FASTEST/Quickest trueEvo.com evo (you get a special title)

[SMP3000]

I'll have to see if a "shop car" can win this. I'll discuss this with Staff. I guess we'll also have to define "shop car" lol

[9sec9]

I was cruising the forums last night and thought I should at least post our times. We've run several different turbos in the last 3 years so I'll just post a few of our times on each turbo:
FP-Green (old style) 10.61 at 133.65 mph
FP-RED 9.57 and 145.16 MPH
FP-BLACK (Testing only, not maximum effort by any stretch) 9.53 and 149.58 MPH
FS635 9.20 and 157.63 MPH (3 total passes only)
HTA86 with wrong Mivec maps 157.90 MPH
More to come very soon

[SMP3000]

dang! Very impressive! Tom do you own the car or is it owned by a corporation? I guess I'm still trying to figure out if we should give the titles to individually owned cars rather than shop/company owned cars.

[9sec9]

I've done the exact same thing that everyone else does. Paid through the nose for 90% of what we race. I personally own 2 2006 Evo IX's. Both were

purchased out of my own pocket and I made my own decisions as to who I used for what parts, engines, mods, etc. Many of the mods and tuning I did and do

at my house, contrary to what some might like to believe. The main difference with what my son and I have done is that we've just spent a lot of time

travelling with the race trailer and 'getting around' to tracks all over the country. Not a single shop EVER paid us anything to do what we do. I make

100% of the decisions on the cars. I have nearly 300K invested in about 5 engines, 2 cars,3 transmissions, 3 rear diffs, 3 transfer cases, a race

trailer, tools, etc, etc. We've been lucky enough to have a few of our Sponsors, FORCED PERFORMANCE especially, step up and supply turbos, cams, etc, but

I even personally paid for my Wilson Manifolds, even though they were at our dealer cost. It hasn't quite been what some people have advertised. Even

during the days of working with David, I think he would even say that I never asked for a 'deal' like most of his friends. I've been willing to pay my

own way. He did donate a LOT of dyno time while I tuned and a LOT of his own personal time on Saturdays and even Sundays to help me out. We're far, far

from being a shop car, we just have to pay the price to compete with them.

There were times that some vendors asked us to use their parts if they supplied them. All they asked in return was a decal on the car. Hell, I even paid

for each of my C&R radiators. Sparktech supplied our ignition, even though I had already purchased 2 of DB's ignitions. I added up just SOME of the

tickets I spent with just one shop and had over 140K in just the tickets I could find. If paying for all of this out of your own personal money makes it

a shop car, then where does the personal expense of racing begin and end. I don't think anyone who knows the 'inside' stories could dispute any of this.

I've even purchased items that are just sitting on the shelf, 'just in case', such as the 2 engines ready for installation.

In the scheme of things, we went way past the slippery slope to just obtain a dream of building a 9 sec Evo. I just never stopped when Tony drove it to

it's first 9 sec pass in Tulsa. It was several weeks later that I took it to Ohio and Trent drove it to the record setting runs of 9.57 and `145.16 mph.

I've just never slowed down on moving to the next level. I work at my own company every day and have to find the time for the Evos.

A few of the items discounted or given to us along the way included Ron Shearer supplying the header, so we could continue our record setting days while I

was still in Ohio. I later paid full price for another manifold from him (stock type). I called Shep to inquire about rebuilding our transmission, not

knowing that he even knew about me or our car. During the conversation, it became apparent that he did and he really wanted us to use the Dogbox, so we

agreed on a price and he built one in 3 days, over the weekend.

The stories like the ones above go on and on. I've paid my way. Even down to buying the entire first run of Hoosier Drag Radials that I spec'd with the

Hoosier engineer. I've read the 'It's not like 9sec9 built the tires in his backyard' comments, but that's ok. I personally drove to the 2009 Shootout,

just so we could test them on multiple cars, only to have biased opinions posted all over EvoM. Now, they're being used from Guatemala, to Puerto Rico,

California to New York, New Jersey. AWDMike even used them on the fastest Drag Radial Evo. The tires worked and Jim and I believed in them. We just had

to pony up the personal guarantee to buy the first run, just to bring them to market. They've been a success, not because of some shop, which we don't

have, but through perseverence and belief. We're the same with our passion for what we do with our cars. No, far from being a shop car, or a corporation

paying out big checks to let us race, we're just like everyone else who likes to race. If we have a dime, we'll spend a quarter. If we have a dollar,

we'll spend ten. It all comes straight from my own personal checking account, just like 95 % of everyone else. I just happen to be fortunate enough and

have spent enough working years to spend my time and money on what I enjoy.

