is the car in standard guise about a week after I picked it up
I picked the car up as a "factory demo" with 16,000kms on the clock from Southside Mitsubishi. The car is an ex-SA staff car by the looks of it, with Mitsubishi Australia Head Office stamps in the book and the original regowas in South Australia. I picked it up for $20,000, with the full new car warranty and Ralliart roadside assistance. This model was retailing for $29,990 + ORC at the time. As a standard package this little car is both nippy and frugal, with a 1.5 litre turbo charged engine. The engine features 16 valves, double overhead camshafts, intercooling and MIVEC variable valve gear which adjust valve timing and lift. The engine code is a 4G15 and this particular model engine is fettled by Ralliart from the factory. In standard guise this engine produces 113kw of power and 210nm of torque. The gearbox is a Getrag 5 speed manual with a ZF Sachs clutch which is close ratio and a little bit noisy. Tuned suspension, front strut brace and 30% extra body welding from the factory keep the car stiff and flat in the corners.
Interior:
Photo: www.drive.com.au
The Colt has standard Recaro tombstones borrowed from the Lancer Evolution VIII MR, which are an attractive seat and about as sporty as you will find in a "passenger" vehicle. Other standard fare are the leather wrapped steering wheel, gear knob and handbrake lever. It has semi-climate control and 6 disc in-dash cd player also. Notably absent is a trip computer and cruise control. I have ditched the standard double din stereo for a double din unit from Hong Kong after the standard unit decided to chew one of my favourite cds GRRR. The stereo in there now is an EONON double din 7 inch DVD/TV/AM/FM/CD/Bluetooth unit which cost $140 delivered... an absolute bargain seeing as it hasn't skipped a beat. Other additions to the interior are the Sokudo Boost gauge and a suction cup mount for the iPhone. I have removed the rear seat and boot floor to save a bit of weight, also stops me from becoming a taxi on the weekends.
Standard engine bay
Interior after some weight reduction
Exterior:
An aggressive factory bodykit sets this model apart from the LX and VRX Colts with pumped up guards, side skirts, rear valance, front bumper and bonnet all different from the normal Colt. I have further enhanced the look with a Ralliart copy rear wing, which sits a bit higher and longer than the original one. The wheels have been updated from the factory silver to a tougher Matt Black. Also, the bonnet vent has been sprayed from black to silver and had a heat resistant Ralliart decal added. This mimics the factory option alloy vent which is vastly over-priced and the mod cost me a grand total of $20.
Modifications:
I kept the car pretty standard for quite a few months but as Colt specific products started to get released I got enticed over to the dark side. These cars have very temperamental ECUs so any engine mods have to be carefully considered as to not upset it and send it into Limp Home mode.
The first mod I did to the car was to ditch the large woolly standard air filter and replace it with a K&N replacement unit. This sharpened up the throttle and gave the turbo a chance to whistle a bit. Even without an atmospheric BOV, the filter change gave a nice flutter between gear changes. The standard airbox set-up has since been ditched for a K&N Filtercharger pod filter set up. This allows even more airflow and a more aggressive induction note but sacrifices a small amount of power on warmer days due to having no cold air feed. Soon the induction is to be moved to the wheel arch along with a FPV front mount intercooler from a Falcon XR6T to improve the induction air temperature and gain some hp. The standard intercooler is a side mounted item (sits in front of passenger front wheel) and while it is a quite good design, it's a bit small for effective cooling once you start upping the boost.
The boys at RPW had developed a shorter throw gear shifter so I went and saw them and picked one up. I installed it myself in about an hour and it shortens the vertical throw by around 30% and the horizontal throw by about 20%. It works well on the track and doesn't increase the force required by much, so commuting remains pain free.
Ideas for mods get thrown about forums quite regularly so when I read about Mitsubishi cars having boost restrictor pills that are easily removed and thus freeing up boost I was a little bit skeptical. Once RPW published the mod on their Ralliart Colt modifying guide I thought I'd give it a shot. The standard boost is around 11psi spike at 3500rpm then tapers to 7psi. In preparation for any boost mod you should have a gauge to make sure you aren't venturing into dangerous piston destroying territory. I did this with a Sokudo mechanical boost gauge from Jacky @ R-Sense for $89 delivered. I mounted this on the centre top console, towards the instrument binnacle for ease of monitoring. That weekend, out came the pill and this instantly upped boost to 16psi tapering to 10psi. This has been deemed in the safe range as these cars run very rich from the factory.
The standard exhaust system runs into a horribly designed manifold and from the back of the turbo in a 1.75inch dump, it then goes into downpipe of roughly 2inch diameter into the first catalytic converter, travelling a little while and then into a second catalytic converter, through a resonator around the back suspension into a 1.75inch tight spot then into rear muffler and out a chromed tip. As this system is press bent mild steel, it is certainly an area for improvement. So far it has been replaced up to the downpipe with a 2.5inch mandrel bent stainless steel Lukey system from RPW. The flow is much improved as is the sound. At cruising speeds and off throttle,it is pretty quiet and nonchalant but when the car is pushed it comes to life with a bark and crackle and pop on the overrun.
At this stage, that is it for engine mods until either I fork out for a full replacement ECU or someone develops a reflash for the standard ECU. There have been several companies try to develop a solution but have failed due to both the Skyline GTR and Evo X being released at roughly the same time as this little car. Also, with the market for this car being so small, it limits the cash to be made off such development. And we all know the dollar drives this sort of thing.
