The Other Love of My Life - The 2006 Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution IX MR

Man, it’s been a while since my last post….

 

Before we got married, my wife told me she was in the market to buy a new car and trade in her Ford Focus SVT.  Now mind you my wife is unique in that she actually looks at things like performance characteristics, horse power, and handling (which is kinda unlike most women I know who like how a car ‘looks’ over performance; just one of the many reasons I married this girl!).  When she eventually pulled up in her new car, everyone, including myself, thought she was crazy!  Here she is rolling up in an almost-$35K four cylinder, four door, Japanese sedan!  And it’s a Mitsubishi, not the most reliable vehicles in the industry.  And on top of everything else, it was totally crazy looking with the most God-awful-big rear wing I’ve ever seen on a stock car!  What was she thinking?!?  Because I’m almost 40, and like most people, I can be set in my ways of thinking.  To me a high-performance car usually looks like a sports car, like a RX-7 (which I owned at the time) or a muscle car, like a Mustang (also owned one).  Then I drove this car.  The first time only for about 5 minutes, but that was enough time to understand the brilliance of her decision.  This car is, simply put, the most amazing car I’ve ever had the pleasure of driving, and I’ve been falling more and more in love ever since!  The more I read and understand about this car, the more I appreciate the amazing technology and engineering that has been put into this Mitsubishi.  The Japanese really can do the most with very little!

 

There are several factors that make the Mitsubishi EVO IX MR (MR stands for Mitsubishi Racing, BTW) one of the greatest performance cars on the market today.  First of all, it’s WAY fast.  The aforementioned RX-7 and Mustang?  Not even in the same class!  Seriously, this car in the class with super-cars, like the BMW M5, Lambos, and Ferraris.  I know that sounds crazy, but it’s true!  Now you can start to see that the cost of this vehicle is not really that bad of a value, considering other cars in its class start at about $60K and up.  The four banger, DOHC turbo-charged 4G63 engine pumps out about 300 HP!!!.  Not only that, but the car is extremely light weight; door panels, trunk, and hood are aluminum and the rally-inspired body kit is made up of a light weight fiberglass composite.  The turbo literally throws you back into the seat.  But I’ve owned a few fast cars before, and that’s not the main thing that makes this car so amazing to me.  The amazing thing is how well it handles.  The Mitsubishi super all-wheel drive system has been lauded in the industry as one of the best performing systems ever built; actually performs better than the Audi QuattroTrac and does just as well as any M series BMW.  And here’s the crazy thing, which I have never experienced before in any other car:  The car actually handles better, the faster you go!  You may have to experience this first hand to believe, but it’s true!  The EVO IX is built to produce down force when driving at high speed through the air ducts in the front and the giant wing in the rear, giving you the feeling that you are ’glued’ to the road.  Combined with the amazing all-wheel drive system, you can handle just about anything the roads or weather throws at you, at any speed!

 

The other thing I love about this car is it’s all business.  At first glance, you may thing the EVO IX is a stripped down vehicle; no nav system, a crappy stereo (at best) and no other interior bells and whistles at all.  This is what keeps this car below $40K.  I think Mitsubishi’s philosophy behind the EVO was, “does this have anything to do with performance?”  If the answer was ‘no’. then they left it out.  If the answer was ‘yes’, then they put the best possible part in place.  Mitsubishi also went an interesting direction with their high-performance parts.  Instead of creating a high-performance parts division (like Toyota’s TRD or Ford’s SVT), they simple put the best after-market parts on the car to begin with.  The 2006 EVO IX MR comes standard with Brembo brakes on all four wheels, BBS forged wheels, Yokohama street racing tires, Blinstin shocks, Momo steering wheel and pedals, and Recaro racing seats, just to name a few of the high-end parts.

 

My wife still loves this car just as much as the day she bought it, but I think I have become even more attached.   We both now agree that this is ‘my’ car and she even understands and appreciates my new love affair!