Today we take the latest incarnation of Mitsubishi’s performance cars, the Evolution MR for a blast.

This spec Evo is fitted with all the goodies witch we will get into later.

This is a pure and simple performance car. You do not buy one of these for any other reason.

Mitsubishi have been perfecting these cars since 1992 and I don’t think there is much more they can do. From the body to the interior and the tyre and suspension this car is tuned to perfection.

Good

            Handling

            Performance

            Seating

Gearbox

Not so good

            Comfort over extended periods

            Fuel economy round town

            Poor turning circle

            Rear visibility

The Evo MR is one tough looking car. From the sharks mouth to the big wing on the back this thing exudes menace. The body kit is stylish without being over the top compared to some other sports cars in the market. Add to this the fact that Lancers are a good looking car to start with and you can understand why Mitsubishi didn’t have to go too far with body kits. The stance is low and this combined with the relatively short body helps with the overall package.

The Evo is 4510mm long, 1810mm wide and 1480mm high with a turning circle of 11.8 meters which lets it down a bit as it catches you out, you don’t expect it for such a small car.

Wheels are 18” BBS forged alloys with 245/40R18 tyres. Personally I think they are the better looking choice of the factory options. The factory tyres are grippy and are a popular size making replacement street and race tyres easy to source.

The Evo MR comes with MMCS (Mitsubishi Multi Communication System), Premium Rockford Fosgate® sound system with 9 speakers including sub-woofer and auxiliary input and RECARO front seats.

The interior is well thought out with holders and switches in easy reach which is good as there are many switches to play with. In fact too many to go into here, everything seems to be adjustable, automated or overidable.

The MMCS works well but as discussed previously when reviewing the Triton, it needs a dedicated mic for the Bluetooth and a reverse camera. The sound system is good for a factory unit playing your favourite tunes as loud as you want.

RECARO seating, what more do I need to say. Once you are in them you aren’t moving they cling to your body. I’m not on the short side and I found the seat adjustments adequate to get my frame into without my head touching the roof and a good overall position. Bracing myself in the foot well was easy to do to prevent my legs getting thrown around and I found the pedals easy to use unless you’re trying to left foot brake. Then the brake pedal was a bit too much of a stretch to use easily.

The steering wheel is small and on the fat side making it easy to get a good grip on and the paddles for the shifter are in easy of your fingers if you’re that way inclined.

The ride is on the stiff side but that is to be expected, it is a sports car. All the usual power features are present, also auto headlights and wipers.

Mitsubishi has done well with safety in the Evo. There is S-AWC (Super All Wheel Control) which incorporates yaw and stability control, as well as ABS and Active Centre Diff which controls torque proportioning front to rear. The body is stronger than the previous model while also remaining flexible. There are also front/curtain as well as drivers knee air bags. The Lancer range scores a 5 star ANCAP rating.

The Evo puts out 217kW and 366Nm of torque from its 2L turbo intercooled engine and that’s more than enough to move 1625kg.

The transmission is awesome. Put it in normal mode and it’s just like driving any old auto but swivel the dial to sports and you feel like a rally driver. It holds each gear to redline, and if you back off to take a corner it holds that gear till you hit redline again, unless it decides that you need to be in a lower gear and it will drop down for you to keep in peak power curve.

The triptronic and paddle shifters are really just for show in my opinion, you can’t shift any better than the computer and if you want to do it that badly buy the manual. But unless you are a race driver the auto will beat you every time.

I found that it takes a little bit of getting used to when taking off from a stand still even though it is an automatic, as the gearbox is a twin clutch plate automated manual and you need some revs on board before the clutches take up, but once they do boy does it take off.

Brakes are Brembo 350mm two piece front and 330 rear rotors and Brembo callipers. This combo of brakes combined with the pads being used pull you up in a scary amount of time and a little tap coming into a corner is all that was needed to settle it down and get your line right.

Suspension is taken care of by Bilstein shocks and EIBACH springs. I have seen some of the development that goes into customising Bilstein shocks to suit individual vehicles and they are mated perfectly to the springs. Combined they round out the whole package.

Cruising around the burbs the Evo drives well, considering the power the engine has, but you feel like your caging the beast and it’s just waiting to burst out and do some damage.

This is a car that I could happily fang around for the weekend but I don’t think I could handle doing the daily commute.

This car is an awesome machine to drive. It sticks to the road like glue and I ran out of nerve a long time before it came anywhere near its limits. I loved every minute behind the wheel but as said earlier it would become uncomfortable to drive every day.

If you are after a weekend warrior or a car you can drive to the track, race and drive home without spending an absolute fortune then this is the car I would recommend.

As tested the Evolution MR comes in at $74390 MLP