It's back. Little introduction is needed for this legendary car, as it is without a doubt the fastest circuit racer in Japan. Previously known as the HKS TRB 02, or Tsukuba Record Breaker, this full-carbon bodied Lancer Evolution 8 is back with a vengeance. In February of 2004 this machine, then sporting a bare carbon paint-scheme, lapped the small Tsukuba Circuit deep in the Ibaraki-ken countryside in an unheard of 54.739 seconds. Just to put things into perspective, a stock Lancer Evolution 8 laps the 2.070 m circuit in 1 minute 05 seconds, and this is with pro-driver/living-legend Keiichi Tsuchiya behind the wheel, on a good day. The driver who clocked in at 54 seconds was none other than Nobuteru Taniguchi, official HKS driver and one of the most skilled wheelmen in Japan.
Having already secured the fastest ever tuned car record at Tsukuba, Nob as well as the HKS mechanics knew that the car could go faster. As such, he boldly set off ready to shoot for a time in the 53-second bracket, but then, to everybody's surprise, it went horribly wrong. Coming into the infield hairpin in fifth gear Nob locked up the front brakes and ploughed straight into the barriers, effectively shattering the TRB 02 into pieces. The mechanics couldn't believe what had happened. Looking at the various video footage it seemed like there was some kind of steering arm failure, but since the whole front section of the car was damaged pretty badly in the impact there was no way of finding out the real cause.
With Taniguchi thankfully unhurt it was back to the drawing board. It took HKS almost two years to bring the car back to its former glory, and oh man did they do a good job. Shown for the first time at the Tokyo Auto Salon earlier this year, the new vehicle now sports a catchy new paint-scheme and in typical Japanese fashion, a totally new name. Behold the CT230R.
HKS has invested an unlimited budget in this project, so to find out just how the CT230R was built we headed to a special workshop not far from the main HKS factories in Fuji. As the elevator door slides open it's truly hard to take in what lies in front of us. Not too many people are allowed in here, as this is where all of HKS's special projects are built and looked after. The infamous BCNR33 drag GT-R quietly sits on axle-stands in one corner while Nob's Drift Lexus IS is being finished off for the Motorsportcom D-Games. We are even shown a new IS that HKS is putting the finishing touches on, a more extreme and better prepared car with substantial chassis modifications. But, today it's the low slung, impossibly wide and incredibly aggressive Lancer Evolution 8 in the far side of the workshop we are here to see.
The candy-red and chrome finish is simply outstanding, and is set to be a color scheme that HKS will be using on all of their demo-cars from now on. The quality of work that has gone into this project is really impressive. Basing themselves on Super GT regulations, which is a challenge, the first part of the transformation started with the chassis. In order to have a substantially rigid frame, the mechanics went to work stiffening the platform by welding in extra plating in areas of high stress like the foot wells, door sills and the B-pillars. A full roll-cage was then fitted and welded to the chassis directly or via additional drilled reinforcement plates, just like on Super GT cars. Sticking with the semi-GT-racer feel, some AP Racing pneumatic jacks were also welded into place to help shave precious seconds during tire changes.