Gibbo
08-03-10, 23:02
Hi there
Well tonight I got my car looked and checked over by pretty much an EVO expert who has had pretty much every EVO and also has been rallying for many years.
He checked over the car said looks good, then I handed him the keys, I took passenger seat and ScottiB got in the back.
What happened next was quite possibly the biggest adrenalin rush I've ever had, he proceeded to some national speed limit roads full are very tight corners, long sweepers, cambers you know it this road had it. But what happened next was taking corner a good 20-30mph higher than I ever though possible, were talking 90 degree corners at like 60mph, I simply could not believe what was happening. Then he did some flicks and next thing you know were either doing 4WD drifts round corners or hanging the tail out. The adrenalin was pumping like crazy, the speeds we were hitting with mind bending and still find it hard to believe how the car could corner like this. Yes I know its not all the car as the chap driving is probably the best driver I've ever been in a car with and he has years upon years rallying experience.
Now I've been in a lot of exotic cars, GTR, Ferrari's, BMW M5 but the way this guy got my EVO up these back lanes and country roads they would have just not stood a chance in hope. I've never been in a car that can do what the EVO X can do with a person behind the wheel who knows how to extract the most out of it. When it came to turning around my adrenalin was pumping so quick I had to wimp out and request he drove normally back and asking someone to slow down is something I have never asked before. I trusted him but the speed and his ability to go round corners whether it be like on rails, backend out or full drifts were just too much for me. I've never been so impressed and I know I might be biased but I believe as an A/B road car I really can't see anything touching an EVO X not even the legendary GTR.
After the drive he was impressed, said its a real good one, only issue he had was the tyres were not getting enough heat in them due to been a full on Summer Tyre.
Right so now to let you know what I think of the car.
Build Quality
Build quality is an odd one with the EVO, certain parts of the car like the Recaro seats, its engine bay, sound system, gearbox, brakes are top notch. Yet other parts like interior plastics, the noise the doors/boot make when closing seem cheap and not upto the standard of the Mustang. The Mustang feels a more solid better built car but the Mitsubishi has lots of nice little features such as SATNAV, music server, trip computers, auto lights, auto wipers etc. etc.
So if I was to put things into perspective I'd say the build quality of the EVO was say 6/10, excellent on its mechanical put together, but poor on its interior. The Mustang I'd put at 6.5/10 as its interior quality is marginally better.
Economy and cost of running
This is the part where people assume an EVO means big running cost well the new EVO X is very pleasing in this department. They require a service every 10,000 miles or once per year, these services average a cost of £300 a time at a Mitsubishi dealer. Something else I am finding, the myths they drink fuel is really a myth, maybe people assume they drink fuel due to the small tank, yes they really do have a small tank, £20 is practically half full. However on my trip to work which involves decent country national speed limits road and lots of overtaking opportunities followed by Manchester traffice I average on my trip to work 22-26MPG dependent on how extreme the traffic is. On the motorway travelling at 75mph your looking at 34-36MPG, lower this to 50mph and you can achieve over 50MPG if the road remains relatively flat. The only major expense is brakes, if you need those doing don't let Mitsubishi do it, get exactly the same parts fitted by an independent for 1/3 of the cost. The Mustang in comparison, well on my same drive to work I was averaging 12-16MPG with the same driving style and on the motorway again sticking to around 75mph you could see 28-30MPG on a run. The Mustang cost of running was quite cheap, oil intervals were every 6000 miles though I changed mine every 3000 miles and major fluids change was every 50,000-60,000 miles, though again I did mine early. Reliability wise, well the engine output is double stock and touch wood its never put a foot wrong.
I'd rate the EVO X a 9/10 simply due for such a high performance car running cost are not huge. The Mustang I'd rate as 7/10 simply due to fuel and limited number of garages who can take care of them.
