I thought that it was very objective, and fair, with the exception of a few pot shots on interior fit and finish.

God darned Euro guys can't keep up, so they must resort to the "Luxory" rhetoric...pretty sad if you ask me!

I will see some R32's, STi's, and Evo's on the road, and I must declare that all they will see of me is my tail lights and my "BADWRX" Veteran Vanity plate!

 

All EVO owners, are you worried about coming across an STI on the streets? I mean pulling up on a redlight realizing that right beside you is an STI and 90% chance its gonna want to run you for bragging rights? What about cruisin' in the freeway at around 70-75mph and an STI pulling up and matching your speed to try and race you?

The reason for this questions is we all know that the STI has displacement and power advantage against our EVO's and realisticly, the scenario's I mentioned above is what has happened to us on the streets against other cars in the past. It's always a quick light to light races or high end speeding in the freeway(although I don't recommend this but it happens). Our EVO's are great cars but in the real world (streets), most of us won't even get the chance to use our cars great handling ability because street races only happens in a straight away where the STI has the advantage. What do you guys think, should we be worried for any reason or do you guys think it would be much closer match since not everyone is a professional driver who's out on the streets?

 

there is always a faster car out there, not matter how quick you are.
I learned that a long time ago, so I am more then content to enjoy my Evo for what it is, and what it is not.
I don't live on a track, but I do enjoy great handleing cars over powerful cars. I took home the Evo knowing that the STi (and many other cars) are faster in a straight line, and that is fine by me.

 

I don't think there will be any shame in losing to an Sti seeing as it obviously has the power advantage and the Sti's driver is going to know this as well. More than likely they're also going to know that if you got into some tight turns, they'd have quite a challenge cut out for them. Honestly, I think for the most part, drivers of both of these cars are going to have somewhat mutual respect for the one they don't own, though I'm sure there'll be a few punks out there. I'm also sure most of our Evo's will be faster than a stock Sti relatively soon, if not already.

 

What's there to worry about? The STI is faster than the Evo. Not MY Evo, but some Evo's. Seriously, I don't care. It will be an STI, or a Cobra, or a Z06, or what ever. It will be faster and I will lose. Hell, my Eclipse was one of the fastest DSM's in our club and 'the' fastest fwd. My Evo is one of the slowest awd's in the club now. I'm more worried about losing to a 10 year old car with $1k in mods than I am about losing to an STI.

 

I'd love to autocross against an STi...

Bring 'em on. Win or lose, it doesn't matter.

 

you win some you lose some....we all like to win of course, but to me if i were to lose oh well, the fact is everyone knows the sti stock has more power than a stock evo

 

At this point, it should be obvious that neither the STi nor the Evo is so much faster than the other in a straight line or in the twisties that one or the other is going to be "blown away". If you win or lose, it's purely because of driver skill - so if you want to actually "beat" the other guy, some investment in driver training of the studly sort will actually do you the most good.

Cheers,

Paul Hansen

 

Glad you mentioned it, because I was soooo scared! <Tremble>

 

Not mine either. I won't have a problem when the time comes.

 

All I have to say is that you need to have good launching skills. If you can launch well you always have a good shot.

 

STI can lick salty ***** for all i care

 

yeah....I almost feel the same way. Its just not like the old days anymore, like with my old eclipse where I felt I always had to prove something. The EVO stock will kill 95% of the cars out there handily. The EVO has a heritage behind it and is respected by true performance enthusiasts out there. It may appear to come across like a ricer...but its one of the few which actually has the goods to back it up!

 

I find it difficult to believe that the R32 would gain a full second on Tire Rack's tiny 30 second handling course, simply by swapping the R32's tires with those of the Evo or the Sti . As someone who has done a lot of autocrossing on both street and race tires, I think the improvement might be SOMEWHERE in the neighborhood of 0.4 seconds . Here is how I came to this conclusion...
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The tires on the Evo and Sti are brand new and there isn't any test data YET to determine exactly how fast they are. In lieu of this, we are going to have to make a reasonable assumption about their performance in relation to other top street tires:

Assumption 1:
The Yokohama A-046 (Evo) and the Bridgestone RE-070 (STi) are as fast as the existing kings of the street tire world, the BFG KD and the Falcon Azenis.

Those who autocross probably remember that when the Azenis was released a couple of years ago, it was touted as a "race tire" with a "street tire" threadwear rating . Well, when Grassroots Motorsports Magazine (11/02) tested the Azenis and the KD against the race rubber from Hoosier, Kuhmo and Toyo, the street kings got their faces dragged in the mud pretty hard . Here are the results from that test:

Race tires:
Hoosier 39.17
Kuhmo-V 39.29
Kuhmo-E 39.30
Toyo 39.47
Average 39.31

Street tires:
KD 41.01
Azenis 41.40
Average 41.21

According to the above test, the average top race tire is 4.8% (41.21/39.31) faster than the average top street tire. So if our "Assumption 1" is correct, the tires on the Evo and the STi will be almost 5% slower than typical race rubber .

The next question is: How much slower is the R32's Pilot Sport compared to the KD?. Tire Rack has not conducted a direct test between the KD and the Pilot Sport, but they have compared both tires against the Pirelli P-Zero Asimmetrico. Here are the results from those two tests:

KD vs Asimmetrico
KD 31.07
Asimmetrico 31.41
Percentage difference: 1.09%

Pilot Sport vs Asimmetrico
Pilot 30.93
Asimmetrico 30.88
Percentage difference: 0.16%

Inferred difference between KD and Pilot Sport: 1.26% (approx: 0.38 seconds on a 30 second course) Yea, Yea, I know there is an extra degree of freedom in this type of indirect comparison, but it is a LOT better than Tire Rack's guess of an even "1 second".

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The purpose of this exercise is NOT to incite arguements relating to the merits or demerits of these three outstanding cars, but merely to point out that Tire Rack's "one second" number is a very inflated guess. Even if the R32 gains only 0.4 seconds (with the best tires), the test still indicates that the R32's objectively measurable handling is one of the absolute best in it's price range.

 

If the STi beats the Evo or vice-versa in a straight line, what does that prove? That the driver of the winning car was better able to put the right foot down.

If you want to impress people, take your car out to a road course or autocross track. Thats where you can tell apart the men from the boys. That is where cars as close as the Evo and STi will allow their DRIVERS to determine the result.

See you out there...