I'm sure pretty much everybody on here knows of this guy. We all owe him credit for being a true pioneer and showing us that with some skill, time, imagination and a few tools that anything is possible. We all remember how we felt the first time we saw lilevo 1 completed, everybody wanted one of their very own. I also know how I felt when I saw the video of it wrecking and pretty much getting destroyed. Good thing Jason isn't a quitter. I'll let him tell the story of how lilevo 2 came along.
Everyone knows the story behind LILEVO so I will just add a few personal thoughts. I decided to make another AWD Mirage just because I still had my old rear subframe and space to install it. Why put good parts to waste? That space being a tiny tandem (in-line) two car garage shared with my roommate. At one point the police were called due to ?fumes? throughout the apartment complex. This time around I wanted everything to be perfect. I wanted air conditioning installed. I wanted every squeek and rattle to be eliminated during the swap process. I wanted this car to be as reliable as a stock Mirage. I took extra effort in constructing the floor of the trunk and even kept power steering.
I thought back to how often people asked "how do you do this?" "where does this go?" and decided to create the AWD DVD and the Wiring DVD. Hopefully I was able to assist many CSM'ers in their goal to build a CSM. I wanted everyone to be able to feel what I felt the first time I drove my swapped Mirage.
I was planning on keeping the car stock as it was at Shootout 2007. 14B, full 3" exhaust and full 2.5" intercooler piping. Heavy fuel cutting at 15psi made me shake my head. Around January 2008 during sub-zero winter Wisconsin conditions the cold must have affected my head. I quickly bought a 3? hard intake pipe, 660cc injectors, S-AFC2, TMO ECU, and installed a 2G MAF. The 14B quickly gave way and I installed a fresh EVO3 16G, tubular O2 housing, and today I will be installing a fresh EVO3 exhaust manifold to replace the welded, cracked, and leaking 2G manifold on the car now. I'm also installing a new oil pan to replace the dented stock pan and take care of an annoying leak at the rear of the pan. Since December 2006, the car has not broke or let me down anywhere! I was out last weekend pounding the car into submission, but she kept ticking without any complaints. This was my ultimate goal. Every step I take will be with the utmost care and attention to how the car came from the factory.
Of course the rest of his story and pics can be found at
www.Lilevo.com