Let us talk a bit of history, not the content but how you study it and via what means you validate historical facts. Sounds boring! Yes?
For anyone logging to Biser3a.com, one of the leading automotive websites in the Middle East, history might be boring, not to mention numbers! But listen, have you Rev-heads ever thought how historians approve historical dates and events and set it in thick fancy books? It’s very easy, these people wake up early in the morning and start digging in their backyards looking for skeletons and broken pottery and they start elaborating about it. How splendid!
This is what I decided to do today, I woke up and wore my Alpine Star rally suite and went looking for clues that enables me to tell you how one of the best rally cars, made its way across the evolutionary line of the automotive history. And I found one!
It’s the history book of the motor world; they even called it the evolution; not just this part of the name that is straight forward but listen to this combination of words “Mitsubishi Lancer Evo X Ralliart”. To be honest it might not have the luxury of the Maserati or the sportiness of a Ferrari, it’s not extraterrestrial as a Lamborghini. However it’s perfect in everything else! Plus the guys at Mitsubishi are very friendly unlike “the other guys sitting near the phones and wearing crystal clean white shirts”. The Evo is an identity car; it directly points to the personality of its owner, he’s an adrenaline addict, he seeks the feeling of living on the edge even when he’s going to the nearby supermarket to get birthday candles for his 1year old kid!
I was never a digital fan, but when it comes to the handling of this car, and the way you can pull tail slides with it, well you can’t deny that the computer installed in it is a co-driver by itself; the engineers changed the concept of “on/off” for the traction control to an optional program where you can set the car stability to be compatible with the terrain you are driving on. A straight forward message to the driver:”feel free to point the car to any direction you want while sliding or even pick the place where you intend to crash it if you’re wealthy and angry!” but when we go down to talk numbers about this car, both road and rally version, we have to be as serious as it’s equation; an equation that adds a 1595kg to an all-aluminum 2.0 liter turbocharged four-cylinder MIVEC4 engine producing 295 horsepower and 300 pound-feet of torque, and the result is an astonishing driving experience characterized by absolute handling and dominance over the car and a 0-100km/hr in an amazing 5sec, and for the FQ400 model in a mind blowing 3sec. Not to forget a savage response from the 5-speed manual gear box or the 6-Speed twin clutch sport shift transmission.
And if you think that Group N is very far from the S2000 category, think well and think twice! Not only this car made history in rally championships but also it will draw the fine lines of the future by the
- an Evo crossed this Road
new R4 update. According to MML sports R4 brings :” A new category of rally cars, essentially an FIA-approved upgrade to existing Group N regulations to increase car performance via geometry changes and weight reduction” in other words the R4 updated EVO X has the homologated weight of 1300Kg, 70Kg less than the Group N homologated version. And the brave bold talk from Mitsubishi continues:” No new modifications whatsoever (except the ones previously permitted by GR-N regulations) on the engine or transmission sides…But we are quite sure that the above mentioned will improve drastically the overall performance of both models [Evo IX & X] on tarmac and gravel roads, and reduce (and may be cancel) the existing gap with the more expensive S2000 cars.” An amazing statement for a worthy car! That’s what I say, and since R4 in relatively new let us hope for a good feedback.