ok, this is continued from a thread in OT about another car and about 2 pages of responses were deleted by mods so wanted to continue here. There seems to be an element here that thinks the EVO came first and the base Lancer was made from it. I'm not sure why someone would think that a car company would build a high-performing AWD rally car and then reverse engineer it into an econobox but there's no way such a thing would happen. Even if you go back to the original Lancer rally car, the turbo EX2000 it was still based on a 1973 Lancer which was their new compact car at the time with a base 1200cc engine. None of this does anything to take away from what a fantastic car an EVO is (I'm a huge EVO fan which is why I've been on this board so long) but it seems to be a sore spot with some as they try to distance the EVO from other performance cars that have econobox roots. Anyways, just wanted to start the discussion again and see what people's thoughts were on this.

 

http://www.sportcompactcarweb.com/fe...scc_lancerevo/

 

yup, good call.

Mitsubishi engineers started with VR-4's proven drivetrain and shoehorned it into the lighter, smaller Lancer chassis and the Evolution I was born.

In addition to that, Mitsu's own website goes even further back and attributes EVO roots to the rally version of the original 1973 Lancer called the EX2000 Turbo.

 

I've always acknowledged the lancer history in the EVO and have frequently given the "thumbs up" to other lancer owners but I dont think the current iteration of the EVO can really be regarded as a lancer anymore.

- the vehicles are built in 2 different plants, on opposite sides of the world
- the body, though similar in style, shares NO similar panels or lighting assemblies
- frames are set up differently / extra welds on the EVO
- no similar sunning components

in my mind, and maybe this is naive, i see the evo being built seperately, from the ground up as an EVO... while you have something like a Cobra or SRT-4 or even STi that are built as their sister cars with upgrades... maye i'm wrong on this...i dont know

i know however, that you can make a cobra out of a mustang and an STi out of a WRX fairly easily where you just can't do that with a lancer and an evo ....

even "lookslikeanevo" 's car is really nice looking but to me really doesnt look like an evo.... and that still is ignoring the AWD turbo aspect of things

just my $0.02

 

HUH!! that is wrong! Both are built in Japan, look at both stickers

uhhm, yes it does, the roof and the trunk lid are the same, on the Evo GSR.

yes they are. Outside of the welds and the additional sheetmetal in high flexing points, they are the same.

 

First off, thank you.

I get tired of hearing Evo owners say "the Evo isn't even evolved from the Lancer! Lancers are nothing!" So it's nice to hear some kinda words.

The cars are similar. Some body panels were shared between the Evolution 8 and the CS6A Lancer. Granted, the cars do not share a chassis code (Evo being CT9A), which makes me wonder.

And now that the CS7A Lancer chassis has come out, even the body panels are dissimilar. It seems like the interior and the name are the only common bonds right now.

I wonder if is conciously trying to make the base Lancer and Evolution different, or if they're just evolving apart...

 

Personally I think that would be foolish of Mitsu to make the Lancer and Evo less and less like each other. The Evo being the Halo car, and the lancer being similar would only help it.

But, yes the chassis are still almost identical. Just looked it up in the cataloging to make sure.

 

I would not let the codes get to you. They make the change because there are fundamental differences between the FWD and AWD chassis. For DSM's that all basically look the same, D31A's are RS/GS. D32A's are GS-T's and D33A's are GSX's. Even the front wheel drives are different because the front subrfames differ from the 420A and 4G63.

It would be great if all Lancer's rode on the same chassis. It would make AWD conversions a lot easier, but it would also increase the weight and complexity (and cost) of the cheaper cars.

 

1) yeah, sorry i wasnt entirely sure...i thought that the lancers were built at the Normal, IL plant...i didnt know that they imported the lancer

2) are the trunks the same?? cause ive seen lancers that dont look like you can swap out the trunk with an EVO....but more than just the trunk and roof, the EVOs had the flared fenders, different doors, hood, front, rear, lights, hubs, brakes.

3) yes, but don't additional welds and metal make it a different frame?


i'm in no way trying to diss the lancer but i think the lancer/evo relationship is different from the neon/SRT , mustang/cobra , impreza/wrx/sti relationships


i could be entirely wrong tho, so i stand corrected where you have corrected me

 

the newest body style lancer is what i was thinking of when discussing the different body panels...there's one near where i live and the differences are remarkable

i can see some similarities in the 02 lancer OZ...

 

the evo & lancer share the same basic unibody & interior. everything else is totally different. i wish i could get an old 81 ex2000. that would be tight!

 

did my research and i stand corrected


thanks for this info though...its cool to know that we share more than just a nameplate/interior with the lancer

 

It would be nice to have a link off the EVOM homepage to the complete "Official" history of the EVO with all the details of it's conception, racing history, the cars that came before and after, the specs of each model of EVO (per country) and how it has evolved throughout time... This could be updated/corrected over time and become quite a nice addition to the site as we seem to have everything else.

Seems like a group project like that would help educate all of us EVO owners and everyone that visited the site on the true nature of our cars... There certainly are enough people here that could greatly contribute information to such a thing...

Just an idea,


Chris

 

No, it doesn't make them different. Because the root or origin of the chassis is still from the regular lancer. They just ADD the extra metal and welds after the fact.

I was trying to state the fact that the Evo and Lancer have quite a bit in common. Using the trunk and roof comparison. I understand that other than that the outside of the car is totally different, just trying to stress a point.

 

i gotcha...and i agree that it is silly to distance the model lines from one another