Engine Cover Swap - Project Ralliart Sportback - Super Street Magazine

Modifications on our project Ralliart Sportback are coming along slowly but nicely. Since an intake and exhaust are still in development, we can't get started on engine mods for now. But casual chit-chat around our office led me to Modified's editor, Peter Tarach and his quest to exchange engine covers on our 4B11s - that's sort of an engine mod, right? Reason being: the Evo X comes in red and ours in black. Since his Evo X is the factory red, we both thought the color contrast in swapping the covers would play nicely and keep in theme with a clean look. Now I get a splash of color and Peter gets to tone down the oversaturation of red in his engine bay. The best part? It's free 99 and installs in less time than you can say "free 99". (Well, not really, more like two-minutes tops.)

We were super-stoked to get our next upgrades done with the help of Mikey Lee from Seibon and this would be just as easy to install (so long as you have a couple friends to help out). For those of you not in the know, Seibon has been perfecting their art of crafting beautiful carbon-fiber pieces for numerous applications, with parts including (but not limited to) hoods, fenders, door panels and wings, just to name a few. Their fit is pretty spot-on in comparison to OEM pieces, with some of their top sellers being the wet carbon hood, and we didn't hesitate when we were offered one for the Ralliart. In weight comparison, the wet carbon hood was 2lbs lighter than stock (19.5lbs versus 21.5lbs). Not a bad savings, but keep in mind that for the price, as opposed to the dry carbon version, that while you aren't getting the lightest possible hood, you're getting the best all-around looking while saving that weight. And just for shits and giggles, we decided to test fit the dry carbon hood, too (and most likely will upgrade to it once we hit the final build stage of our project). We saw the most weight savings here at 12.5lbs total(!) but that's going to cost us a pretty penny later on down the road for the ultimate product. Guess we're going to have to pick up a second job each just to cover that expense! For now, rockin' the wet Seibon carbon hood is plenty good for us.