I'm probably a little sensitive about the SHOP car bit, because I've had people nearly claim it as their own. I've spent a lot of time with David

Buschur and we both gained from our friendship (and in some cases lost from our friendship), so it made the line of "Who, what, when and where" a little

blurred. Make no mistake, however. We own our own car, do our own work or pay to have it done, just maybe on a little higher level. I hope this clears

up anything about our car. My son is the driver and I'm the owner, tuner and decision maker for the car.

I think CornFedIX can backup what I've said, just from the few times he's been around me while I've had to conduct business on the phone. I know that

shops like to pretend that we're just another 'Million dollar' Shop car, but if we were, it would only be because we enjoyed our passion enough to justify

it to our wives and personal pocket books. I try to work as much of what we do in with my own Database Company, such as advertising, but that's only

maybe $2500 in the last year for a trailer wrap. Jim (IndyEvo) and I started 9sec9.com (which I very quickly threw togethr) so we could have an outlet

to present the community with new products, previously unavailable. Nearly every day we talk about new ideas and he either calls in a favor to bring it

to fruition, or I pay to get it done. Such as the $4500 to have 10 spools built for our Evo rear diffs. Never been built before, but after crunching our

gears one time at dragway 42 in Ohio, I decided that wasn't happening again. They've now been used in at least 6 700+whp Evos and set and currently hold

some of the ET/MPH records. Not a single failure with any of them. They did recently work so well that instead of the diff breaking, a level 5 axle from

the Driveshaft Shop broke instead. That speaks to their strength and the own (well known here) ordered another one, since when we're out, we won't build

any more of them. We sold them at cost and below, just so we could bring them to the big end racers. I know of one Evo that broke several diffs before

installing this, no more failures. Jim used his skills and contacts to get these built and I paid for them and still haven't recovered all of the

expense. Only 1 is remaining and I'm not too inclined to sell it. I'll be glad to answer any other questions about our 'Shop' car, but that covers the

general idea of where we came from and how we got there, whereever 'there' is.
Sorry for the loooooong response, but partial answers can either be misleading or not tell the entire story. Maybe I should re-introduce myself in the Noobie forum.
tom

[9sec9]

I would be remiss if I didn't mention Swift Springs USA. The owner of that company may have actually been one of the very first to 'supply' us with a product, just for the decal and advertisement. That too was thanks to IndyEvo. I try to 'pay back' our sponsors 10X more than they provide. It's a personal obligation that I feel. I even paid for the decals on our trailer so I could support our sponsors, big or small.
Putting things in perspective, my son, Tony, put our FP-RED turbo into the 9's in Tulsa, long before any of the 3 Amigos and their GT35 variants could get into the 9's. Yep, Tony's driving and my tuning made it first, but that got lost in some of the negativity that floated around for a while. I've recently talked to David and even apologized to him for past issues and we've since talked a couple of times. I truly like David, one on one. He's no different than any of us. We can't always have the good side out or the shiney side up 100% of the time. I'll shut up now. I've just remembered why I quit posting for nearly a year.

[SMP3000]

Tom- thanks for all the info. I didn't mean to hit a touchy subject. My question about the term "shop car" was more literal in nature of "shop car" not directed towards you guys at all.

You definitely have my vote for sure and I'm now a lot smarter by reading your posts!

[CornfedIXRS]

Not that Toms credibility was in question, but I can vouch for him 100%!! Not only that but Id also like to say that Tom is one of the nicest and most generous people I have ever met in my life, he helped me with my car countless times and never asked for anything in return, no matter how many times I asked to make it up to him!! I sincerely hope that you(9sec9) continue to get on this board and share you knowledge with this community as you will find it is NOTHING like the other forums out there!

[SMP3000]

I'd like to get this going again as cars are out there getting runs in.

[SMP3000]

This is still going on folks!!!!