I am suprised by CarsGuide interest in the new Evo X. The Evo is a car that I am sure 99% of CarsGuide employees would be embarrased to be seen in. Infact, CarsGuide, Drive and many Australian magazines tend to refer to the Evo and the WRX STi from Subaru as a “boy racer” car, piloted by ‘wannabe rally drivers‘ and so forth and so forth.
Well apart from forking out $200,000 on a WRC spec Impreza STi from Subaru (which you can’t even register for normal road use) how else can you come so close to buying cars that have again and again proven their capability on all terrains! Why are SS Commodore drivers not referred to as ‘wannabe V8 supercar drivers‘ after all, at least the Evo and the STi share some type of characteristics with their rally brothers, whilst the Holden and Ford V8 supercars tend to differ from each other in little but chassis and badging.
Well apart from forking out $200,000 on a WRC spec Impreza STi from Subaru (which you can’t even register for normal road use) how else can you come so close to buying cars that have again and again proven their capability on all terrains! Why are SS Commodore drivers not referred to as ‘wannabe V8 supercar drivers‘ after all, at least the Evo and the STi share some type of characteristics with their rally brothers, whilst the Holden and Ford V8 supercars tend to differ from each other in little but chassis and badging.Anyway back on topic, the Evo X is coming, in 2008. Yes I know, I am keen to get my hands on one too, but we’ll have to wait till 2008 before we can pilot this new generation rally car. Some interesting news suggests that the Evo X will have an increase in power from 206kW to about 236kW and torque up from 400Nm to 441Nm. From what is currently known, it will still be a 2.0L engine and not a 2.5L engine which is now found in the STi.
Of course, it wouldn’t be an Evo if it wasn’t faster than some cars 5x its price. The Evo is set to do that 0-100km/h dash in an absolutely astonishing time of under 4.5 seconds. We are talking Ferrari and Porsche times here! The Evo will also feature, as usual, a whole heap of new gadgets to give it far superior handling than its predecessor.
- “Super All Wheel Control”,
- active suspension and steering,
- active brake control technology
- electronically controlled four-wheel drive with active stability and yaw control and an active centre differential.
It will be interesting to see if the 2008 Subaru Impreza WRX STi will be able to still keep pace with the Evo X, lets just say 2008 is going to be one hell of a year for rally car fans!
