[Ikon]

cant wait to see what you do to this thing

[SNE2040]

Ah... a virgin Evo... brings tears to my eyes. lol... Good luck with her!

[Kilya]

Beautiful car man. Grats on the purchase.

[twiSTies]

Be careful what you ask for...I posted this review awhile back on another site and still stand by it.

Here we go...

I've had the car for over 3 weeks now and am starting to formulate a mod path in my head as to what the car could use. What's making me grin so much is how little work needs to be done to the suspension. After my STi experience, I was constantly modifying that suspension chasing my own tail to get the car to ride and handle the "correct way" aka neutral entry and power out oversteer (hehe, its my preference in a car) without killing my kidneys on the daily drive. I've been finding that the Evo does this in stock form with insane levels of grip which leads me to think that the factory, for the most part, got this car right.

So I'll break this down into sections. This is going to be an indepth read and feel free to critique it. Coming from an STi, the car was open to so many needed improvements that I'm really enjoying having to dig on the Evo.

So let's start off with my passion behind the wheel of a car....how it turns and rides.

Suspension:
Compliant, quiet, and comfortable right out of the box. Adequate spring rate for the stock Advan tires which are the grippiest tire I have ever ran on. Corner entry is very smooth and drama-free, the front goes where the ultra-quick steering rack is pointed without any fuss or correction. The STi would need some roughness with the wheel to reign it in, like putting a leash on the dog. This car is much smoother and more surgical but without the fine edge of on the road or in a tree tightrope. It's forgiving without the fuss. At higher speeds (I like to pick out 80mph especially), the car will roll, but this is not a handling problem. I feel far too often people will mod their suspension to get rid of bodyroll and actually make the grip levels of the car worse, which hurts handling, not help it. So despite the bodyroll of the stock spring rates, the grip is a constant factor. While I may be leaning and hugging the Recaros, the tires are still holding the car into the turn without a peep. Some will throw lowering springs at this car and my opinion so far is that it would do more harm than good.

Which leaves swaybars and coilovers on the table. Robispec only offers a rear swaybar kit. So does Perrin. I think they're onto something since the front bar is already 25mm. Actually, both bars are 25mm, which may explain why the car is so balanced. I wonder what the proposed 27mm rear swaybar sizing does to the car from a grip standpoint. Can the rear tires handle the increase in effective wheelrate? I'm betting that they can, but I wonder how much oversteer is actually needed to gain here...if the goal is a neutral car, why decrease overall grip at one end of the car and hurt overall handling?

Chassis stiffness...no stiffness mods are needed, IMO.

Geometry. I know there is an RCA kit and a ALK kit out there. RCA kits are good for lowered cars. I'm thinking you'd only want to lower the car if matched up to a set of revalved shocks or GOOD coilovers (This car comes with stock struts that are too good to degrade with anything less than Bilstein Pss-9, Ohlins, AST, or KW). Again, really not seeing the car requiring more front-end grip to necessitate these modifications to the geometry. I wouldn't be surprised if once you lower the car, they're required to bring the front end grip back up to what you have from the factory.

Dampers. Factory struts on the GSR are KYB and the Mr gets Bilsteins. Spring rates are similar between the two, with the MR getting Eibach branded springs. The front KYB shocks are monotube with the rear shocks being twin tube. I have to dig on whether they're inverted or not at either end. It would be nice if the fronts were inverted while the rears weren't, but that's coming from the STi perspective so it may not hold water on this platform. Suspension travel is impressive, valving is european, I dont' get the rebound jumpkick like you'll find on a lot of JDM options. Like I said before, these are good shocks from the factory. After my STi experience, I about **** when I found out they were KYBs and not something european.

Turning...car has an ultraquick steering rack and enough grip and stiffness to really nail the turns with ease and quickness. The only thing is that the car's heavy curb weight is noticeable when really flinging it around, I question how much this inertia will hurt when going through an autocross box turn. My fear is that on less stellar street tires, you'll be fighting traction issues and going wide a lot. Otherwise, I'll take the weight penalty and raise you ride quality.

Now onto braking...

Braking:
Brembos front and rear. Pedal feel is similar to my STi with braided lines and the Perrin master cylinder brace. It bites pretty good with minimal pedal travel. I do find myself having to stay in them deeper though, which comes from the weight of the car. I can see a line and fluid upgrade helping this car at the track a good deal. I'm not sure about the stock pads yet, so far they've held up damn well. Ferodo DS3000's are in the back of my mind as an upgrade though since the DS2500s worked so well on my 200-300lbs less weight STi.

and last but not least...

