The Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution, long a favorite of the tuner crowd, has been redesigned for 2008.
The results should please that crowd and others who are seeking a sporty sedan that's fun to drive.
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Photo by Mitsubishi
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Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution
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Its performance is admirable.
Its practicality is, well, adequate.
The super all-wheels-control system lends a bit of precision to the road feel of the Evo.
The steering is amazingly responsive; you can take the sharpest of turns and find that the Evo smooths things out like a hot iron on linen.
The 2.0-liter four-cylinder turbocharged engine makes 291 horsepower and 300 pounds-feet of torque.
That's plenty of power for a car this size.
You'll notice only the slightest bit of turbo lag upon acceleration, but not enough to really dampen the driving experience.
The five-speed manual transmission, which comes with the GSR model that we tested, makes its progressions nicely, but as you approach the peak range of each gear, you notice a little bit of lack of oomph.
The MR model, which is a notch above, will have a six-speed tranny.
There's a button that lets you adjust to the type of surface you're driving on, be it tarmac (pavement), gravel or snow.
We didn't get to check out its gravel or snow road-handling prowess, but we would guess that the all-wheel drive system's capabilities would be further enhanced.
When it comes to comfort and practicality, the Evo isn't quite a star, but it's not the pits, either.
The Recaro sport seats are living-room comfy, and the sound system was pretty nice. That's a good thing because the engine is a little noisy.
Also, the ride was a tad more harsh than you might get in comparable sedans.
But it's likely that those things wouldn't be all that bothersome to a big portion of the Evo's fan base: young guys who like movies like "The Fast and the Furious Tokyo Drift, " in which the Evo is one of the stars.
A recent trip to a store in the Evo encountered a twentysomething employee out in the parking lot on a smoke break who marveled at the car and asked for a test drive.
We couldn't honor that request, but it was nice to be part of the hip crowd again after all these years.
The test drive model had a sticker price of $35,615.
