2006 Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution IX
Japanese love a good obento, which is a select assortment of traditional delicacies served in a bento box, a compartmentalized tray with high walls to prevent intermingling of foodstuffs. Perhaps that’s why you can’t buy the same feisty Mitsubishi Colt Turbo hatchback in both Europe and Japan, or the nifty six-passenger Mitsubishi Grandis wagon in the U.S. Intermingling has risky consequences. It’s bad obento.
At least there’s the Lancer Evolution, which Mitsubishi spreads like sinus-clearing wasabi across the world to spice up its lackluster pic. For 2006, the Lancer Evolution’s generational odometer rolls over from the current Evo VIII, on sale since 2003, to the Evo IX. Accordingly, this rigid, noisy, spartan, all-wheel-drive son-of-a-rally-car gets fresh front and rear bumpers, aero tweaks, nattier seats, and lighter alloy wheels. And along with that it gets a 10-hp boost to 286, mostly from a new-to-Evo variable-valve-timing system.
Timing is everything, as we discovered with our own test gear strapped onto a six-speed Evo IX MR at Mitsubishi’s Okazaki track. It’s a postage stamp of grass and asphalt ribbons enveloped by the dense suburbs near Nagoya, Japan, and home to Evo development since the Evo II in 1992. With the Evo IX MR, we eyed sixty mph in Four.6 seconds and the quarter-mile in 13.Four seconds at one hundred four mph, the fleetest sprinting we’ve garnered from any stock Evo.
Oh, but you were expecting more than fresh bumpers and ten added horses for the Evo IX? The name is “Evolution,” after all, and it is indeed evolving toward an all-new Evo X set to arrive late in 2007. That would be shortly after the debut of a redesigned Lancer sedan on a fresh platform dubbed GS.
Meantime, be content with the same three Evo flavors as before-the trim-stripped RS and the base Evo, both with five-speed manuals, plus the six-speed Evo MR with Bilstein shocks and forged BBS wheels. We’re told to expect a $500 bump of the current base prices (embarking at $29,074 for the RS) when pricing is announced for the September on-sale date.
Inwards are aluminum pedals (except in the RS) and redesigned seats. A faux-carbon-fiber panel adorns the dash. Cloth is gone; pseudo-suede center panels are now bordered by leather bolsters. All-leather seats are an option.
Outside, a fresh front bumper fights aerodynamic lift with an available chin spoiler that increases the low-pressure zone under the nose. Two oval nostrils in the bumper help the intercooler by ramming fresh air around its input and output pipes. In back, the carbon-fiber airfoil can be had with a Gurney flap, a skinny wing extension that increases downforce to the rear.
It’s about a more stable stance and better steering response above ninety mph, says Hiroshi Fujii, or “Dr. Evo,” the leader of the 100-man Evo development team. The good doctor knows more than a few things. Around Okazaki’s high-speed oval with its stomach-plunging 45-degree banks, the Evo indeed tracked securely with reliable helm control. The throttle responds more quickly, but the real fireworks still happen after the needle swings past three thousand rpm.
An old satan with one fresh horn is the iron-block turbocharged Two.0-liter DOHC 16-valve inline four known as the 4G63. Upstairs, the intake cam now spins with an adjuster that advances or retards the cam as needed for best power. Unlike MIVEC in the Galant, Outlander, and Lancer Ralliart, the Evo’s system adjusts only valve timing, not lift. The Evo IX’s larger turbo-impeller housing supplies an lighter pathway for harass gas, shrinking turbo lag by five percent, claims the quick-smiling Dr. Evo. Peak boost pressures actually drop slightly even as torque rises from two hundred eighty six pound-feet at three thousand five hundred rpm to 289. Other switches: fresh piston oil rings to cut oil searing by ten percent and a stouter nylon-reinforced timing belt.
The Evo keeps its driveline, so U.S.-bound cars still churn all four wheels without the help of Japan’s active-yaw differentials. Fresh Enkei aluminum wheels shed Three.Trio pounds each over the old rims, but the Evo’s suspension and steering remain otherwise unchanged. Hence, expect skidpad spectacle to stay in the low-0.90-g range, steering feel and figure control in the rapturous range.
Yes, there will be an Evo X, insist the company execs milling around at Okazaki, even tho’ Mitsubishi Motors has lost almost $9 billion over the past five years and was hemorrhaging at the rate of $12.Five million per day back in February, according to Automotive News. Mitsubishi sold a piddling 12,500 Evos worldwide last year (4497 of them in the U.S.), but it’s a profitable business, says Hideyuki Iwata, Mitsubishi’s product manager for the Lancer line. Besides, he adds, Mitsubishi dealers routinely accept a Porsche or Mercedes in trade for an Evo. That’s a brand polisher for a company chin-deep in tarnish.
But where will the Evolution evolve next? “A broader power range, a softer rail, and quieter. This is our direction,” Iwata says. Then he points to a Mitsubishi-owned Volkswagen R32 fitted with VW’s silky-shifting Direct Shift Gearbox and asks, “What do you think of this transmission? It is very interesting to us.” To some people, an Evo with spanking paddle shifters and a mellow rail, an Evo that doesn’t explode forward at three thousand rpm but merely wafts to higher velocities like a piano shoved off a skyscraper-well, that’s just no Evo at all.
