It’s one of the hardest-fought battles in performance motoring – but for the Evo and Impreza, this is their toughest test yet! In a world exclusive, we have brought the two new models together in an amazing head-to-head.

Going on sale in the UK in March, the Evo X and Impreza WRX STI are new from the ground up. They now pack even more powerful turbocharged engines and hi-tech four-wheel-drive systems, plus the promise of even greater driving excitement.

But they’ve also shifted their focus, moving away from their boy-racer images with more mature looks in an attempt to appeal to a wider range of buyers. So which is the better bet?

Viewed side-by-side, the Evo X is by far the easier on the eye. Its European-influenced shape is light years ahead of its boxy predecessor – we love the sharp lines and neat detail of the angled headlights, big grille and Alfa-esque tail-lamps. By comparison, the bland hatchback looks of the base Impreza have been beefed up with aggressive touches such as bulging wheelarches, a huge bonnet scoop and unappealing spoilers. Muscular it may be, but it’s ugly, too.

Inside, the Evo forges ahead with a totally redesigned cabin that has high-quality plastics. They can’t match the standards set by European makers, but are much better than those in the Impreza, which seems dated already. Seats in both cars are excellent, with good support.

Under the bonnet, the STI wins the power race with a 295bhp 2.5-litre turbocharged flat-four cylinder engine, which now features variable valve timing, a bigger intercooler and a twin-scroll turbocharger.

The Evo’s new lightweight 2.0-litre turbo unit isn’t short of power with 276bhp, but it feels less manic than the Impreza’s powerplant on the road, with a smoother, more refined delivery. Indeed, the Subaru is the stronger performer, with more low-down punch and a wave of power all the way to the 8,000rpm red line.

It also boasts a better gearbox too, as its close ratio six-speed transmission is more precise and fun to use than the Evo X’s clunky five-speeder.

However, had our test car been fitted with Mitsubishi’s brilliant new semi-automatic SST gearbox, the story would have been reversed.
As well as their storming straight-line performance, both models are incredible around corners. They have 4WD systems capable of sending torque to the wheels with the most grip. The STI’s steering feels slightly better weighted than the Evo’s, although the Mitsubishi’s overall level of feedback is still superior.

Get the Evo into a rhythm, and it is able to corner more quickly. But at the limit, its Super All-Wheel Control system – which brakes individual wheels automatically to maintain grip – does feel as if it’s taking over some control of the car. That’s in contrast to the Impreza, where the electronics fail to detract from the driving experience.

One thing’s for sure, these two are very closely matched. But there can only be one winner...

We're not sure how to say "oops" in Japanese.

Doesn't matter; we don't need to know. We just test the cars. We don't make them 250 pounds heavier. That's what Mitsubishi's engineers are for. In their efforts to make the 2008 Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution X stronger, more powerful and more luxurious, they made it heavier. A lot heavier. And heavier in this case means slower.

That's right, kids, the 2008 Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution X is slower than the Evo IX it's replacing. A lot slower.

Hey, don't shoot the messenger. Channel your anger toward Hiroshi Fujii, the platform manager for the Evo in Mitsubishi's research and development department, and the man they call Dr. Evo. It was Fujii and his team that created the Evo X, the largest, most refined and most technically advanced Evo ever.

Fujii's team has packed this all-wheel-drive, turbocharged sport sedan with active differentials, a dual-clutch semiautomatic gearbox and an all-new all-aluminum engine. They've strengthened its structure, fortified its five-speed manual transmission and added active stability control. Heck, it's the first Evo with a navigation system, HID headlamps and Bluetooth. It would seem that the doctor and his nurses spent years adding everything to the car except speed.

Oops, indeed.

How Much Slower?
But the good doctor shouldn't fall on his sword just yet. Sure he has added complexity, size and weight to one of the finest performance cars ever conceived. But remember, folks, it was Fujii who engineered our beloved Evo IX. And it was Fujii's hands that crafted the Evo VIII, Evo VII and Evo VI. The man is no fool. And his new car, while not as swift as its predecessor, is no dud.

