Feature: Thanks You Biters!

“I've had a Honda before, and Honda's are alright, I guess—I mean everybody has one.” says Dimitri Tsioutsiopoulos, thinking over the past cars he's owned. “But my Evo—well, it gets me tickets.” Dimitri has quite a story when it comes to the acquisition of his current Mitsubishi Evolution.

Dimitri packed two shirts and a pair of socks, went out partying all night long, then caught a flight down to Texas the next day to check out a lead on a sweet Evo for sale. “I figured, if I like it I'll buy it—if I don't, hey, I'm in Texas.”

“I checked out the car and everything looked kosher—I got the title, we closed the deal, and he asked if he could drive it one more time.” reminisces Dimitri, who sympathetically agreed to the request. “Evo's have notoriously weak transfer cases which fry like chicken—So the next thing I know we're driving and he says, You know why I love this car so much, and I say, Why's that? He says, All wheel drive drifts, and punches it around a corner, and I was like, oh no, my transfer case is done.” Surprisingly, the transfer case would make it through the ordeal... but Dimitri, himself, would just narrowly escape with his sanity.

Dimitri had a 20 hour drive back home after he picked up the car, so he declined an invitation to go out partying, and started on his way. “I was going through five hour energy drinks like nothing, but they weren't working,” Dimitri says. “About an hour and a half from my house, there is a small town in Illinois and I pulled into a gas station and a cop pulls me over.”

Dimitri had just got his license back the day before (his license had been suspended since 2006- long story), but when the officer went back to check his status, he found his license was still invalid. Dimitri had not physically gone to the DMV to reinstate it, so his Evo was quickly impounded on its first day of ownership.

“My friend had to come drive out and pick me up, and we went to the impound yard,” says Dimitri. “It was at like 3 o'clock in the morning when we finally got there.” Upon entering the yard, the first thing they noticed was a tow truck that looked identical to Optimus Prime. “It was blue an red, probably with machine guns on the door,” says Dimitri. “I knock on the door, but nobody answered—I'm looking through windows, thinking, I'm probably going to get shot by some redneck.”

“I go around the side and there is a rundown truck with a couple of people sitting in it—the truck is not running—I had no idea what they were doing” says Dimitri. “I went around to the side of the house and there was an old man sitting by a gas pump. I said, Excuse me sir, I need to get my car.” The figure said nothing. Dimitri started to slowly approach the figure slightly annoyed, asking a second time, “Excuse me, I need my car.” As he continued to walk closer, he realized it was only a mannequin. “I started thinking, Oh sh**, is this going to be like the House of Wax?”

He finally got the car back to his house, but didn't drive it much for the first week. For the next four days the car seemed to practically disintegrate, as all its poorly done previous modifications began to rear their ugly heads. “My friends and I pulled the trans, and found that it had only a stock clutch, which was warped and welded onto the flywheel—it was ridiculous,” explains Dimitri. “The previous owner also had two different kinds of spark plugs in the engine—three of one kind and one of another (without a spark tip).”

Dimitri's minimal plans for the Evo, quickly turned into an MR 6-speed and turbo swap. “I had originally bought a 35R off a guy, but ended up trading for a practically brand new Garrett 30R,” explains Dimitri. All custom piping and dumps for the 30R were fabricated (thank you Brian of Milwaukee Motor Werks), and it was tuned to perfection by Kunal tuning (Kunizeee) at 26 pounds, for about 450 horsepower on 93 pump gas. “That's where I am now and loving it,” says Dimitro. “It pulls pretty good, and has a mean, lopey idle thanks to its 272 cams.”

Next he had to clean up a lot of electrical issues with the car, and Dimitri hates electrical work. “First, I had to fix the radio, it was like the cookie monster the way it ate my music,” laughs Dimitri. “I ended up buying a custom double din touch screen/nav setup, and had to custom make controls for the heating and air.”

The car came with three gauges, a narrow band air/fuel, oil pressure, and boost. “Only one of them was actually hooked up and working,” says Dimitri. “The boost—and then there was the rats nest of wires behind the dash I had to deal with, including a mysterious power cord which ran through the chassis, leading to absolutely nothing.” He ended up ripping the entire car apart to match everything up, but his motivation was, do it right the first time, and I'll never have to do it again (hopefully).

“Next I threw on a OEM Nine front bumper, and JDM rear end,” says Dimitri. “I ended up with a carbon fiber hood in almost perfect condition for $100, and later met a guy with a carbon fiber trunk in need of a stock one, which I told him I'd give him my girlfriend and some cash for.” They ended up making a straight across trade (girlfriend not included), and the Evo began to take shape.

“The wheels were originally bought for my track 370Z, but I put them on the Evo, liked them, and they have remained there,” explains Dimitri. “They are pretty wide at 9.5” in the front and 10” in the rear, but I used all 245 tires, so they would technically be the same diameter (Evo transfer cases don't like different diameters).”

In the future, Dimitri plans on doing an E85 setup. “I want to break 550 horsepower, but I don't know if the trans is going to hold up,” says Dimitri. “So, I'm also looking into working out a deal with TMZ Performance for a built 6-speed.” He's had the car up for sale at one time, but then later took it down, deciding to keep it until either, I quote, “Something explodes or blows up.”

Dimitri has owned a montage of other vehicles, including a G35 Infinity sedan, 02 GSX-R 1000 bike, 98 Civic hatch with a K-24 swap, and a built turbo Integra which ended up being parted out after an accident. “Right now the Evo is done, and I'm working on both my 350Z's.” says Dimitri. “The 03 is a built turbo that I'm trying to make 1,000 horsepower with, and the other is just a track car, caged, ugly, beaten up, and ready to rock the track.”

“I owe a lot of gratitude to my friends for helping me out along the way,” exclaims Dimitri with a humble confidence. “Without them it would have taken me three times longer, and three times as many ratchets would have been thrown into the wall—my friend Clint can change an EVO transmission like he's changing a diaper.”

Good luck with the Evo, Dimitri... and Clint, have fun with those diapers! Look forward to an upcoming feature on Dimitri's 1,000 horsepower 350Z in the coming weeks!