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About
In the fall of 1989 while passing a local Eagle dealership I saw one very sweet looking car. It was a black 1990 AWD Eagle Talon. I had never seen or heard of one before. Up until this point I had only only built and raced V-8’s. I stopped and checked it out. Within the next few days I traded in the 1985 Monte Carlo SS I was driving the day I found it. The Monte was a decent runner and had gone 15.35 in the quarter. This little turbo four cylinder went 15.11 the first time I took it and got much better gas mileage. I was impressed and hooked from then on.
The late fall of 1991 I bought the car most people know about. The black cherry 1991 Eagle Talon which became known as "4Bangr". This car is what got the parts flowing. I started by just making something to mount a boost gauge in. At the time there were no a-pillar mounts for the car or much of anything else to speak of for that matter. The mount went in the center factory A/C vent. It held two gauges. I soon found myself wanting three gauges and then found other people wanted to keep the use of A/C and added venting to the mount. I met some very interesting and close friends back then. Found out about a club called MDSOG (Mitsubishi Diamond Star Owners Group) and found even more. I discovered people were truly interested in parts and making these cars faster. After the gauge mounts came intercooler pipes, downpipes, offroad pipes, port work for the turbo, manifold and 02 housing it just kept growing. I didn’t really realize I was running somewhat of a business. This 1991 Talon ran a 13.48 @ 98 mph the first time to the track. Very shortly after that it dipped into the 12’s and then the 11’s.
I was working at a steel mill as a laborer through all of this. I was approached about actually doing it full time and kind of laughed. I did however become the East Coast branch of Alamo Autosports. The first DSM race was held in 1992, there were 3-4 DSM’s there and an RX-7 if I remember correctly.Not long after I decided I wanted my own name and ran under Priority Performance for maybe a year. The next year I had another get together, which I consider the first shootout, there was 8 of us there. My father actually put the bug in my ear to just call the business Buschur Racing. I stayed at the steel mill and worked full time while also running all of Buschur Racing until 1996. One night at the mill I got pissed off and just quit. The small part time parts business I had started had grown into something quite large by this time. Shortly after quiting the mill I hired my first helper. Not long after I quit the mill I could no longer keep up with the business and my dad Jim, who had just retired from the steel mill, came to work for me. The two of us worked out of my house until the business continued to grow and we could not longer handle the cramped quarters.
By 1998 we outgrew what my house could handle, we started the build of the new shop. The shootout was entering it’s 8th year.
I then started a project most people “laughed” at. I was going to build the ultimate DSM, a DSM that would no longer break driveline parts. I back halfed a 1991 Talon, installed a Chevy 12 bolt rear end and a powerglide transmission. The car made a few test runs right before the 1998 Shootout.It has run a best of mid 11’s. The hot car at the time was Dave Shih’s FWD Civic that had run 10.90’s. The car was transported all the way to Ohio to run me at the shootout. To his credit he had nothing but problems the entire weekend. He beat me the first two times we ran, I was having troubles too. The following day at the Import Race held at Norwalk Raceway Park I became the fastest DSM on the planet and gave DSM’ers something to be proud of. I beat Dave and the Honda two for two and ran back to back 10.60’s. My son Zachary was also born in 1998, that was the only thing that happened to me that year that was better than running 10’s! The car continued to drop from there and eventually ran 9.47 at 147 mph the next year. It was the first DSM powered car to run a nine second pass. The car was sold at the end of 1999 and tube chassis car was started.
In 1999 we built and opened our new shop. My brother, Dan was working for Goodyear as an ASE certified Master Technician. Myself, Daniel and my father Jim went at this full speed. The shop consisted of a 40’x68’ building. We could hold 6 cars for servicing, had a new dynojet chassis dyno, office, showroom, shipping and fabricating rooms. The following spring we found ourselves out of room again and added on another 28’x48’ addition and moved the dyno to the new building. We also added a “clean room” for assembly of all the engines and cylinder heads. The next year we built our orange AWD shop car. We wanted to showcase what our OFF the SHELF parts could do. There are fast AWD cars out there, but most of them either run NOS to be fast or have “TOP SECRET” parts on them that are unavailable to customers. This car was finished to show what can be done with our everyday parts. The car ran 10.03 at 139 mph with no Nitrous, all steel body parts and a standard DSM 5 speed transmission in it. It became the fastest non-nitrous'd DSM.