In fact, the Evo X is so good it's sure to be a sales smash. According to our Inside Line crystal ball, when the Evo X goes on sale this February, it'll quickly become the car for performance enthusiasts who can't afford a Nissan GT-R and wouldn't be caught dead in the new poster child for pushrods, the Dodge Challenger. Regardless of what the stopwatch says, the Evo X will easily outsell the great Evo IX, which, truth be told, trickled out of Mitsubishi dealers as if they were coated in feces.

And now we're ahead of ourselves. Let's get back to the test track, where the Evo X GSR did everything right except outrun its older brother.

Here are its numbers:
0-30 mph: 1.7 seconds
0-45 mph: 3.1 seconds
0-60 mph: 4.9 seconds
0-75 mph: 7.2 seconds
Quarter-mile: 13.6 seconds at 101.3 mph

30-0 mph: 28 feet
60-0 mph: 112 feet

600-foot slalom: 70.7 mph
200-foot skid pad: 0.99g

Back to the Evo IX
If you're disappointed in those numbers, consider yourself hard to please. Either that or you're an Evo IX owner.

The last Evo IX we tested was way back in 2006. And it was a five-speed base model just like this Evo X. It even cost the same, about $35,000.

Here are its numbers:
0-30 mph: 1.8 seconds
0-45 mph: 3.3 seconds
0-60 mph: 4.9 seconds
0-75 mph: 7.4 seconds
Quarter-mile: 13.3 seconds at 103 mph

30-0 mph: 28.6 feet
60-0 mph: 115.8 feet

600-foot slalom: 70.7 mph
200-foot skid pad: 0.93g

The keen will notice that the new car actually has the old one covered at the drag strip up to 75 mph. We're guessing this is due to the new car's wider, taller 18-inch tires and more sophisticated all-wheel-drive system. Above 75 mph, however, the excess weight of the X (our test car weighed 3,545 pounds) drags things down, and the car crosses the quarter-mile mark 0.3 second slower than the lighter 2006 model.

In the Evo tradition, launching the Evo X is tricky. Maintaining 5,200 rpm while feeding clutch and throttle worked the best, but after a couple of runs the clutch smelled like rotten eggs. Getting it wrong doesn't take much, and bogging the car off the line is always the result.

Under the Hood
The Evo X's all-new aluminum-block 1,998cc 4B11 engine weighs 28 pounds less than the beloved iron-block 4G63 and makes more peak power: 291 horsepower at 6,500 rpm and 300 pound-feet of torque at 4,400 rpm. But it doesn't have the same high-rpm kick as the 4G63, and honestly we miss it.

Instead, the intercooled and turbocharged 4B11 builds boost cleanly and in a linear manner even from low engine speeds, where it has the 4G covered. It's also a much smoother engine, happy to live up around its 7,600-rpm fuel cutoff.

Although the engine's basic architecture is shared with the normally aspirated engine found in the 2008 Lancer, the 4B11 inline-4 has been bolstered with a semi-closed deck block and a forged crank for boosted use in the Evo. The compression ratio rises slightly to 9.0:1 and MIVEC variable valve timing has been fitted to both cams, which are now chain-driven.

Mitsubishi has also strengthened the Evo's slick-shifting five-speed manual and ditched the six-speed manual used in the Evo IX MR. And the drivetrain lash we couldn't stand in the Evo IX during rapid on-off throttle transitions is not a problem in the new car. Although the Twin Clutch Sportronic Shift Transmission (TC-SST) in the Evo X MR is a technological wonder, guys who really want to go fast will buy the GSR model with the five-speed manual.

As one Mitsubishi engineer told us: "Guys who really want to go fast will buy the GSR model with the five-speed manual; it's stronger for guys who want to modify the car and it can be launched harder so it's quicker in the quarter-mile." We're told as much as 0.3 second quicker.

AYC: Good and Bad
Those new, larger Yokohama Advan tires (the same brand worn by the Evo IX) also give the new car a slight braking advantage. And as you can see in the test numbers, they work with the Evo X's 1.2-inch-wider track, Super All-Wheel Control with Active Center Differential (ACD) all-wheel drive and its Active Yaw Control (AYC) to give the car more grip on the skid pad.

