450 bhp Evo To Break Cover Next Week

Owen Developments (UK) Ltd from Oxfordshire, who are responsible for developing and manufacturing the FQ power upgrades for Lancer Evolutions for Mitsubishi Motors in the UK, are to debut their 450 bhp – 400 lb.ft. Lancer Evo upgrade on Tuesday 8 June at Castle Combe circuit in Wiltshire.

Brian Owen, Managing Director said, "We are using the Book-a-Track event at Castle Combe to show visitors our latest developments. The power upgrade for the Lancer will initially be available for Evo 4 to 7 models although we will be demonstrating this latest development in our own Evo 8 development car. We expect prices to start in the region of £2,160 for the basic turbo kit but it will depend very much upon the current state of tune and how sound the engine and clutch are already. Either myself or Mark Harrison our Performance Centre Manager will talk to each potential customer about their car before we can give them an expected final cost. Depending upon demand, we will endeavour to do the conversion work at our Kingston Bagpuize headquarters but we have several specialist companies around the UK who can undertake this work".

Owen continued, "We are also developing a pair of Mini One tuning packages for the normally aspirated engine. The new Mini is becoming so popular and we are continually being asked for performance enhancing products for this car. Tuning package one is for road use and will be priced at £1,840. It raises the standard Mini One 1.6-litre power output from 90 bhp to145 bhp and torque from 101 to 118.3 lb.ft."

"Tuning package two is primarily for competition use. It raises the power output to 175 bhp and torque to 138.5 lb.ft. The standard fuel injection system is replaced by four throttle bodies. A modified cylinder head, competition camshaft and a MoTeC stand-alone ECU are also used," said Brian. The price will be £4,785.

Owen Developments, founded in 1980, provide a number of major manufacturers with engineering and power upgrade solutions for their vehicles and they supply power upgrades as OE equipment. They are also heavily involved in remanufacturing for many automotive companies.

Brian Owen said, "In our engineering work everything we do is designed, developed and manufactured in house except, casting, metal plating and paintwork. We adapt our products and Garrett turbochargers, MoTeC stand alone re-programmable engine management systems to meet the needs of our customers whether for fast road use or motorsport application. We are also agents for Revo, a new downloadable mapping system to re-programme all ECU’s on VAG engines".

Owen continued, " We are the UK’s only appointed Garrett Performance Centre. We are specialists in motorsport and fast road developments for a wide range of cars and light commercial vehicles. We have invested heavily in the latest manufacturing and test equipment including a state of the art 4x4 variable air temperature dynamometer with full data logging.