Driving the Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution IX Wagon

[BMWDave]

Fearless Family Fun
By: Peter Lyon

Date Posted 09-22-2005

This station wagon is just about as extreme as they come. It's the Lancer Evolution wagon, a full-blown Mitsubishi Evo with five doors. Same 4WD platform as the rally-bred Lancer Evo IX sedan, same turbocharged goodness.

Born to compete in the World Rally Championships, the high-performance Mitsubishi Evolution has become a legend in its own lifetime, picking up four drivers' championships and one manufacturer's title over the past decade. Americans, however, didn't get to see the Evo in the flesh until it landed in local showrooms just two years ago in its eighth-generation guise. It soon snagged a couple of big car awards putting the Lancer on the map and generating instant street cred for a struggling Mitsubishi.

Since then, the Evo has been constantly tested back-to-back with the Subaru Impreza WRX STi, a rival sedan with almost identical performance, which also first appeared around two years ago. Subaru, however, offered a successful STi wagon version in Japan, something Mitsubishi didn't with its Evo.

We're told it almost happened in 2002, but Mitsu's temporary parent company, DaimlerChrysler, intervened and put the wagon idea on the back burner. Now DC is out of the picture and Mitsubishi finally has its Evo wagon on the road.

And what a wagon it is.

Five-Door Physique
Mention the Volvo-like rear end, the sharp-edged Evo front and bulging Evo sides and you've pretty much covered the exterior styling. Basically it's a Lancer wagon with Evo all over it.

Inside, the story's much the same. Except for a leather-wrapped gearshifter, three-spoke steering wheel and the supportive Recaro seats, bland gray plastic is the order of the day. But when you fire up that 2.0-liter turbo and exercise your right boot, this car tells a different story.

Sick Power
Sitting on the Evo sedan's 4WD platform, the wagon gets the same turbocharged 2.0-liter, 16-valve, four cylinder engine and six-speed manual as an Evo MR. Mitsubishi tells us the wagon generates 280 horsepower, but after a few quick laps, we think something in excess of 315 horsepower is closer to the mark.

It's the employment of Mitsubishi's MIVEC engine with improved variable valve timing that has really lifted the car's performance. Bottom-end torque response is beefier, and comes on hot and strong from 2,500 rpm. The revisions mean a freer-revving top end, too. This MIVEC allows you to find the car's limits easily, or just drive leisurely in city traffic, all with the same linear response to throttle input.

The six-speed manual (an automatic is optional) has deliciously short throws and is ideally matched to the engine's torque curve. So how fast is the Evo wagon? Around Japan's most popular racetrack, the 1.25-mile-long Tsukuba Circuit near Tokyo, the wagon clocked in at an amazing 1 minute 7 seconds, just one second behind its sedan brother. And that's without one of the Evo's secret cornering weapons, Super AYC. More on that later.

The wagon only weighs 150 pounds more than the sedan, so acceleration times should only be a tick slower, which means zero to 60 mph in about 5 seconds flat and the quarter-mile in 13.6 seconds at around 100 mph.

Slot Car Agile
Just like the sedan, the Evo wagon's suspension employs MacPherson struts up front and a multilink setup out back with Bilstein dampers added for good measure. And just like the sedan, this wagon feels rock solid in the corners with minimum body roll, while the ride quality is noticeably better and more compliant than the Evo currently on sale in the U.S.

With four-piston Brembo calipers up front, performance pads and large rotors, the brakes wipe speed off instantly and feel perfectly balanced under foot.

But while this car does inherit the sedan's Active Center Differential (ACD) with the three-way Tarmac/Gravel/Snow control, it does not get the Evo IX's highly rated Super Active Yaw Control (AYC). One engineer suggested that price was an issue, but we have a feeling that this car doesn't really need it. You see, the wagon's extra 150 pounds of mass are over the rear wheels, which actually works to improve the car's front-to-rear weight distribution.

Throw it into a corner and the wagon turns in fast as the extra pounds weigh down the rear tires to maximize traction and get the tail around, while the front-mounted helical LSD and ACD keep the nose in check. At the limits of adhesion, however, either understeer or oversteer are there for the taking.

With no AYC to get in the way of a good slide, and the extra rear weight making it easier to feel rear-end breakaway, this wagon can be chucked into prolonged power slides all day long. Or as long as the 17-inch Yokohama Advans rubber lasts. And unlike the sedan version, which "floats" its rear inside tire in tight, fast corners, you can actually feel all four tires in contact with the road, even in the quick corners.

Fast Forbidden Fruit
The Evo IX wagon is without a doubt the fastest cornering wagon on the planet. The fact that you can easily take it through corners faster than just about any supercar makes you feel as though you're ready to take on the likes of Rhys Millen. But as Mitsubishi only plans to make 2,500 of these wagons, with none destined for export, you can put it down as another Japanese rocket that missed the boat to the U.S.

[Raza]

That's awesome, but an automatic is optional!?

 

[Raghavan]

That's awesome, but an automatic is optional!?

i thought you loved manuals?

[Raza]

That's awesome, but an automatic is optional!?

i thought you loved manuals?

I do.  That's why there was a sad face.

There should be no automatic.  They don't sell automatic STis.  

[Raghavan]

That's awesome, but an automatic is optional!?

i thought you loved manuals?

I do.  That's why there was a sad face.

There should be no automatic.  They don't sell automatic STis.

i see.  

[cawimmer430]

Friggin' hot.  B)