For that test, the new car's AYC is a magic bullet. On our 200-foot circle it allows the Evo X's rear end to step out slightly and stay there all the way around the pad. There's no need for steering input at all. Meanwhile, the car's front tires are pulling the sedan around at an amazing clip. The resulting 0.99g performance is nearly as good as production cars get.

Incredibly, AYC holds the car back in the slalom. It seems the system assumes the driver is initiating a corner and supplies oversteer, but it never realizes the driver wants to steer back the other way. This makes the Evo X quite a handful when it's threaded through the cones.

We would have thought the yaw control system along with the new Evo's larger tires and wider track would have given it an advantage in the slalom. But the Evo X's additional 1.2 inches of height, increased heft and the inability of the AYC system to react to quick secondary changes in direction evened things out. In the end, the Evo X only matches the speed of the Evo IX through the cones.

Although its slalom speed is a bit disappointing, real enthusiasts should be jumping for joy. We just said the Evo X is tossable. That it wants to drift. That it likes to be driven tail-out. This all-wheel-drive car drives like a rear-wheel-drive car. Is there a bigger compliment than that?

More Good News
And that's the deal with the Evo X; it's better than its track test numbers tell the world. It still feels like an Evo, but it's a more livable Evo that can be driven and enjoyed by those of us over 30.

No, it's not the quickest of its kind, but the aftermarket will fix that quarter-mile thing with the determination of a gunshot. Just give the guys at HKS or Vishnu Performance a few months. They'll have the new 4B11 2.0-liter cranked up like your favorite tweaker on a Saturday night. Then there will be no reason to look down upon Fujii's latest creation.

It's the right car at the right time to continue the model's tradition of affordable turbocharged all-wheel-drive performance. Evo-heads the world over better start saving up.

Sorry, Dr. Evo, no oops necessary.

Last month we were able to provide some speculative pricing on Mitsubishi's Lancer Evolution X GSR and MR, but those figures were still unconfirmed. Now it's official. You can get behind the wheel of the new Evo in GSR trim (meaning, equipped with the five-speed manual) for $32,990.

Start ticking off the option boxes and the price will head north pretty quick. The "Sight, Sound and Spoiler" package that includes HID headlamps, 650-watt Rockford-Fosgate ICE, Sirius, the Evo's trademark wing and the "FAST" keyless entry system costs $2,000. Add the 30 gig hard-drive navigation system and you're out another $1,999. The optional aero kit is another $2,000 and includes front, side and rear air dams, along with a rear spoiler extension. An aluminum shift knob and emergency brake handle are even being offered for the bargain price of $399.

Mitsubishi didn't announce pricing for the range topping, dual-clutch equipped MR, but if the GSR's pricing is any indication, early reports about it cresting the $40k mark are likely on target.

All the details are available in the press release after the jump.

Mitsubishi this weekend announced the Lancer Ralliart — the latest addition to the Lancer family. The car is powered by a new 2.0-liter DOHC MIVEC intercooled and turbocharged engine that develops an estimated 235 horsepower. The engine is mated to Mitsubishi's Twin Clutch-SST gearbox, featuring manual and automatic shift modes.

The Lancer Ralliart is positioned between the regular Lancer sedan and the new Evolution X. The car is visually distinguished by a more aggressively styled front bumper design, rear bumper cover, dual outlet muffler and a lightweight aluminum, ducted hood that delivers cooling air to the turbocharger.

The Lancer Ralliart's full-time 4WD driveline features Mitsubishi's Active Center Differential (ACD). The ACD unit employs an electronically controlled multi-plate clutch center differential, vectoring drive torque to the front and rear according to different driving conditions.

Available equipment and options to include: Recaro seats, HID headlights, 650 watt Rockford Fosgate 9-speaker audio system, Sirius satellite radio, power sunroof, and a 30 GB Hard Drive Navigation system.

What It's Like When Worlds Collide

By Jason Kavanagh, Engineering Editor Email | Blog
Date posted: 01-14-2008


For decades, General Motors has teased the motoring world with a midengine Corvette, and for years the pushrod faithful have nervously awaited the day when their beloved goes off in this radically different direction.

What does this have to do with the 2008 Subaru WRX STI and 2008 Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution X? Plenty. There has been a shift in priorities in the mission of the all-new Evo (or Evo X, as this is the 10th iteration) and STI. It doesn't quite equate to the philosophical about-face of said fiberglass two-seater, but both Subaru and Mitsubishi are keen to expand the appeal of these once-niche players.

