Return with us now to the glory days of the sport compact car, with this factory-fresh Lancer Evo. The Lancer Evolution first appeared in the early 1990s as a rival to Subaru's WRX, though it didn't make the trip stateside until the early 2000s. Both cars benefited from this rivalry, and if the Lancer Evo were still around, arguably the current WRX would be a far sharper scalpel.
The tenth-generation Lancer was a more resolved car than its more tinny predecessors, and the Evo version was a genuine four-door alternative to contemporary sports cars. The recipe was the same: a turbocharged four-cylinder engine, all-wheel drive to get power to the ground, and a practical four-door sedan layout.
Lancer Evos have always been slightly sharper than their Subaru rivals, as if the latter were made for gravel stages and the Mitsus for tarmac competition. This tenth-gen car fits that same ethos, with Mitsubishi's clever Super All-Wheel Control system, featuring three differentials, each with its own tuning. The rear diff even takes into account the amount of oversteer or understeer when apportioning power.
View Price on AmazonThe Lancer EVO X came with an optional dual-clutch transmission, which is technically the quicker solution, but the Final Edition came only with the five-speed manual. Trading a little speed for more driver involvement seems like a fair deal. The turbocharged 2.0-liter four was rated at 303 horsepower, and delivered power in a completely different way from its Subaru rival. A short final drive and massive boost made the EVO far more hyperactive than the STI, combining with twitchy steering and touchy Brembo brakes.
As a whole, the car was as raw as sashimi and provided a driving experience on the level of a dollop of wasabi straight up the nose. Not the green paste stuff either, but freshly grated root, high test, and sinus-clearing.
There's a tinge of sadness to this being the last hurrah for Mitsubishi's performance aspirations, at least for the foreseeable future. These days, Mitsubishi is more focused on survival, which means delivering the kind of vehicles that have a broader appeal. The Lancer Evo was always a niche offering for the Fast and Furious crowd, the kind of car that was more about a tachometer sweeping to redline than about keeping the balance sheet in the black.
But until it went extinct, it made things a great deal more exciting. Put it this way: a pet Velociraptor would be a lot harder to care for, and probably wouldn't let you ride it. Sometimes even the fittest don't survive. But you can go dig them up.
The auction ends on May 21.
Source: caranddriver.com
