“Since taking out the Prowear NZ Superlap Series a season ago, Leon Scott has refreshed, rebuilt, and renewed his 700whp Mitsubishi Evo into one of the country’s cleanest”

When you last saw Leon Scott’s Mitsubishi Evo on TimeattackR.com, it had just taken out the Prowear NZ Superlap Series outright one season ago. Battle-scarred, bruised, and a little worse for wear, Leon decided it’d be a better time than ever to refresh the Evo from top to bottom, mix up the livery, and chase a few niggly issues that had arisen through rigorous competition.

First off, you’ll notice that it’s no longer pink, blue, white, and black. This time around, Leon thought it best to give a more professional image, as he explains, “moving away from the rally-cross style livery we ran originally, we decided we’d make the move to something far cleaner than ever before. Nothing’s cleaner than white, and we think it shows off the body, wheels, and kit nicely.” In the tin, we can confirm that it has a very Tsukuba-esque vibe about it, intensified by the carbon, paper-thin war-ready canards at every corner and Japanese-based performance products. Better yet, the livery, aero, canards, and overall look have been achieved at home in the shed.

Another welcomed change was the addition of some very serious boat-anchors. Replacing the F40 Brembo calipers are a rather large pair of Endless six-piston calipers, which sink their Endless compound teeth into behemoth 360mm rotors supplied by ProSport Auto.

Endless brakes aren’t the most affordable braking solution on the market, but when you’re after the pinnacle in braking performance and local support, they can’t be beaten. Girodisc two-piece rotors remain down the back, coupled with larger Evo X calipers and Endless brake pads.

Interestingly enough, the suspension in the LSM Evo is relatively simple, with the Evo platform being blessed with fantastic equipment from the factory. The main additions have been BC ER series coilovers with custom springs, and the Racefab chromoly arms. You can thank the Cusco rear differential, Evo XIII MR transfer case, and marshmallow-tacky Hankook 275/35R18 Z224 tyres fitted to 18x10.5-inch Wedsport TC105n wheels for the mountains of usable grip too. For track days and vehicle setup, Leon throws on a different set of Enkei RPF1 rollers that are wrapped in Hankook Z221 295/30R18 tyres courtesy of major sponsor Hyper Tyres.

After popping the lightweight carbon bonnet on Leon’s Evo, it’s hard to get a true understanding of how much of a savage it’s engine really is. Deep within the highly-strung 4G63 block resides a combination of a 2.3-litre Tomei stroker kit, and Carrillo and Manley internals.

The head has been extensively ported and tickled, and now house a pair of HKS 272 and 280-degree camshafts. Bolted to the head is a Hypertune intake manifold with matching 100mm throttle body. Denso 1200cc feed blends of ethanol ranging from E10, all the way up to straight E85 with a resulting 522kW (700hp) at the wheels on its wildest setting. On a more conservative E10 fuel, it’ll still spin up a wild 450kW at the wheels — enough to take out the NZ Superlap series without turning it up.

By far one of our favourite parts of Leon’s Evo is the cabin. A blue-tinted rear windshield casts a cool-hue into the immaculately-presented, heavily Japanese influenced cockpit. Leon’s Bride driver’s seat has now been replaced with a locally-produced Racetech 4009HR seat with a Willans Harness.

The factory Evo dashboard has been flocked to prevent glare, and HKS gauges, dials, and knobs have been thoughtfully-scattered throughout to ensure the 522kW 4G63 remains in check. If there’s one time attack interior we could spend our time in out on track, this would be it.

We’ve been wanting to catch up with Leon for months now, but we’ve put it off until now. It does still need a few small tweaks before competition time again, but he constantly amazes us with his attention to detail on his builds. With whispers of there being a NZ Superlap series comeback, we’ll have to see just how much better it is now with its recent race refinement.

Engine: 4G63, (2300cc four-cylinder), 2.3-litre Tomei stroker kit, CP Carrillo/Manley internals, custom headwork including porting, 272/282-degree cams, Hypertune intake manifold, 100mm throttle-body, Holset Pro40 turbo, TiAL 50mm external wastegate, TiAL 50mm BOV, Denso 1200cc injectors, HKS fuel rail, Bosch fuel pump, surge tank, fuel cooler, Sparktech coil-on-plug with VSD amplifier, 3.5-inch front pipe, three-inch exhaust system with side-exit, Fenix radiators, twin-12inch fans, HKS F-Con Pro Gold 40 ECU, custom breather system, wet-sump based off HKS CT230, Setrab oil cooler, ethanol content analyser
Driveline: Albins dog-box, revised final drive, Exedy triple-plate carbon clutch, Chromoly flywheel, centre-diff pressure controller, Racefab chromoly arms, Torque Solution solid mounts, Cusco rear diff, Evo XIII transfer case
Braking: (F) Endless six-piston calipers, 360mm rotors, Endless pads (R) Evo X Girodisc, two-piece Girodisc rotors, Endless pads
Suspension: BC ER coilovers, custom springs
Wheels and Tyres: 18x10.5-inch Wedsport TC105n wheels with 275/35R18 Hankook Z214 tyres, 18x10.5-inch Enkei RPF1 wheels with 295/30R18 Hankook Z221 tyres
Body: Factory white with custom graphics, full Voltex widebody Cyber kit, custom aero package (one for Schedule A, and one for Unlimited), Lexax windows
Interior: Racetech 4009HR driver’s seat, Willans harness, flocked anti-glare dashboard, NRG quick-release, 40mm spacer with OMP suede steering wheel with boost scramble button, HKS gauges, HKS IR Pro boost controller, HKS Attack meter, two-way radio
Performance: 450kW (603hp) at the wheels on E10 fuel tuned by the late Arnie Nguyen
Driver/owner: Leon Scott
Age: 30-something
Build-time: five-years
Length of ownership: nine years
Thanks: The team at Hyper Drive, Kevin at JTune Engineering, Steve Murch Motorsport, NZ Motorsport Imports, Chicane Motorsport, Ryan at Full Throttle Performance, Pro Sport Auto, my family, and my very understanding partner Holly