Edited for legal purposes..

I highly doubt anyone would put an VIII turbo on a IX. Did you check the car for its manufacter date? Well, I guess it's pretty obvious if it had MIVEC, lol.

Did you have more people (i.e. 3 instead of 2?) in the car? Adding 150-200lbs worth of a person will really slow it down. Does Cali formulate their gas differently for winter?

If your friend has a the cable to hook up to the ecu, you could datalog the thing to see how it's running. You can always do a side-by-side comparison with your friends car.... Good luck with the car! I'd certainly like to have a IX.

Maybe it had 87oct in it

is your buddies flashed?

Yeah there was an extra body in the car im about to buy. But it seemed significantly slower. I wanted to have San Rafael Mitsu look at it b4 i buy, but they said it really isnt even worth the money for an inspection and comression test since its under warrenty. Its cool they were honest and didnt want to just take my money.
The car has a defi heads up display, hks boost and an A/F guage professionally installed, and thats it. It is an 2006, looked it up on carfax to be sure, checked out clean. but the fact that it has evo VIII recaros and VIII rear altezza's kinda threw a flag. Anyways, im gonna buy it regardless, im getting a good deal. So it cant be anything too big, maybe a boost leak?

No my buddies car is bone stock.

You sure it's not an Evo VIII with an IX front end?

Haha, no like i said carfax verified its a 2006

lol evo 8 with evo 9 front end

if he is gonna buy an evo he won't missed the mivec in the engine bay

and for anyone to buy an evo he should have already done some hwk

not just buy so i think the boy knows something or he wont ask if its a 7 turbo in 9

but your suggestion is still funny could give someone an idea to cheat other ppl

You can't tell with people these days. They'll try to pass things off just to make a buck, but it would be pretty hard to pass an VIII off as a IX.

I see (read) red flags everywhere. You could be in for a BIG hurtin' if you get this car and find out stuff later. Don't be so sure about that warranty either, because if it has several gauges already, then it was likely modded, and if it was modded, you will probably get denied warranty coverage in a heartbeat no matter what San Rafael said.

I am very curious how it has VIII recaros and VIII tails - that makes no sense. I know you said Carfax shows it as an 06, but instead of trying to look at the turbo part number, did you not just look at the valve cover to see if it says MIVEC? It would take a lot of work to downgrade the turbo on a IX to an VIII, and I doubt you'd feel the difference in seat of the pants.

Edited for legal purposes..

uh oh

getn everything in writing!

Such as?

If I was out to buy a 9 and I saw one with the evo 8 interior and tails, that would have been enough for me to stay away. I love my 8 but the 9 interior and tails is way better!