2008 Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution X first steer
10 Jul, 2008
37 Comments 
Something that’s immediately apparent is the change in the ride and handling, not in any bad way, the car rides firmly but with a civilised degree of control that means you can cruise around town without needing to see a chiropractor when you step out of the car.
At the same time the degree of electronic sophistication that’s been introduced means that at or near the limit you truly feel like the race or rally ace of your dreams as you hound the car through corners at speeds you would not believe possible.
In large part it’s all down to a set of electronics that go under the general name of Super All Wheel Control (SAWC) that integrates a network of dynamic handling technologies, including: Active Centre Differential (ACD), Active Yaw Control (AYC) rear differential, Active Stability Control (ASC), and Sport ABS brakes. There are also three selectable levels, depending on conditions, of Tarmac, Gravel and Snow.
As we’ve already mentioned there’s also the double clutch TC-SST gearbox which offers rapid-fire sequential changes up and down the six-speed unit, using either steering wheel paddles or the centre gearshift lever. Around town you can simply leave it in D, like any automatic gearbox, and let the electronics do the work.
Made in Germany by Getrag the gearbox is able to double down shift and down changes are governed by brake application. Essentially, the TC-SST is a manual transmission that can select two gears at a time: one gear is engaged by one of the two wet multi-plate clutches, and the other is pre-selected, waiting to be engaged by the second wet multi-plate clutch.
TC-SST has three shift modes; Normal (that’s pretty obvious), Sport (for faster road driving) and Super Sport (really only suited to race track or motor sport use).
How good is it, well on some extremely spirited mountain roads we found it could handle race-style up and down shifts taken to the redline without any concerns.
Power delivery is incredible and the quickness of the shifts has to be experienced to be believed.
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July 10th, 2008 at 1:04 am
I want one! Guess I’ll have to wait it out for the Ralliart which comes standard with the SST transmission in the US - wonder if its the same story here?
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July 10th, 2008 at 1:48 am
I hope it does 5.0 sec or in 4 sec range it should do it easy I hope it does not do 5.2,5.3 ect…. because it gonna be a big shame.
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July 10th, 2008 at 1:56 am
did yous see it on topgear last week??
the new STI is faster round the topgear track!
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July 10th, 2008 at 3:39 am
Only by a tiny amount of time however.
This time was clearly apparent to be lost on the launch. Hopefully there is a revision to the ECU to allow GTR style launch control, because it doesnt seem to get off the line all too well.
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July 10th, 2008 at 4:35 am
runs rings around the sti? no top gear influence there.
in all seriousness, the evo seems like a nice car. regarding the interior though, it’s decent for what it is, but i can’t stand those buttons on the dash to the right side of the steering wheel (ASC OFF) and those beside the handbrake (AWC).
calling them cheap and tacky would be a compliment. i’ve been in the 380GT and the same buttons (different functions) are in there.
there are two types of cheap interiors, those like the sti and aussie made cars, which are still nice and then there are mitsubishi interiors…
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July 10th, 2008 at 4:37 am
forgot to mention the plastics too. they look harsh! on par with american cars
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July 10th, 2008 at 5:42 am
Running rings around STi’s, going to chiropractor after a trip around town (or rather not going to one) this was a relatively crap episode of top gear, didn’t feature much original content.
I wouldn’t have minded a fresh point of view from this post, I found it very predictable.
I should stop being so negative………. especially considering it is such an awesome car.
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July 10th, 2008 at 6:30 am
Does it have a bench-seat and LPG option?
lol
Good job by MMC, wish it was designed by AlfaRomeo because its still boy-racer ugly
Cheers
F-0
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July 10th, 2008 at 6:32 am
LOL
Near $80k for a Mitsu., i DON’t THINK SO…..
Cheers
F-0
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July 10th, 2008 at 7:45 am
What a rip off. This car is around $10K too expensive. Also, the rear of the car is attrocious. Finally, a 5 speed box, and no launch control on the auto means that the STI still owns this car, at a much better price, 8 out of 10 times.
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July 10th, 2008 at 8:19 am
F-O I agree.
This thing has more acronyms than the Army book of acronyms (ABOA).
Not a bad job though. Certainly looks better than the STi.
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July 10th, 2008 at 8:22 am
To expensive for whats on offer here, still just a cheap looking toy car.
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July 10th, 2008 at 9:48 am
Most of the people bagging it for it’s price are probably just sooky cos they can’t afford one. I can afford one (well next year anyway) and ya damn right i’ll be buying an MR model! farking excited! can’t wait…
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July 10th, 2008 at 10:42 am
The 59k model is a bargain for the type of performance it offers
In america it has been tested at running the 0-60mph sprint in 4.8 seconds…
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July 10th, 2008 at 11:08 am
For a fully optioned 71K version, it’d want to be good! If i had that kind of coin i would be looking at the Audi S3 or the BMW 135i. The STI looks the business in the flesh as im sure this does too, but it simply cannot match the Germans for style inside and out! Great work on a sensational car Mitsubishi but please get the price right!
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July 10th, 2008 at 11:23 am
Technofreak - I agree its too expensive (compared to the price in Japan) but what other car on the Aus market are you comparing it to? You sound like you might be a CUB and upset because the Commodore you own is slower and doesn\’t handle anywhere near as well?
Bout time we finally have a release date - what, four months late? I think the pre launch I went to was last year…
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July 10th, 2008 at 11:39 am
I love the look of it has much more road presence than the current Subaru Impreza which looks like a Daewoo Lanos.. and it appears that you also get a lot more features and technology for your money than you do in the current Subie
I’d definitely have ne of these over an STi or virtually any other $70K performance car including Lexus
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July 10th, 2008 at 11:42 am
Seems like a great car, but too expensive (especially compared to what it sells for the in the US… though then again, most cars are cheaper over there). Shame there’s still no word on the Ralliart Lancer though. :\ I’ve had my eye on one of those for a while, but am just about ready to buy an XR5 Turbo instead.
