yep only problem with them is the maintanance, but away they drive..
if the new X will be 70% close to that, it will blow us guys away!
In that matter the most of the cars out there.

 

nice info

 

I like shifting because I like driving... even if it's slower

 

there is a miss understandig ,you still shifting. Trust me when you first will drive a real fast shifting semi automatic you will be blowing away from that experience.
Just the fact is no tranny out there is give you that feeling under $150k,so far. And i hope this will change with the X.

Because some guys using automatic thats doesn't mean they not like to driving. The matter a fact, in this weekend in Lime Rock i saw couple automatic cars.
The driving is way more then shifting, nothing uniqe about the shifting.
i would call "i like to driving" when you cruise around the track or the stages...not in the traffic, won't matter in manual or automatic.

 

The article at the top is mine, from my personal site DrivingEnthusiast.net. It's the master site of a couple of others of mine, including EvoXenthusiast.com. What started out as my way to share info about driving events and technical aspects of my track cars turned into thousands of pages and images. FrontPage is *too* handy...

The track is indeed TWS... it's by far the biggest and fastest track in Texas. And while of course handling is more important that power, it's pretty frustrating to get passed on the main straight - even if your car has the wherewithall to get by faster cars on the inside turns, you could well fall behind again on the straight. When I started in this hobby, 200 HP was hot (vetts had 185!) and you'd usually go thru a set of rotors, bearings, and pads as the cost of doing a track weekend (and that was a real PITA). Nowadays the top percentile runs on average >400 HP cars and have multi-piston "racing" brakes. And state of the art is moving to 500 HP now and 600 next. So you had better be a good driver. One theory that some people have come up with to try to mitigate the continually increasing costs of staying "fast" is to try to cost-effectively air for the top 15% of "overall-capable" cars... the Evo might possibly just break into the top 10% with mild development.

TWS is a fun track (but not anywhere near as fun as the 'Glen, where I grew up in this hobby) even if it isn't in perfect condition. I'm also an instructor in The Drivers Edge, which runs events across the state of Texas. In 27 years of this stuff, it's the best group I've ever seen. We're truly "non-denominational" - we learned a long time ago that events that cater to just one brand cannot provide the best perspective and end up doing a disservice to their students. I've gotten to drive a lot of different cars on top of my own rides. I've found a lot of stuff to dislike... and some universal truths. I'm particularly interested in technology... hence my interest in an Evo X with SST.

I've spent a couple of weekends driving Evos at the track, in various states of suspension and engine tuning. Whatever the power, shifting into top gear on a 5-speed results in a major drop in RPM. More HP can somewhat mitigate it... but the gear ratios are just overall wrong to start with and I hate bandaid fixes. You also have to have a boost controller regardless of transmission because boost drops off. And dealers hate it when they find one of those on your car...

Reality is that the "old" 5 and 6-speeds where not very good transmissions in terms of overall strength or durability. In what I see from my vantage point, most people end up with problems with them (granted most are from poor driving and similar issues). So it was time for a new transmission... and the fact that Getrag developed the SST is very good news. As is the news that Mitsubishi is planning on running this same transmission behind other engines, including torque-rich diesels.

It's no mystery why Mitsubishi decided to pursue the SST. There's no doubt that this can be superior overall for any purpose. Kudos to them. The 5-speed, which BTW is also an all-new transmission, is the low common denominator. Personally, I think it should have been a 6-speed, and the AWC and other systems should have been left off the car to keep the cost real and because people who don't understand the technology aren't the type who will ever go to the track to use it anyway. Full-tilt, all-out, the Evo X with SST and a few options will easily surpass 40k. Question is whether this first iteration of the new chassis, engine, driveline, and transmission will work on the track or not. But I also know that there are a lot of very smart Evo enthusiasts who will figure it out and go faster still. They're already starting to do so in Japan.

 

Jeff,i think the 9 RS i have, has a way better gear ratio then the 8. I do not feel that dropp at all in 5th. /and i got only 360 whp/ The boost dropp what you mentioned i did not feeled even with the 8 . The 9 have personally i think, one of the best manual i ever had.
So far with this new car i do not have any issue on track. The 9 pulls much smoother and the trany is very precise . Strenght and durability ..i think the 5 speed proved enough ,the last decade.
just my opinion.

 

I think they're the same...

But you missed my point. The roughly .75 6th in the SST and the .75 5th in the 5-speed will both cause a big drop in revs. But you'll already be going that much faster with the old 6-speed or the new SST. THIS TRACK requires the gearing found only in a 6-speed or SST to build the speed necessary for this particular length of straight.

 

i'm sure you right about that course. I wish i can run there at least once. But the 8 and 9 tranny ratio is different. Also the 9 got some upgrades too. If i'm right got better syncro.

 

yes it does! i've seen it revmatch in other videos and the S-Sport mode rocks! perfect shifts every time

 

Rev match = yes
Launch control = no.