Looking back at the Lancer Evolution.
Discussion
I owned 4 of these over the years, my personal favourite of the entire range being my black 2006 XlV 360 model. But for you were they, as many people have said, an ugly souped-up Japanese taxi? A laggy 2 litre 4 cylinder which sounds like a vacuum cleaner which needs it's box emptying? A saloon car but with supercar insurance, road tax, servicing costs and fuel consumption?
Or was it for you a point to point weapon, a car with awesome traction and heroic performance from it's tiny 2 litre lump? Lord knows i have too many cars already but i saw a very good condition Evo 8 400 recently for sale which i wondered about buying. It was up at £22,500. Then i saw an immaculate 2013 BMW M3, with it's sonorous and wonderful 4.0 litre V8 engine and a cabin to die for compared with the Mitsubishi. For £1,500 less. Where are you on this one?
Or was it for you a point to point weapon, a car with awesome traction and heroic performance from it's tiny 2 litre lump? Lord knows i have too many cars already but i saw a very good condition Evo 8 400 recently for sale which i wondered about buying. It was up at £22,500. Then i saw an immaculate 2013 BMW M3, with it's sonorous and wonderful 4.0 litre V8 engine and a cabin to die for compared with the Mitsubishi. For £1,500 less. Where are you on this one?
Thesprucegoose said:
Weren't the service intervals 5k and s
t mpg as well as probably getting nicked and used as a ram raider..
I always liked them but prefer scobbies.
Loved my V and it was in every way superior to my blob STi uk.t mpg as well as probably getting nicked and used as a ram raider..I always liked them but prefer scobbies.
The AYC was brilliant, gave a predictable chassis without getting in the way of the driving, balance was oversteer transitioning to neutral and always predictable.
Engine on the V was excellent, very little lag (I mean lag, not low off boost performance), and had loads of character.
Ride for such a quick point to point car was fine, lots of compliance.
Downsides,
Ate discs, 4.5k services rarely came much under £1k and my AYC wore out and needed replacing.
In the wet, very little could touch it, certainly my STi would not see which way it went.
The ones after the VI were aimed as road cars and didn't have some of the more agricultural bits like the whining 5 speed box and the front diff that could wrench the wheel out of your hand if you weren't ready for it coming out of a junction.
Lifting off to half throttle from full boost caused a dump and surge that was great when you knew about it.
V was the best looking imho.
Remember I needed a new starter motor. This machined aluminium Jewel like unit weighing next to bugger all turned up at my local dealer and I almost passed out when they told me how much it was.
Lifting off to half throttle from full boost caused a dump and surge that was great when you knew about it.
V was the best looking imho.
Remember I needed a new starter motor. This machined aluminium Jewel like unit weighing next to bugger all turned up at my local dealer and I almost passed out when they told me how much it was.
I always thought they sounded more like a blender than a vacuum cleaner. Even full Group-A spec rally Evos with shotgun antilag still manage to just sound loud rather than nice or characterful.
Fast, immensely capable, but never really inspired me the way their Subaru competition did - I think a lot of that was just down to subjective things like the sound and looks.
Fast, immensely capable, but never really inspired me the way their Subaru competition did - I think a lot of that was just down to subjective things like the sound and looks.
Edited by GravelBen on Tuesday 19th June 09:21
Probably the only car i would swap my dc5 for in terms for an upgrade in overall driving experience...however the crap MPG, short service intervals and tenancy for things to go wrong in expensive fashion does put me right off.
I only do 20 miles a week at the moment and even that isn't enough to tempt me.
cracking cars though.
I only do 20 miles a week at the moment and even that isn't enough to tempt me.
cracking cars though.
I've had my '03 plate 8 for 15 years. The first non-consumable part it needed was a heater matrix at 10 years old. The second was an aircon rad last month.
That's all.
The car was modified 8 years ago with a Mivec head, Evo 9 turbo, inlet and ECU and mapped to 400 brake or thereabouts. The parts were all second hand, and I don't know what mileage they had done when fitted. The turbo finally shat itself last year in Scotland on a fast road trip, having been run at 1.8 bar for all of the years it had been on the car. Given it wasn't original and running at more or less all it had to give, it's hardly the fault of the car.
It had a clutch at 44k miles, after several 7k rpm launches at Santa Pod and Thorney Island. Again, fair enough. In a Subaru the clutch would have been fine. The box would have needed replacing. Ask me how I know!
The general running costs are high, but they are offset by frankly remarkable levels of reliability. I can't think of many cars that can give so much performance for relatively little trouble.
That's all.