As a result, the 2008 Subaru WRX STI is now a hatchback and the 2008 Mitsubishi Lancer Evo X has cruise control. Both have stability control and offer navigation systems, proof positive that these are no longer the manic rally replicas they once were.

Don't fear change, people. For those concerned that these cars have lost their way, worry not. The Evo and STI remain among the quickest and most capable cars for anything near the money. And, crucially, their respective personalities carry the torch of their predecessors.

In other words, the more things change, the more they stay the same.

Mixing It Up
Final pricing has not yet been announced for the Evo, but preliminary numbers released by Mitsubishi indicate that both versions of the Evo — the base $32,990 GSR model or the full-zoot (no price yet) MR edition — will squeak in for less dough than the STI, which starts at $35,640. Both of the Evos tested here are as close to U.S.-production specification as anyone has driven.

In addition to street driving and our usual round of performance testing — acceleration, braking, skid-pad grip and slalom — we ran hot laps of the Streets of Willow at Willow Springs International Raceway in the Subaru WRX STI and the two Mitsubishi Evos. Veteran tester Chris Walton has lapped this twisting 1.6-mile circuit so many times that his tongue looks like something out of an illustration by Ed "Big Daddy" Roth. Plus he's driven a lot of cars here, so he has a large database of impressions.

To complete our comparison, three editors submitted evaluation scores based on their driving impressions, which were balanced against the realities of price, performance and feature content. The results may surprise you.

The Dangers of Becoming Middle-Aged
On the surface, the tag-teaming Evos have 2-to-1 odds in this contest. They have the most to lose in contests of speed, however, since the STI trumps both in terms of power and weight.

The STI tips our scales at 3,351 pounds, nearly 200 fewer pounds than the 3,545-pound Evo GSR we used for performance testing. The fully loaded Evo MR is beefier still, as it carries more acoustic insulation and convenience equipment than the GSR, plus a heftier twin-clutch automated manual transmission with shift paddles mounted on the steering wheel.

Once you factor the STI's lighter weight with its higher horsepower (305 hp to the Evo's 291 hp), the Subaru has a distinct advantage over its three-diamond rivals.

Motivation
Matting the throttle produces a major midrange wallop in the Subaru WRX STI that trails off gently as the 7,000-rpm redline approaches. This turbocharged, 2.5-liter horizontally opposed four-cylinder has lots of character, delivering plenty of punchy thrust and a trademark love-it-or-hate-it burble from its exhaust. We love it. Given full whack, it feels stronger than the Mitsubishi Evo's mill pretty much anywhere on the tach.

Precise control is something that's missing from the STI's powertrain when it's being modulated at part-throttle. Whether you're adjusting the balance of the car in a fast corner or just puttering along, the transient boost response is soggier than that of the Evos, and there's too much drivetrain lash besides.

Though the turbocharged 2.0-liter inline-4 of the Mitsubishi Evo gives away a half-liter of displacement to the Subaru, its twin-scroll turbo and compact exhaust manifold lend the Evo a livelier disposition at part-throttle. This engine is deceptively quick to spin up to speed, as it goes about its business without calling much attention to the proceedings.

It's a pity the all-new 4B11T engine emits a reedy whoosh in lieu of something more satisfying. Mitsubishi would do well to borrow a Volkswagen GTI to experience just how melodic a turbocharged inline-4 can sound.

In Straight Lines
The advantage the Subaru WRX STI has on paper materializes at the drag strip with a lunge to 60 mph in just 4.5 seconds. Its best quarter-mile result of 13.3 seconds at 100.3 mph eclipses the next quickest car in this test — the Mitsubishi Evo GSR — by a full 0.3 second.

Rapidity of this degree owes much to the STI's ability to blast away from a standstill like a howitzer shell. The Subaru simply launches harder and quicker than either of the Mitsubishis, and then maintains this gap all the way to the end of the 1320. Note, however, that the STI's trap speed is 2 mph slower than when we last tested this car, more ammunition for the notion that the output of Subaru's boosted boxer is highly sensitive to variations in fuel quality.