The 1998 Eagle Talon tube chassis car was finished by Gary Reese chassis in the early spring of 2001. The first time to the track the car ran a 9.0 on a partial pass. The next time out we made history again by being the first DSM powered car to run in the 8’s. We ran a best of 8.04 at 172.8 mph the first year with the car. The business was growing and we had to add a full time guy to do porting and miscellaneous labor. I also hired Renee to help with the phone sales. In December I did something great. I married Renee, I still had to pay her for working there but it was great anyway!
In 2002, I hired my life long friend, Ted Harrison, as my new crew chief. We are also out of room again. Our 1998 tube chassis car has recently run a best of 7.81 at 175 mph.
Winter of 2002-2003 we built our RWD Conquest. This is a gorgeous car. Kevin Lawson, very good friend of mine has the duties to pilot the car. With just a 10" tire, no wheel tubs, power windows, carpet, all functioning lights and a sunroof the car ran a best of 8.61 at 158 mph. You could take this car to the grocery store, if you didn't mind climbing over the cage to get in and out!
In 2003 another new year and more growth. We added the AEM EMS to the tube chassis car and made more power. More power than we could put to the ground unless we were on an exceptional track. July we were running at Englishtown, NJ. It was the first qualifying round and the track condition was terrible to say the least. I was in the car waiting for my turn listening to the announcer run after run saying this car and that car was out of shape. I thought to myself, "You should just go back and wait for the next round." Being the nut that I am and enjoying being out of shape on a pass I made the qualifier anyway. The car went left twice and I saved it, the third time it went to the right there was no saving it and I hit the wall head on at about 150 mph. I was fine, the car was pretty well damaged. One word of advise, the crotch strap on your 5-point harness will really hurt your, um-huh, well balls, if you hit a wall at 150 mph! See the wreck!
We fixed the car but as of 2005 it hasn't been run again. Some people wonder if I am scared, I say "No I am not." I just lost interest. The EVO came and that is what got hot. The tube chassis DSM not running anymore hasn't hurt business, I find myself home with my family more and the corporate BS that import racing has turned into has completely turned me off.
In 2003, we bought the first Mitsubishi Evolution we could get our hands on. The car went directly on our dyno and within months we had a full line of products for the cars. Our EVO made 390 whp on race gas, on the stock turbo, head and shortblock. The car ran 11.65 at 117.8 mph like this. As much as I love the EVO something even better happened in 2003. My daughter Syndey was born in September.
In 2004, further development of the EVO's got us well into the 550 wheel horsepower range. We continued to build fast high horsepower EVO's for customers. Our customers were constantly going faster than our own shop car. Looks good when it happens but in reality was bad for us.
Fall of 2004. I buy my second Evolution. A white 2004 RS. Dan buys my 2003 EVO, the red car. The RS goes on the dyno for parts development and testing. In the spring of 2005 the RS has OVER 450 dyno pulls on it. The car is making 393 whp and 390 ft lbs of torque on the STOCK head, engine and turbo. This is done on 94 octane. The car is amazing to drive.
Finally in the spring of 2005, our red car at full weight, driving to the track on the stock Advan tires, stock big brakes, A/C etc. we clicked off a series of 134 mph runs with a best ET of 10.94. The car was great. This was the fastest REAL Evolution at the 2005 Mitsubishi VS. Subaru race, we, as a shop were very happy. This is what an EVO is suppose to be, still turns corners and brakes with world class numbers and can accelerate to 134 mph in 10 seconds.
My personal 2004 RS, on PUMP GAS, with the stock turbo ran 11.79 at 116.30 mph. This car was built in preparation for the Car and Driver Super Four challenge. It has a full DMS suspension, Stop Tech big brake upgrade kit and full line up of Buschur Racing parts.
The Car and Driver Super Four Challenge was held June 27 and 28, 2005 at Michigan International Speedway. The Buschur Racing 2004 Evolution RS came in fouth place out of the eight vehicle field. The class was for rear wheel and all wheel drive vehicles, consiting of a pair of EVO's, two Lotus Elises, one Subaru WRX STi, one Mazda Miata, and a Toyota pickup truck. The Buschur entry had the second cheapest build cost in its class coming in at $52,084, just above the "Flying Miata" Mazda Miata with a price tag of $49,752. The vehicles that took the top three places in the event wore price tags that ranged from $72,654 to $95,183.
If you would like to see more information on the Super Four Challenge event, click here. We would like to give a special thanks to Larry Webster and the rest of the crew at Car and Driver for thier hospitality and for putting on such a great event.
Thanks for reading and check back for more updates, as some really cool stuff is coming.
David Buschur
President
Buschur Racing, Inc.
davidbuschur@buschurracing.com
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