Yeah, magazine racing is about as accurate as the projected hp gains from adding up a bunch of mods in paper...... About the only thing they are good for is to get a general idea of how one car compares with another that day.... Even then, you don't know if one of the cars is s ringer or one of them has problems. Sometimes I think the magazines get cars to evaluate that are not your regular just off the showroom models, but I could be wrong......

 

yea ... i personally love the fact that there is an mr for us to debate about ... it only means we can expect more goodies in the future

 

The same driver drove in all of the testing. And for the record I'd put him up against anybody. We only test between two and three hundred vehicles a year, so our test team, which I am a part of, knows how to test vehicles.

 

All three Evo's were out of Mitsubishi's press fleet, so they all had the same unfair advantage. You'll see on Motor Trend on-line next week that we dyno tested all three and they were very close to each other. If I remember correctly the MR and VIII were only a single, as in ONE, horsepower apart from each other. So much for your ringer theory. The RS dynoed higher, but it was not much more than the other two and it had just five hundred miles on it when we dynoed it because Mitsubishi didn't have an RS in the press fleet so they went out and bought one out of the first shipment of Evo's so we could bring you this story. When you read the dyno sheets you'll better to be able to see we didn't get any ringers.

 

Hey, no offence or put down intended. I think your drivers are prolly better than 90% of the ppl in these forums and your testers prolly know their stuff as well. However, it's a well known fact that dyno numbers as well as any other comparisons are only useful as references. For instance, the 3 cars you tested can be compared and assessed by reading your article, but the info in the article cannot be used to compare some other EVO out there being tested by a different team with different instruments and under different conditions...... Also, your 13 second (or whatever) times are definitely not representative of what Joe Blow can expect to get out of his EVO when he drives it at his local dragstrip.

Peace,

Manuel

 

I just got an '05 MR that was a "dealer rollback" with 200mi. on it - I got it for $33K so the price difference does'nt really apply to me but I did drive a new evo 8 also and the difference was huge. I would have bought the MR at the higher price. All this talk about "with the 8k extra..." I don't know about everyone else but I did'nt pay cash for my evo - it's financed at a payment I can afford so I did'nt have "8k left over" and I will still be modding the car. Just my $.02
RAWMR

 

the only difference between mine and the MR is the extra gear and the vortex generator. i have 18" gold SSR type-C rims, Tein SS damper, full 3" exhaust from the turbo back, aem intake, Go Fast Bits stealth fx BOV, HKS boost controller, and more sitting at my house waiting for winter to be over. i just went ahead and bought the regular evo VIII and put the money i was going to use to buy the MR right into the car in upgrades. all 05 evo's come with ACD and a helical limited slip in the front. i just didn't think it was worth it to buy the MR.

 

Do all evo's have aluminum front fenders?

 

Evo VIII's, yes, and hood.

 

In the best motoring "factory fighters" They tested a MR around a course they had set up. Then they put a flat piece of rubber on the roof to add the weight back to the top of the car. (what the aluminum roof took away) The MR got a better time with the weight on the roof. It did have alot more body roll though.

 

Ah yes, but resale value is another thing. Modded Evo's aren't worth as much as stock and MR is a limited edition as is the RS. Besides if you leave the MR stock, you get the 10 year powertrain warranty, unless you race or modify it.

 

Well Chris pulled better lap times from the EVO MR this time than the last time. The last time his lap times were 1:34.xx. This time he was able to bring the MR into the sub 1:32.xx category.

This tells me that your testing procedure on the road course ought to be changed. You need more than one warm up lap and then three hot laps and one cool down lap to get a clear representation of what these cars can do on the road course. It seems that Chris is getting more accustomed to the EVOs and he is drivng them better as he gets to know them better. Giving Chris more seat time in the cars MT tests will help us get a better representation of what these cars can do. I think you should have more than 3 hot laps (at least 6-7) to see how consistent the lap times are across the board.

I would like it if MT would average out the three hot laps (or 6-7 if you ever do that) that were taken or at least list them. I think readers would like to know if these lap times are repeatable by the driver or if they are a one shot deal. This will tells the reader if a car/driver combo are consistent over time.

6-7 laps is what the average hot lapping session length is these days. It will make your testing more in tune with the length of hotlapping sessions around the country.

This is not meant in a negative way, it is just some constructive criticism. I still admire your response to reader's needs. Testing all three EVO trim lines was really a heads up thing to do.

 

That is why you never sell a modded car. You keep the stock parts and return the car to stock trim and then sell it. Then you sell the performance parts privately.

It is my understanding that ALL EVO trim lines get the 10 year, 100,000 powertrain warranty

 

Yes, but you were talking about how your modded VIII is a better value than MR and I was pointing out my opinion on the matter.

Yes, all 2005 Mitsubishi's get the 10 year powertrain warranty.

 

It's your money and your choice of course. However, I'd be interested to know how much the mods you bought cost including the installation. Also, not to be an a$$ but "the extra gear and vortex generator" are not insignificant, at least the 6 speed tranny is a huge difference. I'm not so sure the Tein suspension will be equivalent, let alone better than the stock Bilsteins......