For some reason, I’ve had the urge to update the blog lately. With the demise of Google Reader, I’m not even sure that anyone will still know this thing exists- but I enjoy writing and having a place to keep my thoughts related to a build, so I’m going to update it anyway!

When we last left my Evo in February, it was still fairly stock. Shortly after adding the engine bay pieces, I decided to sell them. I spent a pretty good chunk of change on rare ARC items- and while they were really cool, I realized I had much more important items I needed to buy like summer tires, coilovers, and some exterior pieces.

Here’s a rundown of what the car has been through in the last six months:

Exterior:

The exterior is definitely the aspect of the car that changed the most. I met someone on the Evo forums from Chicago that had an Evo IX front bumper, so I traded him my VIII front for it. It was banged up and needed a new lip, but it had all of the grills intact. I picked up a new OEM SE lip from Russell at MitsubishiParts.net, had both pieces painted, and put them on the car.

After the front was swapped, I decided the weather was nice enough to put the Work CR Kais and Hankooks on, despite only being on lowering springs. This was a temporary look until I had the time to put the coilovers on:

Next came the KW V3 coilovers with Cusco camber plates, which I guess are not technically an exterior item, but that’s OK.

I was much happier with the look of the car when the coilovers went on. It also made the car even more fun to drive, so I couldn’t complain about that! Thanks again to Peter and KW for hooking me up with these.

The next item added was a pair of JDM Evo VIII MR headlights:

This is the point I had told myself I would be happy with when I bought the car back in November, thinking it would take me much longer to get to this stage. Well, if you know me at all, you know that I tend to change my tune rather quickly with these types of things. Before I knew it, I had Voltex side skirts and a Voltex front lip sitting on my door step, courtesy of Mike at Evasive Motorsports.

Voltex aero is often criticized in the Evo community for being too “common.” While there are Evos across the country with Voltex aero, I would hardly call it something you see every day. Despite its reputation, I really like the Voltex look best, so that’s the route I decided to go. JDM Ego Jay’s previous Evo builds are both a big inspiration to me, so there was some influence there as well.

Around the same time, my genuine JDM rear bumper arrived from MitsubishiParts.net. I also scored a Voltex CF exhaust shield to go with it from Evasive as well. I had everything painted and tossed it on the car:

I was pretty stoked with the transformation to this look, but it was apparent that the rear was a bit out of balance. So I hit up Evasive once again and ordered a genuine Voltex rear diffuser to even things out:

A pair of OEM window visors also made their way onto the car:

The next additions included a pair of blue tint Ganador super aero mirrors and a genuine OEM vortex generator. I was always torn on those things, but I think I ended up liking it.

After spending a bit of time with the front lip, in typical Damon fashion I decided it just wasn’t doing it for me. I ended up selling the IX front and Voltex front lip to fund a Voltex street full replacement front bumper. It just arrived last week and should be out of paint soon!

I’m planning to add a Voltex wing to finally finish the exterior off. I’ll probably end up adding the front canards too, but we’ll see. I can’t wait to be content with the exterior and lose this feeling of it being incomplete. I could see changing wheels next season as usual, but I also like the current set- so we’ll see what happens.

So that’s how the exterior sits now. I’ll check in next to bring you up to speed on the changes to the bay and interior since my last post in February. Those changes are far more minimal, but there are a couple cool things worth reading. Thanks for stopping by!

Damon