If you're over twenty-six and don't play a lot of Grand Theft Auto, you're forgiven for not thinking Mitsubishi's Evolution MR is all that different. Aside from some color changes, new BBS aluminum wheels, and a vortex generator on the roof, it looks like the same old Evo. That's not such a bad way to look.
With or without the new MR package, this year's Lancer Evolution boasts five more horsepower (276 total), revised front- and center-differential limited-slip devices, and lighter aluminum side-impact beams. With grippy tires, fine sight lines, full-time all-wheel drive, big Brembos, and understeer more predictable than a Very Special Episode of Moesha, reaching nine-tenths in the Evo is as easy as reaching six-tenths in most other cars. This is one of the great performance platforms of our time. Unless you've spent the last twenty years in Bondurant classes instead of getting a real life, you'll be able to pedal this fast and/or furious econobox quicker than most supercars.
Kicking the Evo to MR status means fitting brilliantly tuned Bilsteins and shifting some mass out of the roof and wheels and into a six-speed gearbox. Mitsubishi also gave the MR a stouter-feeling clutch and classed up the shift kit with stroke stops and Teflon-coated cables. Shift feel was never the Evo's strong suit; the MR mods at least add the sensation of moving real hardware around.... Read full article