Comfort
For front seat passenger on OK roads the ride is incredibly smooth and the Recaro's in the front really help cushion the firm suspension. On poor roads with holes, bumps you do notice them, its not crashy or back breaking but very noticable and for the bigger holes/bumps you do have to slow down and take them gently. As a motorway cruiser its very comfortable but you do need the radio on as 80mph on the motorway is just under a screaching 4000rpm due to the short ratio box and at this RPM the engine can be heard as can the turbo spooling, MPG figures are still 30MPG unless you actually bury the throttle and cause boost to build up. Overall comfort wise its a great car around town, country roads but definetely limit your use off motorways unless you happy to **** at 75mph which is a very nice cruising speed but any faster and it just sounds all a bit strained hence at this point the radio is a good option. Now the STD fit Satnav/Music Server that comes on GSR models is a superb piece of kit, it can play DVD's, MP3's, HDD, SATNAV, 6.1 speakers its all very good and sounds excellent plus the SATNAV system is very good. All controls are in easy to reach places. The headlights are fantastic, really bright on DIP and superb on full beam. All in all its easy to live with on a daily basis for me. Comfort wise the Mustang is slightly better its suspension is less firm and adjustable but it also cruises much better. Wheras 80mph in the EVO might be just under 4000rpm, 80mph in the Mustang is half that at 2000rpm. This makes motorway cruising in the Mustang much more pleasurable and again its a nice place to be with good aircon and great sound system as standard.
I'd rate the Mustang 7/10 on comfort and the EVO 6/10.
Performance
Right lets talk about performance, the EVO has a claimed 0-62mph of 4.1s I believe and will gallop onto 100mph in 10.6s-10.9s dependent where you look. Figures not to be sniffed at and quite achievable if you use the cars launch control which yes even the manuals have. I've not tested launch control as I am not one for abusing a clutch like that but how it works is you hold the ASC button for 3s and this completely shuts down all traction/stability systems. You then clutch in, select 1st and floor the throttle, the car will now bounce of a lowered limiter at 5500rpm and your now supposed to just let the clutch out quickly but smoothly resulting in a catapult style launch. For me I preferre to just roll off the mark, so slower initially for say the first few feet but then bury the throttle so no clutch strain or harshness on the tranny and your still looking at like 4.5s launching using this method. Driving wise there is not huge amounts of lag, if you bury the throttle in 4th at 2000rpm the engine picks up and once you start passing 3000rpm the turbo surges and will then propel you extremely quickly past three figures, infact you can jst drive whole country roads in 4th and use that powerband and the boost pulls hard and strong right upto 7500rpm limiter, it does not die off like many turbo cars do. So between 3500rpm - 7000rpm its an absolute riot. The turbo also feels quite menacing when it comes on full chat, maybe not quite as much as the older 9 generation but not far off it.
Now performance wise the Mustang is in a different league, the Mustang could match the EVO to 60mph if you got a perfect launch and I mean perfect but been realistic in the Mustang you looking at more like 4.8s as its a very hard car to launch fast due to limited traction and no fancy gizmos. To give you an idea the Mustang even after the slower off the mark start will still reach 100mph in sub 9s and this shows in on the roll performance, for example the Mustang will do 30-70mph in 2.75s and 60-100mph in 4.2s. Wheras 30-70mph in the EVO takes 3.9s and 60-100mph is about 5.5s however this can be reduced by a bit of Stage one tweaking, new elbow, downpipe and exhaust plus remap for 420BHP and 440lb/ft helps reduce these times considerably but still not quite Mustang territory. The other Mustang huge plus point is it has absolutely ZERO lag, you can boot it at 1000rpm and it picks up immediately and fast. Boot it above 2000rpm and its like getting your head snapped off due to how snappy/responsive the throttle is and the sheer acceleration. If this engine could be put in the EVO then OMG, it would be epic, so come on Mitsubishi give us a V8 EVO that would be truly immense. Both cars are capable of exceeding 170mph with relative ease though the EVO would soon run out of gearing.
The Mustang gets a firm 9/10 but so does the EVO simply because the EVO can use all of its power in pretty much all conditions, though the Mustang can struggle to lay its power down even in best of conditions.
