Mitsubishi Evo VII (2001)
My journey into Evo ownership was a little different than most. My previous car (Audi TT Coupe) had shown it’s fallibility whenever nosed anywhere near a challenging corner or worse, a trackday. Rather like a labrador shown the boot of a car for the first time….it really doesn’t know what to do; flaps a bit, then lunges forwards and makes a complete pigs-ear of the whole thing.
So, I had to find something which was:
1) A *practical* car I could sell to the wife as “a 4 door saloon”
2)…which would double as my weekend / trackday car (no more than a couple of times a year, dear)
I found a sublime example: low teens mileage, didn’t appear to have been tampered with, full service history; deal done. Driving it home, I was like a cat who got the cream. Many people criticise the Evo fraternity; poke jibes, label; generally wave fingers of disapproval. I hold nothing against you; it’s your view. I will however go against the grain and make a sweeping comment here: all of you who stand on the other side of the Evo fence, I dare say you have never driven one; for if you have, you’d be offering nods of approval, not flashy-light-shaky-fist 
To this day, I’ve not owned another vehicle (nor do I envisage ever, in fact) which is capable of providing such unrivalled A_to_B pace and visceral on-road thrills. The cross country speed of this breed of car is quite simply, unique. Un-matched. Jaw-dropping and rib-splittingly smile-inducing. Here’s my journey:
It started with a completely standard car pictured here:
….then I did a few trackdays. Brakes; they needed upgrading for some 6-pots:
Oh….and some lighter wheels
By this point I_had_*only* increased the power to 320bhp. …THEN i REALLY caught the modifying bug: Full 8 point roll cage, carbon fibre seats;
And then I started modifying things I had already modified:
…the car got faster and faster, as did I. Then silly things like this started happening:
And all I could do was pursue EVEN MORE power. After this came a custom enlarged turbo outlet flange, custom downpipe, 3″ magnex system, Evo VIII cams, a dentist (see links below) Ecutek remap and bang; I’m posting near-on 400bhp ATF, 310bhp at the wheels. Total pub-power. Silly boy!
This all culminated in a run of the most enjoyable trackdays I can recall: blatting 400bhp of rice-power through craner curves will never be forgotten.
…that was until I started totting up the bills. £20K over 2 years was a bit silly, none in the least, every second trackday we were on the limit of the previous set of pads and tyres fitted before the last event. 60 miles from a tank of petrol on the track, let alone the pre, and post trackday spanner checks, oil changes, and general fettling. It had to go. And ’twas replaced with a Vauxhall VXR220 Turbo (review to follow).
In summary
In the world of boxing, the commonly ackowledged method for benchmarking fighters in different weight categories is the pound-for-pound rankings. As we stand today, Floyd Mayweather Jr is at the top (Welterweight). Our very own Ricky Hatton is in the top ten. At one point, Hamed was near the top of this list, but the true greats circulate in the top 3, all their career: people like Barrera, Chavez, Robinson and Duran. If there was such a list for on-road cars, the Evo might as well be called the Sugar-Ray FQ330.
Nowadays, £ 17K will bag you a 2 year old Evo VIII MR with a couple of very subtle modifications and anything from 300-350bhp. In pure standard form like this, a 996 wouldn’t see which way the Evo went across country; it’s THAT good. But beware of the modding bug…..it will start with an exhaust “for only 200 nicker”. And then you are on a slippery, slippery slope……..
Links
www.lancerregister.com - for the best online community
www.dentistmapped.com - for the best mapper and tuner in the evo world.