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| The Evo is a great track car, but doesn't make the best daily driver |
I've had several occasions to drive the current-generation Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution X,
and it's always a love/hate experience. In its element, dicing through
cones or cutting apexes on a track, the Evo manages to vanish from
around its driver. You can perform a maneuver, work some automotive
magic and at the end be surprised it was so easy to do well. It's
natural to credit yourself because the car is so silly competent that it
never seems to be working hard; the result is you think you're a hell
of a driver.
Whether you are or not is a moot point: The Evo
doesn't particularly care unless you're trying to do some kind of Ken
Block backward-sliding parallel-park stunt. It seems to enjoy having
fun, revving high and just generally being a hoon.
And, like your
hoon buddies (should you have any), there are times you want the Evo
around and times you don't. Those who look at the specs and the four
doors and think they could make a logical daily driver out of one (yours
truly included) really need to spend a few days behind the wheel to
understand that the Evolution GSR is a punishing vehicle in many ways.
The fuel economy is terrible, creature comforts -- even when they come
from the factory -- are laughably aftermarket in look and feel, and the
body shell is cheap Japanese economy car of the worst kind. The Evo
bangs over road imperfections, roars like a cement mixer at speed and
just generally pines for a racetrack the entire time it is running.
I
still did a build-and-price on an Evo, just for grins, and ended up
around the $40,000 sticker of our tester. Considering the performance,
it's not unreasonable. Considering the environment, it's really hard to
make the leap into a Lancer Evolution.
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| The Evo enjoys being tossed around and being revved high |
Nice place to visit, but I wouldn't want to live here.
ROAD TEST EDITOR JONATHAN WONG: The Lancer Evolution IX
is one of my favorite cars of all time. It was so easy to drive quickly
with a slick six-speed manual transmission in MR models and a turbo
four-cylinder engine that didn't quit. I still remember lapping Miller
Motorsports Park in Utah in one and that remains one of the most
memorable track experiences I've had to date.
When the current
Evolution debuted, the MR got a dual-clutch transmission, which honestly
isn't that great and ruins the car a bit for me. Thankfully, you can
still get a manual in an Evolution, but you have to get the GSR model,
meaning you get Enkei wheels instead of BBS ones, and you also have to
do without the xenon headlights that come standard on the MR.
The
GSR's manual is a five-speed unit, which may seem dated in a performance
car by today's standards. I'm sure some of you are wondering what
happened to the six-speed in the previous generation MR, which I was
initially wondering as well, until someone within Mitsubishi told me
that five-speed is a much more robust transmission compared to the
six-speed.
At its core, the Evolution is a $17,000 economy car
with a lot of upgrades. It starts with the 2.0-liter turbocharged
four-cylinder, all-wheel-drive system and Brembo brakes. The engine
pulls strong in the middle of the rev band on, and the brakes are a
strong suit. The clutch on a test car had a takeup point really high up
on the pedal stroke which took getting used to, which makes me wonder
how rough our test car's life was before it showed up at our doorstep.
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| The interior, shows its economy car roots, having many areas of hard plastic |
There
are specific body panels with the hood, front fenders and roof made
from aluminum to help lower the car's center of gravity. And, of course,
there is the large shopping-cart rear spoiler, which is a nod to the
Evolution's rally-car roots.
For the interior, there are Recaro
seats and a leather-wrapped sport steering wheel. But besides those two
things, the cabin looks like it's from a $17,000 economy car with acres
of hard plastic panels.
On your favorite back road, you don't very
much care about the spartan interior. This 2013 Mitsubishi Lancer
Evolution GSR is such a good driver with steering that's the most direct
and responsive system in a production car today. Sneeze behind the
wheel and the car will move, which makes hitting your points beyond
easy.
Shoot through a corner and the car stays nearly flat thanks
to the stiff suspension and high-performance rubber. The Evo's handling
reflexes are something that can't be matched by its archrival, the Subaru Impreza WRX STI, which feels soft and floppy in comparison.
However,
for the times when you're not bombing around on a racetrack and just
rolling around for daily driving, the Evolution is rough. As Andy said,
bump stiffness is harsh, with the suspension not doing much to take the
edge off of impacts from potholes and ruts.
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| If you drive on the track a lot and don't mind its daily driver flaws, then this car is for you |
A lot of tire and
wind noise also find their way into cabin and I know from experience
when we had our long-term Evolution MR that the gas tank runs dry
quickly. We struggled to get 250 miles of range out of tank before.
Blame the undersize gas tank and the Evo's less than stellar fuel
economy.
Still, the Evolution is one of the most pure and rawest
cars out there. It doesn't pretend to be anything that it's not. It's a
performance car and for that it delivers. If track-driving is something
that you do a lot of, then the Evo is perfect and would be much better
than the STI. If you're an occasional track-driver, you might want to go
with the Subaru for its better daily comfort.
What would I do? Try to find myself an Evolution IX MR in good shape, of course.
2013 Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution GSR
Base Price: $35,490
As-Tested Price: $39,885
Drivetrain: 2.0-liter turbocharged I4; AWD, five-speed manual
Output: 291 hp @ 6,500 rpm, 300 lb-ft @ 4,000 rpm
Curb Weight: 3,572 lb
Fuel Economy (EPA City/Highway/Combined): 17/23/19 mpg
AW Observed Fuel Economy: 15.1 mpg
Options:
Navigation system package including 40GB including music server,
real-time traffic ($2,295); sight-and-sound package including HID
headlights with manual leveling, 710-Watt Rockford Fostgate premium
sound system including a 10-inch sub woofer, six disk MP3 in dash head
unit, SiriusXM radio provided for three months ($2,100)
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| The 2.0-liter turbocharged I4 delivers 291 hp and 300 lb-ft of torque |
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