These mods so far should have improved the power by around 12-15%, producing about 110-115kw at the wheels. This power increase was enough to worry the front tyres sufficiently to warrant looking at a LSD. Not only for wheelspin but to also try to eliminate torque steer. Cusco and Ralliart both had released 1.5 way mechanical LSDs for this car but when RPW announced they were sending off a stock diff centre to Quaife to have one of their units made up, I was on-board immediately. Quaife do a special LSD which is called an "Auto Torque Biasing" LSD which is a great improvement on the normal clutch type LSDs. Ford have put these LSDs in the Focus RS as standard and Jeremy Clarkson has said it was the best high powered FWD car he'd driven, mainly because of the diff. After a bit of a wait the boys installed it and after a short wrap when I picked the car up, I was in love. It is such a huge improvement on the handling under power, it's astonishing.
RPW have been working on other exhaust mods, releasing a downpipe and developing a dump pipe and manifold (both very close to general release as I type this) but as my car has started to throw Check Engine Lights every now and again, I have put a hold on the power mods until the ECU is sorted.
Of course, when you are upping the power on a car, you should probably look at the brakes. I have replaced the standard front setup with a Mitsubishi twin caliper (Evo I-III, GTO, VR4 Galant), slotted RDA rotors and stainless steel brake lines. EBC Green pads and high quality brake fluid round out the package. The rear setup remains stock, which is a single piston caliper on soft rotors and TRW Lucas pads. This setup hasn't failed me, surviving several track days and getting very (red) hot and still very little (if any) fade.
The stock tyres (Yokohama Advan AD07) have been replaced with Toyo T1R. The Advans are too expensive for a daily driven car and the Toyo offer grip levels pretty close to the Advan (both made in Japan) but at much better money so I don't worry so much when the car hits the track. The only other handling mod so far is the Ultra Racing rear sway bar, which helps stiffen the rear in cornering, promotes a more neutral stance and also a little bit more lift off oversteer for fun.
The car gets driven every day and tracked semi-regularly, at both Superkhanas at Midvale Speed Dome and Tuning Days at RAC Driving Centre so far. Once the car has a few more mods to it, I may take it a bit more seriously and take it to Barbagallo and Kwinana Motorplex.
The standard exhaust system runs into a horribly designed manifold and from the back of the turbo in a 1.75inch dump, it then goes into downpipe of roughly 2inch diameter into the first catalytic converter, travelling a little while and then into a second catalytic converter, through a resonator around the back suspension into a 1.75inch tight spot then into rear muffler and out a chromed tip. As this system is press bent mild steel, it is certainly an area for improvement. So far it has been replaced up to the downpipe with a 2.5inch mandrel bent stainless steel Lukey system from RPW. The flow is much improved as is the sound. At cruising speeds and off throttle,it is pretty quiet and nonchalant but when the car is pushed it comes to life with a bark and crackle and pop on the overrun.
At this stage, that is it for engine mods until either I fork out for a full replacement ECU or someone develops a reflash for the standard ECU. There have been several companies try to develop a solution but have failed due to both the Skyline GTR and Evo X being released at roughly the same time as this little car. Also, with the market for this car being so small, it limits the cash to be made off such development. And we all know the dollar drives this sort of thing.
These mods so far should have improved the power by around 12-15%, producing about 110-115kw at the wheels. This power increase was enough to worry the front tyres sufficiently to warrant looking at a LSD. Not only for wheelspin but to also try to eliminate torque steer. Cusco and Ralliart both had released 1.5 way mechanical LSDs for this car but when RPW announced they were sending off a stock diff centre to Quaife to have one of their units made up, I was on-board immediately. Quaife do a special LSD which is called an "Auto Torque Biasing" LSD which is a great improvement on the normal clutch type LSDs. Ford have put these LSDs in the Focus RS as standard and Jeremy Clarkson has said it was the best high powered FWD car he'd driven, mainly because of the diff. After a bit of a wait the boys installed it and after a short wrap when I picked the car up, I was in love. It is such a huge improvement on the handling under power, it's astonishing.
RPW have been working on other exhaust mods, releasing a downpipe and developing a dump pipe and manifold (both very close to general release as I type this) but as my car has started to throw Check Engine Lights every now and again, I have put a hold on the power mods until the ECU is sorted.
Of course, when you are upping the power on a car, you should probably look at the brakes. I have replaced the standard front setup with a Mitsubishi twin caliper (Evo I-III, GTO, VR4 Galant), slotted RDA rotors and stainless steel brake lines. EBC Green pads and high quality brake fluid round out the package. The rear setup remains stock, which is a single piston caliper on soft rotors and TRW Lucas pads. This setup hasn't failed me, surviving several track days and getting very (red) hot and still very little (if any) fade.
The stock tyres (Yokohama Advan AD07) have been replaced with Toyo T1R. The Advans are too expensive for a daily driven car and the Toyo offer grip levels pretty close to the Advan (both made in Japan) but at much better money so I don't worry so much when the car hits the track. The only other handling mod so far is the Ultra Racing rear sway bar, which helps stiffen the rear in cornering, promotes a more neutral stance and also a little bit more lift off oversteer for fun.
The car gets driven every day and tracked semi-regularly, at both Superkhanas at Midvale Speed Dome and Tuning Days at RAC Driving Centre so far. Once the car has a few more mods to it, I may take it a bit more seriously and take it to Barbagallo and Kwinana Motorplex.
RCOLT.com Winter Track Day 2009 - RAC Driving Centre - photo courtesy of Darthrev
Superkhana day @ Midvale Criterion Circuit - photo courtesy of www.classicrally.com.au
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