Handling
Right lets not beat around the bush, the Mustang might have a live axle, its also rear wheel drive with huge amounts of power and has no nanny state traction or stability control systems, your in complete control. However despite all of these its a superb handling car, on a smooth road or lets say race track it can take corners with great speed, on a race track the EVO would probably not have much more speed in the corners. However the Mustangs suspension does struggle more when it comes to bumpier and off camber roads it can get upset and therefor it requires a smooth driving style to get the most from it safely. Yes you can hang the rear out but the quickest way around the corner is to take it smoothly and the straightest possible line, so as little steering input as possible. If I was to say what is the Mustang an equal too handling wise then I'd say a stock E46 M3, mod the M3 or get a CSL and it will be better no doubt, but for an American car one cannot complain about its abilities. It can easily embarrash any hot hatch or other similar GT style car in the twisties, those who have been in the Mustang can testify to its cornering abilities on a decent country road. In the wet the Mustang handles fine too, just respect the car and use smooth throttle inputs but on a warm wet day you can still cover ground fast. The Mustangs biggest weakness is low temperatures both dry and wet it just really struggles to put power down and grip. Another excellent feature of the Mustang was driver communication, it gives you feedback from every wheel and the steering communicates everything that is happening, its a car full of feedback with great fast precise steering which makes it a joy to drive and enjoy.
Now onto the EVO I knew it was good but after tonight I never knew it was quite that good. Grip wise it is just phenomal truly out of this world the sheer levels of grips are unreal and the kind of thing you can get away with in corners. Now its a different driving style to the Mustang, wheras that was very smooth, you can use the same style in the EVO which is fast but the EVO if it pushes wide instead of backing off and gently pulling it back in line like you would with the Mustang on the EVO simply apply more steering input and apply more throttle and it pulls you round the corner. Doing this in the Mustang would result in oversteer and been all over the road. Wheras the EVO just tightens up its game and shoots you out the other side of the corner. When you do push past the levels of grip in the EVO it seems to do wonderfully controlled oversteer or 4WD drifts as was demonstrated to me tonight. The car is also so so chuckable, its incredibly light on its feet and the steering is super fast and sharp. If road conditions are not so great, no problem put the car in gravel mode and it adjust how the diff works and basically gives the car a much more sure footed feeling when conditions are slippery, or alternatively for more fun leave it in tarmec mode and you can easily get some slides on out of roundabouts.
To sum it up the EVO feels kinda like a mini-GTR, its not got the power or same low down power like the GTR but what it has got is what feels like a lighter more precise tool and a lot more capable on country and narrow back roads, to put it this way on a country road I can't see how a GTR could get away from it as its just so much more nimble on its feet apart from the straights of course. Plus due to the power delivery and it less weight you can feel the performance more in the EVO especially when the turbo comes on full boost. Now my only complaint with the EVO X is its lack of feedback, it has an almost disconnected feeling, not something you really want, on roundabouts its hard to tell when your closing onto its grips limits. On a country road you start to get decent communication when your closing onto the limits but it would be nice to have a lot more, maybe like say how the older 9 felt, as feedback in the 9 is better than the 10. However though the 10 does seem a lot more sure footed compared to the 9 and seems to cover ground faster especially when the roads are typical British quality.
For the Mustang this is a 7/10 (stock Mustang 4.5/10) but the EVO I score at 9.5/10, if it had the feedback of the EVO 9 I'd be saying 10/10 as no lie it really is that good, I've never ever been in a car that could corner like the EVO X does tonight, not anything and this is a stock car. Supposedly you can improve the handling, admittedly not by a huge amount but supposedly adjustable suspension, bigger wheels will give some improvement.
Conclusion
Right to sum it up the Mustang even though it can be an everyday driver is better suited to weekends mainly due to its size and appetite for fuel. Without a doubt the Mustang has more road presence, is adored by everyone who see's it and it can even get you sexy girls phone numbers. The sound is unreal and the engine and throttle response is an absolute gem.
The EVO is a far more usable car, easily fine for everyday use apart from maybe motorway blasting, it is well equipped, comfy enough when cruising and is not too thirsty. Put it on a country road and take a brave pill and the chances of anything keeping it up in the twisties is pretty much not gonna happen.
Overall very happy with the purchase, at the moment the car is well above my abilities but with time I hope to explore them but of course in safe area such as an airfield.