Power:

I get it, I really do. Mitsubishi had to really fudge the tune on this car to meet the ultra-strict EPA emissions. It's a joke how much a simple reflash can unlock from stock components at the factory boost level. With that said, I think they did a great job with what they had to work with. The car does not have much torque from a normal street start, and the idle gets crazy after coming to a stop to burn off excess soot (we do the same on our engines at work, people complain but it keeps the emissions down) but the overall power delivery is extremely smooth and linear. The car lacks right up top, but around 3k rpms, the turbo response is right there with my old STi protuned. It doesn't have the overall torque, but around town the difference between the two cars is negligible. The longer gearing has tricked me a few times into thinking the car was a lot slower than it is, but thats just getting used to it. So, rather than a torque monster that'll rip things to shreds like the STi, this car is more like the old E46 M3 powerplant. Long and linear until the very end. The turbo is silenced so completely, that its easy to see Mitsu going for a more upscale feel to the car wanting to hide the rowdy turbo 4 banger under the hood to give a bigger displacement feel. It may also be why the car lacks a boost gauge.

Now...with that all said...I think its obvious that with this car, the attention will be given more to the power and braking realm. I would wager that my Evo could keep up in the turns as it sits with my fully modified STi. I would wager that it would be faster in some turns too since it doesn't lose traction up front unless you drive like an idiot. So...the focus of this project will be unlike my other cars. It won't be all about the balance of parts all over the car. While building a complete setup is fun, it is very money and time consuming and ultimately may not end up how you wished it would be. Thankfully, the other side of that coin is for the car to come the way you wish it to be, so you can focus your energy on less and less. As cars have been evolving since the 1980's and 1990's, its a great thing because theres less and less required from the enthusiast to make a car as capable as something much more expensive.

So...here are my thoughts on my mod setup:

Power:
Panel Air Filter
Turbo inlet hose
Upper intercooler pipe
Lower intercooler pipe
Upgraded FMIC
Cobb AP w/ AccessTuner RACE
PnP'd exhaust manifold
Dominator 2.0 twin scroll turbo 52 lbs/min
Cosworth MX-1 cams
Exedy Twin Disc Clutch
Buschur 3" Quiet exhaust

Suspension/Brakes:
Evo MR Bilsteins (After the KYBs go south around 20-30k)
SS brake lines
SuperBlue fluid
GiroDisc 2-piece rotors (gotta shave weight somewhere)
MR BBS wheels (2lbs per corner)

That's it for the foreseeable future. Thanks to Dave Buschur for his post on downpipes...

[Riggs]

Nice write up. You can't argue with 100whp+ from simple bolt ons. Good luck with the new project.

[Garebear08]

What do you like better? The 5 speed in the evo or the 6 in the sti? Track use daily driving and crusing wise.

[twiSTies]

Thanks!

The 6 speed in the STi is nicer, but I really like not having a stupid lockout ring to hit reverse.

At the drag strip, the Evo 5 speed will be a lot better since I won't need to shift into 5th.

[Gami004pilot]

What suspension upgrades and power upgrades were done to your STi? So who would win in overall performance test, Your old Subie or your new EVO? What year is your EVO?

[twiSTies]

Originally Posted by Gami004pilot

What suspension upgrades and power upgrades were done to your STi? So who would win in overall performance test, Your old Subie or your new EVO? What year is your EVO?

I hate to be like this, but dude all the info is in this journal...

[twiSTies]

Here's from my first impressions of the car:

First highway drive with the car today...averaged 22mpg. I had the nav display the instant mpg and at points the car was hitting 40mpg at 80mph haha. i'm getting ~2mpg less than my STi got, but its pretty even vs. the stock STi tune. About to fill it up with some fresh 93. Damn, I love the new car smell.

Driving impressions: German ride quality over everything but the worst bumps when I think the car is using its full strut travel. A fresh set of Bilsteins and Eibach springs from the MR may find its way onto my car in the future, but the stock KYBs are correctly damped and valved, so its really not worth upgrading right now. Spring rate provides enough of an effective wheel rate to keep the car flat during cornering up to 80mph...didn't have the sack to go higher yet due to the roads not being clear enough.

You can feel the heavier weight of the car vs. my old STi, but where the STi would start to give up traction in the front, the Evo wants to get the rear into line with the steering wheel.

The stock exhaust is barely audible inside the car until 4.5k-5k rpms. Very silent interior, no creaks or rattles (yet) and the dash materials, etc. just exude a higher level of quality than whats been in these cars in the past. Gauges look awesome, everything is visible through the steering wheel (no blocked gauges, etc.)

Stereo is the best sounding OEM unit I've heard that I can remember. Can get muddy if you bump up the mids, but its RF, not something crazy aftermarket.

Steering rack is 13:8:1 and it shows immediately by doing a great job of turn in that rivals my old STi on the 27mm front swaybar. I'm hooked...its not too light either, has good weight to it, better than my STi.

Brakes are big Brembos...enough said there.

Transmission is notchy going into 3rd, but its a Mitsu trans so I expected that. As long as it holds power, I'm happy.

Power of the twin scroll stock turbo could be higher, but the response/boost threshold is damn impressive. I'm getting response in every gear right around 3k rpms.

Still feels like I'm dreaming when I drive this car. I honestly am struggling to find something to improve on.