2006 Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution IX Very first Drive – Review – Car and Driver
2006 Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution IX
Japanese love a good obento, which is a select assortment of traditional delicacies served in a bento box, a compartmentalized tray with high walls to prevent intermingling of foodstuffs. Perhaps that’s why you can’t buy the same feisty Mitsubishi Colt Turbo hatchback in both Europe and Japan, or the nifty six-passenger Mitsubishi Grandis wagon in the U.S. Intermingling has risky consequences. It’s bad obento.
At least there’s the Lancer Evolution, which Mitsubishi spreads like sinus-clearing wasabi across the world to spice up its lackluster picture. For 2006, the Lancer Evolution’s generational odometer rolls over from the current Evo VIII, on sale since 2003, to the Evo IX. Accordingly, this rigid, noisy, spartan, all-wheel-drive son-of-a-rally-car gets fresh front and rear bumpers, aero tweaks, nattier seats, and lighter alloy wheels. And along with that it gets a 10-hp boost to 286, mostly from a new-to-Evo variable-valve-timing system.
Timing is everything, as we discovered with our own test gear strapped onto a six-speed Evo IX MR at Mitsubishi’s Okazaki track. It’s a postage stamp of grass and asphalt ribbons enveloped by the dense suburbs near Nagoya, Japan, and home to Evo development since the Evo II in 1992. With the Evo IX MR, we spotted sixty mph in Four.6 seconds and the quarter-mile in 13.Four seconds at one hundred four mph, the fleetest sprinting we’ve garnered from any stock Evo.
Oh, but you were expecting more than fresh bumpers and ten added horses for the Evo IX? The name is “Evolution,” after all, and it is indeed evolving toward an all-new Evo X set to arrive late in 2007. That would be shortly after the debut of a redesigned Lancer sedan on a fresh platform dubbed GS.
Meantime, be content with the same three Evo flavors as before-the trim-stripped RS and the base Evo, both with five-speed manuals, plus the six-speed Evo MR with Bilstein shocks and forged BBS wheels. We’re told to expect a $500 bump of the current base prices (embarking at $29,074 for the RS) when pricing is announced for the September on-sale date.
Inwards are aluminum pedals (except in the RS) and redesigned seats. A faux-carbon-fiber panel adorns the dash. Cloth is gone; pseudo-suede center panels are now bordered by leather bolsters. All-leather seats are an option.
Outside, a fresh front bumper fights aerodynamic lift with an available chin spoiler that increases the low-pressure zone under the nose. Two oval nostrils in the bumper help the intercooler by ramming fresh air around its input and output pipes. In back, the carbon-fiber airfoil can be had with a Gurney flap, a lean wing extension that increases downforce to the rear.
It’s about a more stable stance and better steering response above ninety mph, says Hiroshi Fujii, or “Dr. Evo,” the leader of the 100-man Evo development team. The good doctor knows more than a few things. Around Okazaki’s high-speed oval with its stomach-plunging 45-degree banks, the Evo indeed tracked securely with reliable helm control. The throttle responds more quickly, but the real fireworks still happen after the needle swings past three thousand rpm.
An old satan with one fresh horn is the iron-block turbocharged Two.0-liter DOHC 16-valve inline four known as the 4G63. Upstairs, the intake cam now spins with an adjuster that advances or retards the cam as needed for best power. Unlike MIVEC in the Galant, Outlander, and Lancer Ralliart, the Evo’s system adjusts only valve timing, not lift. The Evo IX’s larger turbo-impeller housing supplies an lighter pathway for harass gas, shrinking turbo lag by five percent, claims the quick-smiling Dr. Evo. Peak boost pressures actually drop slightly even as torque rises from two hundred eighty six pound-feet at three thousand five hundred rpm to 289. Other switches: fresh piston oil rings to cut oil searing by ten percent and a stouter nylon-reinforced timing belt.
The Evo keeps its driveline, so U.S.-bound cars still churn all four wheels without the help of Japan’s active-yaw differentials. Fresh Enkei aluminum wheels shed Trio.Trio pounds each over the old rims, but the Evo’s suspension and steering remain otherwise unchanged. Hence, expect skidpad spectacle to stay in the low-0.90-g range, steering feel and figure control in the rapturous range.
Yes, there will be an Evo X, insist the company execs milling around at Okazaki, even however Mitsubishi Motors has lost almost $9 billion over the past five years and was hemorrhaging at the rate of $12.Five million per day back in February, according to Automotive News. Mitsubishi sold a piddling 12,500 Evos worldwide last year (4497 of them in the U.S.), but it’s a profitable business, says Hideyuki Iwata, Mitsubishi’s product manager for the Lancer line. Besides, he adds, Mitsubishi dealers routinely accept a Porsche or Mercedes in trade for an Evo. That’s a brand polisher for a company chin-deep in tarnish.
But where will the Evolution evolve next? “A broader power range, a softer rail, and quieter. This is our direction,” Iwata says. Then he points to a Mitsubishi-owned Volkswagen R32 fitted with VW’s silky-shifting Direct Shift Gearbox and asks, “What do you think of this transmission? It is very interesting to us.” To some people, an Evo with spanking paddle shifters and a mellow rail, an Evo that doesn’t explode forward at three thousand rpm but merely wafts to higher velocities like a piano shoved off a skyscraper-well, that’s just no Evo at all.