I am sure if ScottiB reads this he will comment on tonights experience when you let a rally driver take your EVO X out. :D
Well tonight I got my car looked and checked over by pretty much an EVO expert who has had pretty much every EVO and also has been rallying for many years.
He checked over the car said looks good, then I handed him the keys, I took passenger seat and ScottiB got in the back.
What happened next was quite possibly the biggest adrenalin rush I've ever had, he proceeded to some national speed limit roads full are very tight corners, long sweepers, cambers you know it this road had it. But what happened next was taking corner a good 20-30mph higher than I ever though possible, were talking 90 degree corners at like 60mph, I simply could not believe what was happening. Then he did some flicks and next thing you know were either doing 4WD drifts round corners or hanging the tail out. The adrenalin was pumping like crazy, the speeds we were hitting with mind bending and still find it hard to believe how the car could corner like this. Yes I know its not all the car as the chap driving is probably the best driver I've ever been in a car with and he has years upon years rallying experience.
Now I've been in a lot of exotic cars, GTR, Ferrari's, BMW M5 but the way this guy got my EVO up these back lanes and country roads they would have just not stood a chance in hope. I've never been in a car that can do what the EVO X can do with a person behind the wheel who knows how to extract the most out of it. When it came to turning around my adrenalin was pumping so quick I had to wimp out and request he drove normally back and asking someone to slow down is something I have never asked before. I trusted him but the speed and his ability to go round corners whether it be like on rails, backend out or full drifts were just too much for me. I've never been so impressed and I know I might be biased but I believe as an A/B road car I really can't see anything touching an EVO X not even the legendary GTR.
After the drive he was impressed, said its a real good one, only issue he had was the tyres were not getting enough heat in them due to been a full on Summer Tyre.
Right so now to let you know what I think of the car.
Build Quality
Build quality is an odd one with the EVO, certain parts of the car like the Recaro seats, its engine bay, sound system, gearbox, brakes are top notch. Yet other parts like interior plastics, the noise the doors/boot make when closing seem cheap and not upto the standard of the Mustang. The Mustang feels a more solid better built car but the Mitsubishi has lots of nice little features such as SATNAV, music server, trip computers, auto lights, auto wipers etc. etc.
So if I was to put things into perspective I'd say the build quality of the EVO was say 6/10, excellent on its mechanical put together, but poor on its interior. The Mustang I'd put at 6.5/10 as its interior quality is marginally better.
Economy and cost of running
This is the part where people assume an EVO means big running cost well the new EVO X is very pleasing in this department. They require a service every 10,000 miles or once per year, these services average a cost of £300 a time at a Mitsubishi dealer. Something else I am finding, the myths they drink fuel is really a myth, maybe people assume they drink fuel due to the small tank, yes they really do have a small tank, £20 is practically half full. However on my trip to work which involves decent country national speed limits road and lots of overtaking opportunities followed by Manchester traffice I average on my trip to work 22-26MPG dependent on how extreme the traffic is. On the motorway travelling at 75mph your looking at 34-36MPG, lower this to 50mph and you can achieve over 50MPG if the road remains relatively flat. The only major expense is brakes, if you need those doing don't let Mitsubishi do it, get exactly the same parts fitted by an independent for 1/3 of the cost. The Mustang in comparison, well on my same drive to work I was averaging 12-16MPG with the same driving style and on the motorway again sticking to around 75mph you could see 28-30MPG on a run. The Mustang cost of running was quite cheap, oil intervals were every 6000 miles though I changed mine every 3000 miles and major fluids change was every 50,000-60,000 miles, though again I did mine early. Reliability wise, well the engine output is double stock and touch wood its never put a foot wrong.
I'd rate the EVO X a 9/10 simply due for such a high performance car running cost are not huge. The Mustang I'd rate as 7/10 simply due to fuel and limited number of garages who can take care of them.