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July 10th, 2008 at 12:23 pm
Dooooon’t do it SM! I have spoken to three seperate people who are bitterly dissapointed with their XR5! Buy a golf GTi and you will be infinetly more happy with your purchase!
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July 10th, 2008 at 12:51 pm
Hahah, yeah well, I’ve been tossing up between the two actually… but I do like the look of the XR5 a bit more. Seems to be a fairly even split of people for the two cars.
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July 10th, 2008 at 1:24 pm
No I don’t own a Commodore…never will, fat turds…..same as this Lancer really…too heavy and posh now. Sort of lost its appeal as being an affordable performance car that can be raced on the weekend and driven to work on Monday.
Might wait for the cheap imports instead.
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July 10th, 2008 at 1:26 pm
CapnCrunch, did you really just try and compare the handling of a commodore to a 4wd lancer evo?
And it would not be faster in a straight line than a LS3 Clubsport, which it is priced against.
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July 10th, 2008 at 1:31 pm
does 0-100 5.6
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July 10th, 2008 at 1:53 pm
TBH, I am liking the new Focus RS more than this EVO. This model EVO does look nice and has all the bells and whisltes, sure, but it is now a 30-something I’m starting to get podgy and the kids go to school now type of car. To far removed from where it should have gone next.
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July 10th, 2008 at 4:13 pm
“Some” of the comments here a rediculous.
This is a cult vehicle that has started it own religion “world wide”.
Anyone denying themselves of the reality that this is BEST overall vehicle of its kind in the world is ignorant or bias to lesser products from other manufacturers who are desperate to copy Mitsubishi’s expertise.
There is nothing that can be said that can lessen the reality this is THE BEST!.
Has everyone here actually read and understood the article/test drive?.
Try to be open minded people and design is ojective, this car looks as though it moving even when its not.
Drive it and even those of you whom are in denial will want one.
Dont bother responding to my comments unless you have something worthy to add, I wont be back again so the only thing a mindless comment will do is make you feel good about yourself.
Good Test Drive David Twomey.
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July 10th, 2008 at 5:18 pm
Some of the comments here are based on personal preferences etc… but you all have to agree that its a mad awesome car!
also the top gear episode, i was under the impression that they did not race the evo, it was instead the less powerful version - i could be wrong …. but can anyone else confirm that?
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July 10th, 2008 at 6:00 pm
It just looks a lot like the Lancer VR-X, very very similar. If you remember the CE and CN series wherein a regular Lancer can be made to look exactly like the Evos 3 and 4, respectively, this new car is at it again. During the CT era, a normal Lancer cannot look exactly like the Evo 7, 8 or 9.
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July 10th, 2008 at 7:18 pm
Too farkin expensive.
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July 10th, 2008 at 7:21 pm
Too much DNA shared with the 21k driveaway to ask this price
regardless of how many scrolls it has.
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July 10th, 2008 at 10:58 pm
si1982 Says:
July 10th, 2008 at 5:18 pm
“also the top gear episode, i was under the impression that they did not race the evo, it was instead the less powerful version - i could be wrong …. but can anyone else confirm that? ”
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TopGear EVO tested was the tweaked one which had over 300HP. But they raced the standard 300HP (221kw) version they get which is still more powerful than ours (217kw). Times between both the standard UK STi (300HP) and standard UK EVO X (300HP) with semi-auto were pretty much identical. SFA difference on the track. Clarkson found the EVO to be a much more fun car to drive and a better car. I agree, the STI is utter crap. Apart from the fact it looks ugly as, go drive one and see how crap they are. I was ready to buy one and was extremely dissapointed in the new STi. Hope the EVO X is a much better unit when I get to sample it.
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July 10th, 2008 at 11:02 pm
Just to clarify, TopGear (Clarkson) tested the more powerful EVO 10 on the air field. This also was a manual 5 speed, the car was shown doing donuts around a standing still butt ugly STi. The car the Stig raced on their marked out tack was the 300HP standard EVO with semi-auto. They raced the standard EVO because he said they wanted to make it fair against the 300HP STi. Otherwise the results would of been very different in terms of time.
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July 10th, 2008 at 11:41 pm
John. Not sure where you get the STi drives like utter crap. Having driven it and being driven in it, the ride was great. Thoroughly enjoyable. And much more exciting than a R32 Golf DSG. I am due to drive the Mitsu X shortly. It would be nice to do the Mitsu and STi in the one day as a comparo. Despite the look of the STi being fairly horrendous, I am not yet convinced that I would get the Evo. We wait and see.
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July 17th, 2008 at 6:02 pm
The Impreza impresses on reliability compared to the Evo’s might. The Mitsu is a better performer and handler, perhaps also consumes less fuel (many Subarus have been notorious of petrol use), but the STi is much more dependable (at least the past versions). I’d still take the Lancer nonetheless.
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July 21st, 2008 at 8:36 pm
Very 涼しい (cool) car!!!!!!!
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July 23rd, 2008 at 4:21 pm
If this car is slower then that crappy looking Suburu, I’ll be ashmed
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August 5th, 2008 at 8:52 pm
Mojo
“Speed kills right”! But what a way to go; in an EVO X eh…
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August 5th, 2008 at 8:56 pm
I would like to test drive on an open track before making hasty judgements…this is where hearts rule over heads. Vroom vroom
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