I was hoping for some slippery streets when I had the Evolution, and I got my wish. I woke up Sunday morning to a light covering of snow over a thin layer of ice. Whoopee!
This wondrously fast and furious EVO is the road-going version of Mitsu’s World Rally Champ backwoods burner. Not rallying done with a calculator on public roads, mind you, but European rally racing, flat-out through the woods in the snow at night.
Its 2.0L DOHC 16-valve four is turbocharged and intercooled to 271 hp at a tach-twisting 6,500 rpm, and that power is delivered through a 5- speed manual and full-time all-wheel drive. On dry pavement, it rockets from 0-60 in a tick over 5 seconds, about even with a 350-hp Corvette. Its brakes are bright-red Brembos, its tires Yokohama ADVANs on 17 x 8-in. alloy wheels. Just the ride for some serious play on some slickery back roads! Then I remembered that the tires are dry-road racers, not all-season grippers. Hmmm.
Turned out the all-wheel drive boosted our bright yellow EVO to attention-getting speeds nearly as aggressively on snowy/icy blacktop as it did in the dry. But — as I feared and many overconfident SUV drivers learn to their dismay every winter — it contributed little to turning (at normal speeds) and nothing at all to stopping.
Attempting to rein in the EVO on those tires in those conditions was, putting it gently, a challenge. At one point, sliding merrily toward a stop sign in full ABS, it nearly vectored me into a ditch at maybe 5 mph. Releasing the brakes and adding some gas pulled me out just in time.
Driven responsibly, Mitsu’s EVO ultra-performance compact sedan, a direct competitor to Subaru’s rally-winning WRX and Dodge’s Neon SRT-4, is civilized enough for your daily commute and a heckuva hoot for about $30K.
2004 Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution
More Stories
Workers’ Compensation for Repetitive Stress Injuries
The Effective Ways to Deal With the Rising Problem of Car Accidents
What You Need to Know Before Customizing Your VW Transporter