Comfort
For front seat passenger on OK roads the ride is incredibly smooth and the Recaro's in the front really help cushion the firm suspension. On poor roads with holes, bumps you do notice them, its not crashy or back breaking but very noticable and for the bigger holes/bumps you do have to slow down and take them gently. As a motorway cruiser its very comfortable but you do need the radio on as 80mph on the motorway is just under a screaching 4000rpm due to the short ratio box and at this RPM the engine can be heard as can the turbo spooling, MPG figures are still 30MPG unless you actually bury the throttle and cause boost to build up. Overall comfort wise its a great car around town, country roads but definetely limit your use off motorways unless you happy to **** at 75mph which is a very nice cruising speed but any faster and it just sounds all a bit strained hence at this point the radio is a good option. Now the STD fit Satnav/Music Server that comes on GSR models is a superb piece of kit, it can play DVD's, MP3's, HDD, SATNAV, 6.1 speakers its all very good and sounds excellent plus the SATNAV system is very good. All controls are in easy to reach places. The headlights are fantastic, really bright on DIP and superb on full beam. All in all its easy to live with on a daily basis for me. Comfort wise the Mustang is slightly better its suspension is less firm and adjustable but it also cruises much better. Wheras 80mph in the EVO might be just under 4000rpm, 80mph in the Mustang is half that at 2000rpm. This makes motorway cruising in the Mustang much more pleasurable and again its a nice place to be with good aircon and great sound system as standard.
I'd rate the Mustang 7/10 on comfort and the EVO 6/10.
Performance
Right lets talk about performance, the EVO has a claimed 0-62mph of 4.1s I believe and will gallop onto 100mph in 10.6s-10.9s dependent where you look. Figures not to be sniffed at and quite achievable if you use the cars launch control which yes even the manuals have. I've not tested launch control as I am not one for abusing a clutch like that but how it works is you hold the ASC button for 3s and this completely shuts down all traction/stability systems. You then clutch in, select 1st and floor the throttle, the car will now bounce of a lowered limiter at 5500rpm and your now supposed to just let the clutch out quickly but smoothly resulting in a catapult style launch. For me I preferre to just roll off the mark, so slower initially for say the first few feet but then bury the throttle so no clutch strain or harshness on the tranny and your still looking at like 4.5s launching using this method. Driving wise there is not huge amounts of lag, if you bury the throttle in 4th at 2000rpm the engine picks up and once you start passing 3000rpm the turbo surges and will then propel you extremely quickly past three figures, infact you can jst drive whole country roads in 4th and use that powerband and the boost pulls hard and strong right upto 7500rpm limiter, it does not die off like many turbo cars do. So between 3500rpm - 7000rpm its an absolute riot. The turbo also feels quite menacing when it comes on full chat, maybe not quite as much as the older 9 generation but not far off it.
Now performance wise the Mustang is in a different league, the Mustang could match the EVO to 60mph if you got a perfect launch and I mean perfect but been realistic in the Mustang you looking at more like 4.8s as its a very hard car to launch fast due to limited traction and no fancy gizmos. To give you an idea the Mustang even after the slower off the mark start will still reach 100mph in sub 9s and this shows in on the roll performance, for example the Mustang will do 30-70mph in 2.75s and 60-100mph in 4.2s. Wheras 30-70mph in the EVO takes 3.9s and 60-100mph is about 5.5s however this can be reduced by a bit of Stage one tweaking, new elbow, downpipe and exhaust plus remap for 420BHP and 440lb/ft helps reduce these times considerably but still not quite Mustang territory. The other Mustang huge plus point is it has absolutely ZERO lag, you can boot it at 1000rpm and it picks up immediately and fast. Boot it above 2000rpm and its like getting your head snapped off due to how snappy/responsive the throttle is and the sheer acceleration. If this engine could be put in the EVO then OMG, it would be epic, so come on Mitsubishi give us a V8 EVO that would be truly immense. Both cars are capable of exceeding 170mph with relative ease though the EVO would soon run out of gearing.
The Mustang gets a firm 9/10 but so does the EVO simply because the EVO can use all of its power in pretty much all conditions, though the Mustang can struggle to lay its power down even in best of conditions.