The car was modified 8 years ago with a Mivec head, Evo 9 turbo, inlet and ECU and mapped to 400 brake or thereabouts. The parts were all second hand, and I don't know what mileage they had done when fitted. The turbo finally shat itself last year in Scotland on a fast road trip, having been run at 1.8 bar for all of the years it had been on the car. Given it wasn't original and running at more or less all it had to give, it's hardly the fault of the car.
It had a clutch at 44k miles, after several 7k rpm launches at Santa Pod and Thorney Island. Again, fair enough. In a Subaru the clutch would have been fine. The box would have needed replacing. Ask me how I know!
The general running costs are high, but they are offset by frankly remarkable levels of reliability. I can't think of many cars that can give so much performance for relatively little trouble.
designforlife said:
Probably the only car i would swap my dc5 for in terms for an upgrade in overall driving experience...however the crap MPG, short service intervals and tenancy for things to go wrong in expensive fashion does put me right off.
I only do 20 miles a week at the moment and even that isn't enough to tempt me.
cracking cars though.
My STi was worse on fuel than my Evo. Did Lancaster to Milan and returned an easy 25-28 mpg in normal driving. The real problem was its tiny fuel tank. To put the rear drive in a fwd lancer chassis, they shrunk the tank size (as the rally cars wouldn't use it) which meant you had a road car that, when driven hard, could empty the tank in 150 miles I only do 20 miles a week at the moment and even that isn't enough to tempt me.
cracking cars though.
Heaveho said:
The general running costs are high, but they are offset by frankly remarkable levels of reliability. I can't think of many cars that can give so much performance for relatively little trouble.
Maybe if you get a good one - I remember a mate reciting the list of things he had to replace on his Evo 5. Gearbox, clutch, diffs, turbos, the list went on... and several of them more than once. To be fair though he had it for quite a few years and it had done 120k miles by the time he sold it.I've bought the Evo 400 and convinced myself that it's an investment as the previous and only owner really loved the car, only ever used 99 octane, changed the oil every 2,000 miles and serviced it before the recommended miles had happened. I've driven it 300 miles so far and i have to say the lag is pretty awful compared to say an A45 AMG or RS3, cars people own at work. But i'm finding a love for it as a rebel, a hooligan which refuses to behave and as for lag, it basically says ''ave it''! I'm keeping it stock even though i was told you can modify these for more power AND less lag, quite how i don't yet know. Standard hopefully will mean better retained value. Here's to a fun summer but in so many ways a BMW M2 is just so much better if i'm honest. I drove my dad's yesterday and it's a great car.
Grindle said:
I saw a very good condition Evo 8 400 recently for sale which i wondered about buying. It was up at £22,500. Then i saw an immaculate 2013 BMW M3, with it's sonorous and wonderful 4.0 litre V8 engine and a cabin to die for compared with the Mitsubishi. For £1,500 less. Where are you on this one?
You need some man maths to justify buying an old car over newer technically superior car. I think performance cars do need a bit of heart involved rather than head though. I want to go back to an old car too (AE86s are my flavour) and at 8k for a dodgy one, 10k for decent, I could buy a lot newer better car for the money but it would depreciate more and wouldn't take my heart in the same way.Just read at the bottom you went for the Evo anyway, congrats! Enjoy it
If you come to sell it in the next 10 years, I'm sure it would have gone up in value and the M3 down so you could easily trade and be quids in.Evo IX (GT) the 2nd car I've bought twice! I missed the 1st one after getting rid in a moment of attempted sensibleness 10years ago. I'm now back with an IX GT Wagon, covering the sensibleness aspect there properly this time. The IX GT has just about the right amount of go (though a bit more never hurts) with a fast spooling turbo that lets the engine pick up its skirts very nicely even on part throttle boost far better than my previous Audi S1 Sportback did. The latter always felt it needed full throttle & higher revs to demonstrate it was able to accelerate at a reasonable rate of knots. The IX (on factory fit Billies) just smoothers the local rippled pothole roads better than anything I've peddaled (even company rented hire cars don't come close!) . Re the EVO 400 lag, never driven one but suspect a decent map may help though sticking it in top gear at sub 2.5/3K rpm is probably not going to give any sort of decent rate of speed change even in a cooking Evo (8/IX)
GravelBen said:
Maybe if you get a good one - I remember a mate reciting the list of things he had to replace on his Evo 5. Gearbox, clutch, diffs, turbos, the list went on... and several of them more than once. To be fair though he had it for quite a few years and it had done 120k miles by the time he sold it.
In my opinion, the later the car, the better they were fettled from the factory. A lot of the problems on earlier models, such as the 5, were resolved model by model as they were replaced. The AYC pump on the later cars are a known issue, I'm sure I'll have that to deal with at some point.
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