The Mitsubishi Evo GSR requires a bit of finesse at the launch to avoid bogging down or, conversely, boiling the clutch into a putrid haze. In the end, it covers 60 mph in 4.9 seconds and the quarter-mile in 13.6 seconds at 101.3 mph.

And where's the Mitsubishi Evo MR during all of this? A few tenths behind the others. Preliminary estimates indicate the Evo MR runs to 60 mph in 5.2 seconds and through the quarter at 13.9 seconds at 98.8 mph, but this car did not yet have the final production calibration governing interaction between the twin-clutch gearbox and engine, so we think future tests might improve the MR's trap speed, especially as this car exhibited some grumpiness as the engine approached redline.

Braking proved to be a dead heat among all three entrants, with the Mitsubishi Evo GSR and the Subaru WRX STI stopping from 60 mph in 112 feet and the Mitsubishi Evo MR a scant 1 foot shorter.

Personality
Bend the Subaru WRX STI into its first corner and you're rewarded with steering that is more direct and talkative than ever before. Its new rear suspension gracefully soaks up road imperfections and thanks to plenty of mechanical grip on tap, the STI proved to be a blast on the local back roads with their old, broken pavement.

It easily devours miles of blacktop no matter whether it's a ribbon in a dusty canyon or a superslab freeway. Driven in isolation, you can't imagine how a car could be more confidence-inspiring than this STI.

Then you drive a Mitsubishi Evo and wonder why the Subaru STI's chassis quivers and why its steering isn't sharper. There's less understeer in the Evo and a more pronounced willingness to change direction. Where the STI punches with the substance of a middleweight, the Evo drives like a lithe flyweight.

This new Evo platform is hugely rigid, an advantage the car exploits with suspension tuning that provides pointier turn-in than the STI without a commensurate penalty in ride quality. Between these two Evos, the MR trades a bit of the GSR's sharpness for an even plusher ride.

Though the Mitsubishi Evo X might be missing the hair-trigger steering response of previous Evos, this turns out not to be a big deal after all. The new car upholds the Evo legacy of keen steering precision and then adds superior on-center feel compared to its progenitors.

Handling by the Numbers
Circumstances dictated that we could not test these cars at our usual venue, and the slalom course we used is particularly nasty — bumpy, pockmarked with weeds and full of grit. But the results you see here are directly comparable, as all three cars were tested in the same place on the same day.

In terms of ultimate grip, the Evo GSR is astonishing, circling the skid pad at a neck-straining 0.99g. The heavier Evo MR manages a very respectable result of 0.96g, and the WRX STI understeers its way to 0.90g.

The Evo's Super All Wheel Control (S-AWC) all-wheel-drive system deserves mention here for its ability to simultaneously find cornering grip and forward traction and then use it to devastating effect on the skid pad. It's the automotive equivalent of rubbing your tummy while patting your head.

By the same token, S-AWC might have been a liability in the slalom. Although the Evo GSR registers a best-in-test result of 70.7 mph, the impression from the driver seat is that S-AWC's real-time redistribution of torque from wheel to wheel could not quite keep up with the rapid changes in the car's attitude as it rounded the cones.

The Subaru WRX STI behaves more honestly, if fractionally less nimbly at 70.2 mph, and the Evo MR's softer damping restricted it to a best run of 68.8 mph.

These results left us keen to determine if our observations from the artificial environment of performance testing would manifest themselves on the Streets of Willow.

At the Streets of Willow
In a word, they didn't. Cutting right to the chase, the results around the Streets of Willow were as follows:

#2: Evo MR — 1:32.42
#3: Evo GSR — 1:32.51
#4: WRX STI — 1:32.68

The standout here is the Evo X MR. Here is a car that gets smoked in every category of our instrumented testing and had some high-rpm hiccups, yet still manages to out-quick the Evo GSR and the WRX STI over the course of our 1.6-mile lap.

A few advantages allow the Evo MR to pip the others around the road course. Its twin-clutch gearbox really proves its worth on this twisting, highly technical layout, delivering consistently fast gearchanges in a gearbox with closer ratios than the Evo GSR's conventional manual transmission. The MR's improved suspension compliance (and less unsprung mass) also allows power to be funneled continuously to the tarmac without upsetting the chassis.

