If the weather in your area condemns the Corvette to the garage for half the year, there’s something to be said for continuing to satisfy your Driving Enthusiast desires with an all-wheel drive turbocharged rally car for the street. Although Subaru is just now getting back into the game with its all-new WRX, Mitsubishi has continued to offer the Evo to fans who like their performance rude and crude and turbocharged to within one psi of meltdown: i.e. guys under 30. The biggest benefit in our eyes is that one of the best all-wheel drive systems in a car under $40k is standard and gives the Evo the traction needed to laugh in Old Man Winter’s face. Unfortunately, you’ve got to be a hardcore breed to look past the Mad Mitsu’s glaring shortcomings, but we’re still glad we’ve got the choice to get in touch with our inner hooligan and drift around our own personal rally stage. Snow be damned.
During its tenure in the AT garage we proved that while the stiffly sprung and high strung 2008 Mitsubishi Lancer EVO GSR makes for a great backroad bomber, it isn’t so well suited for multi-state cross country excursions.
600 Miles Later We Learn What The Evo Isn’t Good At
I’ve had better and I’ve had worse. Among the worse was a three-hour cross-country van trip through Mexico in a 20-year-old van. A trip like that will make you appreciate things like suspensions, air conditioning and even the Michigan DOT. Recently I embarked on a road trip that didn’t jar loose all the fillings from my teeth but did take a toll on the overall condition of my already weakened body. Read more…
Something MoRe
It’s probably appropriate that the high-performance version of Mitsubishi’s Lancer sedan is called the Evolution. Every couple years the die-hard speed junkies inside the three-diamond division tweak the look, and if we’re lucky, the turbo engine of this all-wheel drive monster and add one to the Roman numerals. Right now we’re flying around corners in the ninth version of the entry-level sedan cum serious sports car. Of course, when we think it can’t get any better the Evo will evolve again, and we’ll be blown away—again. Sadly, the 10th generation is still a ways off, but in the meantime the Evo IX is more than capable of serious entertainment. To be sure we were as amused as we could be we asked for the top dog MR edition. We haven’t had this much fun since the office Christmas party. Read more…
Categories: Reviews Tags: 2006, All-wheel drive, AWD, compact, Evo, Evolution, IX, Lancer, Mitsubishi, MR, sedan, turbocharged
Affordable Family Fun
If you’re a regular reader of these pages you already know that the Mitsubishi Lancer can offer serious doses of excitement when fitted with full Evolution trim. For some, however, the budget may preclude even considering an Evolution. Luckily for us enthusiasts there is a healthy amount of fun to be had for around $20,000 in the 2005 Lancer Ralliart. Mitsubishi claims the Ralliart package is “inspired by the Lancer’s rally heritage”. Although you will not find expensive goodies like a turbo or all-wheel drive, you will find enough pep to make driving feel a little less like work and a little more like fun. Read more…
