The source is probably Mitsubishi. If you compare the cars on their website you see the MR gets like 1mpg less on the highway than the others. IIRC the window stickers also showed that information.

 

As some have already told you, 5 speed will be better for dragging and insane torque. The 5-speed tranny in the Evo is Getrag which is far from being a weak tranny. ON THE OTHER HAND, if you're looking for a DD, the 6-speed is a good choice. You can (I should know this) run highway speeds well under 4k rpm. Also, contrary to what some may think, the 6-speed is not made of glass. In fact, if you auto-x at all, the 6-speed is a good choice because it's gears 1-3 are just as strong, if not stronger than the 5-speed. I won't lie to you though, road race it on courses with a lot of strain on 4th, and it will probably give. Heating is the main problem on that one. But all in all, it's nothing a Shep tranny rebuild wouldn't take care of. So to answer your question, in my opinion, for what it sounds like you want, I'd say get the 6-speed without a second thought.

 

if u mod it, your tranny is gonna blow up.. 5 spd FTMFW

 

^

 

+1. For dd six speed is nice and you can you still track it whenever you want

 

I thought about the weight, but the gearing in the 6 speed is the same reason as why they don't do as well for drag. I was pretty certain the 6 speed would do better MPG, but this is currently being challenged.

I know the 5 speed in top gear has a kind of high RPM for highway cruising above 75 MPH, but it isn't necessarily revs that get you good gas mileage... it is staying out of boost.

 

6 speed.

 

the five speed works just fine for high speeds, ive driven both and unless your going over like 90 i dont think its gonna make ur gas mileage really all that much better.

o and i heard somewhere that the 6 speed is weaker than the five in terms of longevity and strength for off the line ****

o and like the others said, you should know. an evos an evo, only get it if u know what ur getting into, what i mean is i dont think its a good thing for a long commute, ul regret it in that case

 

Be careful about the 6 speed. I heard the gears are made of old news papers and apple cores and will shatter under the stress of simply hearing harsh language.

 

heres what i see. an evo can go up to lets just say 165. okay so the gear has to be able to go that fast, meaning the last gear is reeeally big. i use my 5th gear when im going like 40ish sometimes and it still has power obviously. if im going 40mph and the revs arnt at like 300 they are like 2000+ but then that same gear can take me all the way to 165 its obviously biggg.

so what im getting at is the gear spacing from 5-6 and just 4-5 cant be all that much different. meaning that you might save like 300rpms from what they would be on a 5 speed to the 6 speed.

my real easy explanation: imagine ur going 60mph in a 5 speed, if you had that 6th gear, maybe you could go 65mph while at the same rpm as the 5speed was at 60mph. thus yes saving a tiny bit of gas

 

I agree on the gear spacing. I have read road tests of a regular IX and a IXMR and cruising at 60 the IXMR is spinning 2600 RPM and a regular IX is spinning 2900RPM. I don't know about anybody else but 300 RPM of difference doesn't mean much to me. Either of them are perfectly capable of cruising down the freeway without much drama. Just drive them both and decide which one you like. I might have bought an MR but I was discouraged by the 40K pricetag. (It was the last one in the showroom though) So I bought the last SE they had left and love it.

 

Easy. Do a search on Cars.com and Autotrader and you can find a quadruplezillion MRs for sale and not that many IXs. 5spd FTW.

 

id say 6 speed. actually for highway i would say 6 speed is more fuel efficient. rpm is much lower compared to a 5 speed. i get around 260 if its city driving and 320 if its all highway. 6 speed should be good and strong enough if you do not plan on doing insane upgrades. remember the UK fq400 is a 6 speed.

 

 

not going to mod it? see how long that lasts. both have benefits. do you want a sunroof? get the IX 5 speed.