S-AWC behaved far more transparently here, and none of the delayed reactions that were observed in the slalom cropped up on the road course, where the directional changes occurred at greater intervals.

At the other end of this closely spaced band of lap times was the WRX STI. Softer chassis responses, terminal understeer and a lack of grip relative to the Evos took their toll on the big-chested Subaru.

Still, the time gap among these cars at this venue proved small. Three-tenths of a second isn't a huge difference on a 1.6-mile circuit, yet the results illustrate that the elements of the driving experience must gel together cohesively for a car to lap quickly. You don't drive cold, hard performance numbers.

No. 1 at Willow
You'll notice that the No. 1 car is missing from the lap times listed above. It's not a typo. We brought along a fourth car, a 2006 Lancer Evolution IX MR, to serve as a reality check.

From behind the wheel, the Evo IX is terrifically eager, accelerating from apex to apex like no other car here. It fidgets a bit more over midcorner bumps than the new Evo, but since it's a full 250 pounds lighter than the Evo X GSR, it proved unbeatable around the Streets of Willow.

In fact, it covered the next quickest car, the Evo X MR, by more than a half-second:

#1: Evo IX MR — 1:31.89

To this we say: Bring on a lighter Evo X. As capable as the new platform is, it has gained enough weight to prevent it from quite unseating its leaner, more sharply focused brother when it comes to stringing together all the elements of a fast lap.

We Add It All Up
Our final tally after scoring all the elements of this comparison coincidentally produces a finishing order that mirrors the results of our driving test at the Streets of Willow.

Bringing up the rear is the Subaru WRX STI, a comprehensively equipped and surprisingly practical car that offers sheer velocity that cannot be ignored. It's good — damn good — but not quite as playful as either of the two Mitsubishi Evos, or even the outgoing STI. You can revel in its character every day without guilt as long as you're willing to concede a certain amount of compromise in your feeling of involvement with the car.

Second place goes to the Mitsubishi Evo GSR, which sweeps five of our six scoring categories. It tops the evaluation scores of all three editors, plus nabs top honors as the one car they'd most like to own and recommend to others. The thing is just loads of fun, delivering decisive handling with extreme cornering limits, a simple but rewarding conventional manual transmission and the lowest entry price by thousands. The Evo GSR comes up short, however, in the "stuff" category relative to the Evo MR or Subaru WRX STI, a factor that erodes its lead in dynamic scoring.

Playing the part of the dark horse in this test, the Mitsubishi Evo MR works both sides of the street in the sport/luxury equation to its advantage. The twin-clutch transmission swaps ratios brilliantly when you're going balls out or when you want to turn your brain off and leave it in "D." The Evo MR rides more comfortably than its GSR stablemate, yet clicks off superior lap times. And it offers more equipment than an Office Depot at a price that is projected to undercut the STI. What's not to love?

There's more diversity in the Evo vs. STI rivalry than ever before. If none of these choices is for you, maybe you should just wait for a midengine Corvette. It's sure to be right around the corner.

The GSR includes a five-speed manual transmission and is priced at $41,498. The MR comes standard with a six-speed Twin-Clutch Sportronic Shift Transmission (TC-SST) and starts at $47,498, while the top-of-the-line MR Premium features a 650-watt Rockford Fosgate stereo with nine speakers, at $51,498.

Our new friend Dan sent us a few sketches of what's supposedly the Mitsubishi Lancer Sportback, a near production-ready version of the Sportback Concept that debut back in 2005. Although we're not sure if these are official images out of Mitsu-HQ, they're very similar to some of the concept sketches we've seen in the past.

This new shot stays true to the original Sportback concept's profile and lines, but comes complete with a front clip that's more reminiscent of the rest of the Lancer line and a rear end that looks far more feasible for production. When the hatch finally makes it to dealers, likely sometime later this year, expect power to come from a 2.4-liter four, with an Evo version getting the same turbocharged 2.0-liter and all-wheel-drive system from its four-door sibling. And if Mitsubishi is smart, and decides to bring the hatch to the States, a Ralliart version to compete with the Subaru Impreza WRX five-door should be in the cards.