Featured Build  ·  November 2026

Adam Pillon

9 Years of Anti-Stock Cars

I'm Adam Pillon, 30, out of Toronto. Before this car I had a 2010 Mitsubishi Lancer Ralliart, and when it came time to replace it, I drove nearly every comparable car on the market at the time. The Si was in my budget, which mattered, but it stood out for reasons that had nothing to do with price. The handling and the feedback were a step above everything else I'd driven back-to-back, and once you feel that difference, it's difficult to talk yourself into something else.

I've never been able to own a stock car. This one started with springs, the way most of them do, and that turned into a slippery slope I'm still on years later. What I didn't anticipate was how much came with it beyond the parts. I found friendships through this car, and I found out how versatile these chassis are once you start pushing on them. The best part of owning it is the number of smiles I get out of every drive. Every time I get in, it feels new again, and that hasn't worn off the way I expected it to by now.

Performance and Practicality Over Anything Else

The build is track focused but set up so it can still be driven on the street rather than trailered to an event. That balance was the goal from early on, and it shaped most of the decisions I made about where money went and what order things happened in. These days it lives more as a weekend car than a daily, and that comes down to the roads around me more than anything about the car itself. Toronto winters and the pavement that follows them are rough on a car set up this way.

The community is a big part of how I landed on that direction. Being around it long enough showed me what I like and what I don't, and what I kept coming back to was performance and practicality rather than show. I'd rather spend real money on one good option than order something off AliExpress or Temu so I can say I have the mod. That sounds like a small distinction until you've seen what the cheap version does when you load it up.

A few years back I accidentally jumped the car and caught over a foot of air. It landed and handled the whole thing like a champ, nothing broken, nothing complaining afterward. That was the moment it went from a car I was building to a car I'm keeping.

I attempt to install everything myself, but I understand my limits. When a job goes past where I'm comfortable, the guys at Unity Performance are my go-to.

Knowing where that line sits has saved me more than once, and it's a better outcome than finding out halfway through that I was wrong about it.

Third Gear Starts a Conversation

By far my favorite mod to this day is the RV6 gears. It doesn't matter whether I'm alone in the car or have a passenger with me, the moment I change into third it puts a smile on everybody's face and starts a conversation. Not many parts can do that. Most of what's on this car you must explain to someone before they understand what it's for. What makes the gears different is that they change the character of the car rather than just the numbers. The ratios suit how I drive it, and the shift into third lands in a way you feel rather than read off a sheet. Everyone who's been in the passenger seat remembers that moment specifically, which means the part is making memories for people who have nothing invested in the build at all.

Gear Lockout at 6,000 and the Cost of Overbuilding

My biggest regret is the clutch. I get gear lockout above 6,000 rpm and I haven't found a solution for it yet, which is a frustrating thing to live with on a car that's otherwise sorted. If it hadn't been in there for testing purposes, I would have gone with the Stage 0 clutch kit from RV6 instead. That's the one decision I'd take back given the chance.

The larger challenge has been overbuilding the car. I pushed it hard at a track day and found weaknesses in places I hadn't touched yet, parts that were perfectly adequate until the rest of the car outgrew them. Once that starts, it becomes a forever battle over how much I'm willing to spend. Every upgrade exposes the next limitation behind it, and you're the one deciding where that chain stops. That's the part nobody warns you about when you're adding power. The car tells you what the next problem is, and it usually tells you at the worst possible time, in the most expensive way it can.

"The car tells you what the next problem is, and it usually tells you at the worst possible time, in the most expensive way it can."

Night Runs, Stars, and Punching Above Its Weight Class

This car has seen a lot of track days and events over the years, but my favorite memory is still my first night run at Tail of the Dragon with a bunch of my friends. We stopped at the top, watched the stars, and listened to cars going by below us. Everyone should get to do that at least once.

The standout from the competition side was helping a very good friend win his Time Attack event after his turbo blew up. My car was able to step in and perform above its weight class when it mattered, which is about the best thing I can say for a build I put together in my own garage. Watching it hold up under someone else's run, with something real on the line, told me more about the car than any of my own laps had.

A weekend car now, by choice and by road conditions.

If I Could Redo It...

At this point I don't know what the next mod is. I've worked through the list I had, and there isn't an obvious gap left to fill. If a different turbo comes out that interests me, I'd probably give it a try, but I'm not actively hunting for the next thing the way I was a few years ago.

The version I think about when budget isn't a factor is a K20C1 swap, ideally with a sequential gearbox behind it. If I could go back and redo the whole thing with the money I've already spent, that's the direction I'd take it from the start. Knowing what I know now about where this chassis runs into its limits, I'd build toward that rather than arrive at it one part at a time.

Tires First, Power Later

Take your time and start with the driver mods. Get tires first, then a rear sway bar, and don't worry about making power for a while. These cars take a lot to be genuinely fast, but they can be an amazing handling car for very little money, and that version is more rewarding to drive than most people expect going in.

Tires are also the thing people overlook most on this platform. I watch people throw all their money at performance parts and leave the factory tires on the car, then complain that they're spinning or getting wheel hop coming out of a corner. The car is telling you exactly what's wrong and it's the cheapest problem on the list to solve. Fix that first and everything you add afterward actually does what it's supposed to.

The other thing worth saying is that who you buy from matters as much as what you buy. 27WON, RV6 and Wunderladen have been the most supportive and helpful brands throughout the years I've been modding this car. That's not just a matter of the parts working, though they do. It's being able to get a real answer when something isn't going the way it should, from people who know the platform rather than reading from a script.

Freedom, Physically and Mentally

This car gives me absolute freedom, physically and mentally. When times are hard, I go for a drive. When they're good, that's a perfect time for a drive too. There aren't many things in my life that work in both directions like that, and I don't take it for granted.

Everything else about the build, the parts, the track days, the money spent chasing down the next weak point, sits on top of that. The car does something for me that has nothing to do with lap times. It started with a set of springs and turned into the thing I reach for when I need to get out of my own head for an hour.

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