JPR AutoSports

One of the things I do, for better or worse, is read through forum posts for information regarding the Evo Xs general issues, technical bulletins, known problems, etc. Compared to my last car, there really aren’t too many (famous last words) but the ones that exist are significant and can be particularly problematic. Having your high beams not work, or maybe the AC isn’t cold enough is one thing. Having your fuel relay blow up and the motor run lean until you die, or having your master cylinder in your clutch fail is considerably more debilitating. For a race car these things are, for me anyway, all the more worrisome. Those of you that read my other posts know that I fret a fair amount and so this may not be too much of a surprise, but I’m trying to only stress over the things that will actually impact my ability to drive, and not, for example, so much on whether the touch up paint on my splitter is a good match… Right, I know, therapy.

That said, the Evo Xs clutch master cylinder is a known failure point, as it seems to be made from hard plastic and so, as I’ve read, will work great right until it cracks and bleeds fluid, and you are left without a working clutch, on the side of the road (or track). So, I’ve fretted about this happening to me. Making it all the way to the track only to have the clutch pop and I have to head in and then struggle to get the car back onto the trailer (I bought a winch to reduce this general stress too). As you can imagine, if for nothing more then to reduce my general stress, upgrading the clutch MC was important. There are only a few companies that have successfully addressed this problem and South Side Performance (www.sspperformance.com) has developed a solution that has received wild accolades.

Made of billet aluminum instead of the oem plastic, SSPs master cylinder won’t break. It just takes the issue off the table, once and for all. Further, the kit includes a stainless steel line that won’t flex as easily as the stock line.

It’s a nice kit with all the necessary pieces and while SSP provides good instructions, I let EFI Logics help with the install.

Truth is, while I was thrilled to have some peace of mind that the plastic MC wasn’t going to blow, I really wasn’t prepared for the difference in the shifting. I presumed that the MC swap was going to be unnoticeable and just offered that extra margin of safety (which was enough). With the ACT clutch though, I really noticed an improvement. I had much smoother clutch engagement and the pedal adjustment meant I could dial it in for my shifting style. I like it to engage late in the travel, so I can shift quickly without a fully engaging the pedal. The SSP MC was a big difference that helped me immediately.

A note on SSP, as I typically need extra help and this MC swap was no different. There’s nothing better then having a vendor/ manufacturer “get you”. Meaning only that having them understand your (my) application, the types of events I am running, the circumstances with the car, everything, can and does make a huge difference. I can’t count the number of times I’ve done my research only to think I’ve found the right deal and then later found the company totally unresponsive to issues or problems. We’ve all had enough experiences in which that type of support is needed and yet they really don’t understand so you’re screwed and left on your own to sort it out. South Side Performance is anything but this and my interactions were great. Jeremy is running a spectacular Evo X MR and so they understand the Evo as a race car and has been remarkably tolerant of my stupidity.

Both Jeremy and Kris of SSP were top notch to work with and really focused on advancing the Evo platform. They have developed a number of other pieces to address issues with the X for which I’ll be hoping to discuss soon. Suffice to say that SSPs MC upgrade is a rare opportunity to address a known failure point and improve the car’s performance at the same time. If you ever stress about having issues with your car, either on the street or track, or are using racing clutch, I suggest you need to make this change now.