What’s a car lineup without its halo? Mitsubishi is about to find out
Mitsubishi, Mitsubishi, Mitsubishi. What are we going to do with you? You were a home for us when all we could afford was a manual, non-turbo Eclipse. A friend had a Montero SUV and the thing was downright cool. Don’t even get us started on the 3000GT, and how badass that was. And when we heard about the Lancer Evolution, and then it finally came here to the
The Final Edition Lancer gets the company’s best engine, with its best transmission — though it could use another gear — and its best version of Super All-Wheel Control.
Power is rated at 302 hp while torque measures 305 lb-ft at 4,000 rpm. That scoots the 3,500-pounder off the line in a hurry, especially when you get that clutch right. Like many turbo all-wheel-drive cars, the Evo can be launched from a stoplight and around a turn without a lick of wheelspin, at least in the dry. Of course, in the snow it’s so much more fun. And that’s where this car really shines, in the white slippery stuff when you can just drive it predictably sideways until you run out of parking lot.
There aren’t many cars that are demonstrably more fun when the weather is bad, but this is one of them. Click the traction control button once and it’ll let you make beautiful figure eights around light posts. Hold the button down for a few seconds and it’ll let you slide right off a cliff. One quick press was good for a late-winter snowstorm, a defunct mall parking lot and four rooster tails of snow.
2015 Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution Final Edition
I think the reason it’s so much more fun in the snow is that the Evo just isn’t that fast anymore, relatively. In 2003 when the Evo VIII came over here, 300 hp was a good bit of power. Blame the Fords, Dodges and Hondas of the world for making that amount feel pedestrian with their Mustangs, Chargers and even Accords.
So, this car is near perfect in the snow. Its ride height isn’t low enough to worry about ice chunks, and even a few dry spots won’t hamper the fun, though they may slow you down a tick. Just floor it, shift to second, floor it, and carve your way across the yellow lines like a gas-powered, four-wheel-drive calligrapher.
The brakes are great with minimal travel and a good bite once you hit paydirt. It doesn’t seem to dive much, either, or lift or launch, which makes me instinctively dodge potholes. I did hit a few though, and it was painful both mentally and physically.
Steering is boosted a little too much for my taste. It’s easy on dry pavement and has almost no feeling on the snow. It was plenty, plenty of fun in an empty parking lot, but on a narrow rally course, I’d be more concerned.
2015 Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution Final Edition
The interior is a little plain, but we expect, nay demand that. The new touchscreen radio looks decent, but I never found a USB port, or even an AUX inlet. Mitsu did soften the bolsters of the seats, and I’m thankful. One of my pet peeves is trying to slide into a racing seat and being jammed by the bolster. This one just compresses right down. It makes getting in and out a hell of a lot easier.
Comfort is good in the Evo. The seats fit my smaller frame nicely and I found a decent driving position. The steering column doesn’t telescope though, so it wasn’t perfect. The wing in the back also blocks the horizon in the rearview mirror, something that annoys me to no end. Subaru solved it by raising the wing an inch or so in the middle, Mitsu should do that if it ever builds this car again.
And dammit, I hope it does. If the company revamped this car for an auto show, maybe added 50 hp, more safety tech and more trunk space, it would be a hit. Well, maybe not a hit with the general populace, but the enthusiasts would love it. Unfortunately, we can’t support a brand ourselves, although Subaru seems to do well selling a few Imprezas along with its WRX. The Lancer Evo is dead, long live the Lancer Evo. Or maybe, sticking along those lines, “Lancer Evo, the once and future king.”
2015 Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution Final Edition
OTHER VOICES:
This car is improbably good. Mitsubishi has no business building a car this good. Or maybe, given the marque’s U.S.-market glory days of the increasingly distant past, it has no business not making all of its cars this good. I don’t know; by the time I came of age, Eclipses were just crappy used cars.
No matter. To take an aging (if competent) ultra-budget sedan and turn it into the Lancer Evolution … automotive wizardry, that’s what it is.
Is its 303 hard-earned hp outclassed today? Yeah, but the power band is meaty and it wants to pull anywhere north of 3,000 rpm. It feels subjectively quick, but it’s also objectively fast. Maybe not compared to a six-figure super-sports car, but I don’t think the new Ford Focus RS does much better.
The Evo is about more than just straight-line speed, though. The handling is somehow more direct and immediate than the WRX. Grip is immense; it goes exactly where you want it to without complaint. This is probably one of the most visceral cars you can still buy, if only for a little longer.
And there’s no flashy technology-packed interior to distract you from the driving experience, which is a nice way of saying that the dashboard and surroundings will transport you back to 2003 design- and feel-wise. That’s the year “2 Fast 2 Furious” debuted. Coincidence?
— Graham Kozak, associate editor
2015 Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution Final Edition
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