There are fast cars, and then there are really fast cars. Some are noted for their ability to clock stratospheric top speeds, while others are able to sprint to 100km/h in the blink of an eye. These are two different things, leading to contention among petrolheads about the definition of what a “fast car” really is.
There’s still one other mark of speed, what many consider to be the mother of all measurements: the quarter-mile. Unlike the other two, this is the ability to clock the least amount of time over 400m to win the race.
Quarter-mile drag races are a popular staple among many motor sports aficionados. These races are held everywhere. The FIA even has a Drag Racing Commission.
In Singapore, there have been only two legal quarter-mile drag races. One was held at the Auto Trail 2005 in Marina South as part of the National Day celebrations that year; the other was the Carrerista Jamboree, which was held at the Changi Exhibition Centre at the end of last year.
It was at the more recent event that the car you see here stamped its undisputed reputation as Singapore’s fastest quarter-miler. It beat all comers with the winning time of 9.76 seconds. It was only one of two cars to go under the magic 10-second barrier at the Jamboree. (For the record, a standard Subaru WRX needs 14.5 seconds to complete the sprint.)
But this is not the fastest that the modified car has ever achieved. This all-conquering drag racer has won many events across the causeway – most notably the Sepang Drag Battle. Then there was the BF Goodrich Asian Motorsports Festival, where it clocked a scarcely believable 9.24 seconds to win the drag race.
This car is fast, thanks to the guys at Garage R. Sure, the car may have started life as an Evo, but Garage R has done so much work to it that there’s scarcely anything, apart from the basic shell, that links it back to Mitsubishi.
Inside and outside, the car has been stripped down and modified so extensively that other than the body and certain portions of the undercarriage and chassis, the car is nothing like what it was originally.
Its previous life was as a Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution 6.5RS Tommi Makinen Edition. Now, it is codenamed the Garage R D-01. Call it whatever you like, it is one serious piece of kit. Its list of mods looks like pages ripped straight out of the HKS catalogue, and then some.
The engine has been stuffed with new HKS drag racing-spec forged pistons, conrods and crankshaft, and then pumped up with a huge custom T62 turbocharger (which is actually a prototype that is not in production).
A large-capacity ARC intercooler cools the charged air, while a custom ARC radiator keeps the engine at optimum temperatures at all times. HKS’ Super Power Flow Reloaded air filter, custom fuel rails, and 1000cc injectors ably handle air and fuelling, while a HKS Twin Power ignition system provides the strong sparks required for maximum combustion.
Ensuring that everything works like a well-oiled machine is a HKS F-Con Vpro that’s loaded with the latest software, while the presence of the ever-popular HKS EVC 5 gives the driver the ability to control and adjust boost on the fly.
And speaking of boost, I was told by Lawrence Lee, the managing director of Garage R, that D-01 had previously run on almost 3 bar of boost – churning out an eye-popping 1300bhp at the crank.
The problem was the car kept breaking traction and spinning its tyres, even from the lightest throttle input and when shod with super-sticky Mickey Thompson drag slicks.
Hence, after much trial and error (and many sets of worn-out tyres), the highest boost was set at 2.2 bar – which still allowed for crowd-pleasing, tyre-smoking burnouts. And even at that reduced boost level, Lee estimated the car was still squeezing out a healthy 850bhp. This is still more than enough for the car to clock more fantastic times.
Next up for the car is a parachute braking system, as the current Endless big brake set-up, though powerful, barely copes with hauling the car down from over 220km/h effectively after each run.
To almost everyone but the most serious of performance hardheads, the existence of Garage R D-01 is meaningless; it is essentially a testosterone-driven project undertaken by petrolheads with tunnel vision. Or so they think.
It’s undeniable that D-01 was created to demolish all and sundry. But it has made even the bigwigs at HKS in Japan sit up and take notice. (Mind you, these people see high-performance cars more often that they see the sun rise.) So, you see, we do have the know-how to build our own cars. Well, kind of.
+ ENGINE/ELECTRONICS
Custom-built 4G63 with HKS forged pistons, conrods and crankshaft
HKS Super Power Flow Reloaded air filter with custom titanium piping
HKS custom T62 turbocharger
HKS SSQV
HKS custom twin fuel rails
HKS 1000cc injectors
HKS F-Con Vpro (Ver 3.3)
HKS DB RS oil temp, oil pressure and fuel pressure meters
HKS EVC 5
HKS Twin Power ignition system
ARC custom full aluminium intercooler
ARC custom full aluminium radiator
Customised side exhaust system
+ EXTERIOR
Custom lightweight fibre doors
Custom lightweight carbon fibre bonnet and trunk
+ INTERIOR
Carbing roll cage
ATL fuel cell
Custom seam-welded chassis
+ WHEELS/TYRES
ROTA lightweight alloy wheels
Mickey Thomson ET drag tyres
+ BRAKES
Endless big brake kit (front)