Handling
Right lets not beat around the bush, the Mustang might have a live axle, its also rear wheel drive with huge amounts of power and has no nanny state traction or stability control systems, your in complete control. However despite all of these its a superb handling car, on a smooth road or lets say race track it can take corners with great speed, on a race track the EVO would probably not have much more speed in the corners. However the Mustangs suspension does struggle more when it comes to bumpier and off camber roads it can get upset and therefor it requires a smooth driving style to get the most from it safely. Yes you can hang the rear out but the quickest way around the corner is to take it smoothly and the straightest possible line, so as little steering input as possible. If I was to say what is the Mustang an equal too handling wise then I'd say a stock E46 M3, mod the M3 or get a CSL and it will be better no doubt, but for an American car one cannot complain about its abilities. It can easily embarrash any hot hatch or other similar GT style car in the twisties, those who have been in the Mustang can testify to its cornering abilities on a decent country road. In the wet the Mustang handles fine too, just respect the car and use smooth throttle inputs but on a warm wet day you can still cover ground fast. The Mustangs biggest weakness is low temperatures both dry and wet it just really struggles to put power down and grip. Another excellent feature of the Mustang was driver communication, it gives you feedback from every wheel and the steering communicates everything that is happening, its a car full of feedback with great fast precise steering which makes it a joy to drive and enjoy.
Now onto the EVO I knew it was good but after tonight I never knew it was quite that good. Grip wise it is just phenomal truly out of this world the sheer levels of grips are unreal and the kind of thing you can get away with in corners. Now its a different driving style to the Mustang, wheras that was very smooth, you can use the same style in the EVO which is fast but the EVO if it pushes wide instead of backing off and gently pulling it back in line like you would with the Mustang on the EVO simply apply more steering input and apply more throttle and it pulls you round the corner. Doing this in the Mustang would result in oversteer and been all over the road. Wheras the EVO just tightens up its game and shoots you out the other side of the corner. When you do push past the levels of grip in the EVO it seems to do wonderfully controlled oversteer or 4WD drifts as was demonstrated to me tonight. The car is also so so chuckable, its incredibly light on its feet and the steering is super fast and sharp. If road conditions are not so great, no problem put the car in gravel mode and it adjust how the diff works and basically gives the car a much more sure footed feeling when conditions are slippery, or alternatively for more fun leave it in tarmec mode and you can easily get some slides on out of roundabouts.
To sum it up the EVO feels kinda like a mini-GTR, its not got the power or same low down power like the GTR but what it has got is what feels like a lighter more precise tool and a lot more capable on country and narrow back roads, to put it this way on a country road I can't see how a GTR could get away from it as its just so much more nimble on its feet apart from the straights of course. Plus due to the power delivery and it less weight you can feel the performance more in the EVO especially when the turbo comes on full boost. Now my only complaint with the EVO X is its lack of feedback, it has an almost disconnected feeling, not something you really want, on roundabouts its hard to tell when your closing onto its grips limits. On a country road you start to get decent communication when your closing onto the limits but it would be nice to have a lot more, maybe like say how the older 9 felt, as feedback in the 9 is better than the 10. However though the 10 does seem a lot more sure footed compared to the 9 and seems to cover ground faster especially when the roads are typical British quality.
For the Mustang this is a 7/10 (stock Mustang 4.5/10) but the EVO I score at 9.5/10, if it had the feedback of the EVO 9 I'd be saying 10/10 as no lie it really is that good, I've never ever been in a car that could corner like the EVO X does tonight, not anything and this is a stock car. Supposedly you can improve the handling, admittedly not by a huge amount but supposedly adjustable suspension, bigger wheels will give some improvement.
Conclusion
Right to sum it up the Mustang even though it can be an everyday driver is better suited to weekends mainly due to its size and appetite for fuel. Without a doubt the Mustang has more road presence, is adored by everyone who see's it and it can even get you sexy girls phone numbers. The sound is unreal and the engine and throttle response is an absolute gem.
The EVO is a far more usable car, easily fine for everyday use apart from maybe motorway blasting, it is well equipped, comfy enough when cruising and is not too thirsty. Put it on a country road and take a brave pill and the chances of anything keeping it up in the twisties is pretty much not gonna happen.
Overall very happy with the purchase, at the moment the car is well above my abilities but with time I hope to explore them but of course in safe area such as an airfield.
I am sure if ScottiB reads this he will comment on tonights experience when you let a rally driver take your EVO X out. :D