http://www.roadandtrack.com/article....rticle_id=6850

Sounds like someone figured out how to fix the STI's handling...

 

thanks for posting this. i love the competition, makes the car companies keep coming with better and better products.

 

Great find. Although, I haven't finished reading the whole article from what I have read it's more like HKS v. Cusco than it is EVO v. STI

 

Read it however you like, but the key mods in each case are well within the budget of people that can afford these cars... and mod we will!

 

if you look at the slideshow the evo's engine looks stock.

 

They said that both engined were basically stock. The mods mainly went into suspension.

 

So what? the EVO marks 47.4 seconds vs 47.2 for the STI.

A difference of .2 seconds can be contributed to driver/condition variances.

All this article really goes to show is how unbalanced the STI suspension is from the factory, as opposed to the EVO's.

 

I guess no one actually read or looked at the article.

"HKS installed its own oil cooler, Super Fire Racing sparkplugs and air cleaner, among other items. Breathing enhancements, which include a revised exhaust system, enable the engine to pump out about 310 bhp. The car looked mean too, thanks to HKS's signature black paint job, Advan RS alloy wheels and lowered body...
...Changes to the Lancer Evolution were tame by comparison."

 

well the fact that the STi got Hipermax III coilovers and the evo got "upgraded suspension" might tell you something. it's either bad journalism or the evo was basically stock... i mean what exactly is "upgraded suspension"???

 

There's no doubt that the STi is a good competitor, but the EVO is superior. I've owned both and have an unbiased opinion, and this test shows is that the underdog (STi) can be faster than the reigning champ when it's upgraded much more than it's competitor. Not only that, but how each company tunes the suspension would have more of an effect than the actual suspension itself in many cases, and HKS clearly went with stiffer, more track spec spring/damper rates to give the soggy STi the more "edgy" feel and responsiveness.

Not only that, but based on the comments that the EVO's modifications were tame in comparison, it is most likely that all the car has is some sway bars and springs with different wheels and tires. Stupid. What would've been a far greater article is if both of the cars were modified by the same company with the same overall parts and were both tuned equally aggressively and then ran them against each other to see which is the better platform. Or you could just run them stock to stock and see which one is better. Oh wait, that's already been done and the EVO stomped the STi. Sorry I forgot.

 

i wonder how much of a difference those spark plugs made

 

Kind of a worthless comparison...

A) They don't list all the mods to each vehicle, which seems silly. Why wouldn't they just list everything instead of making generalizations like "upgraded suspension" for the Evo, but list a bunch of specifics for the STI? WTF?

B) These are J-spec vehicles which we don't get here. Our Evo is relatively unchanged compared to the j-spec version. But, the STI is very different because of the motor.

Also, even though it sounds like the STI has a bunch of power mods, in total it increased output by only 6bhp which is maybe 4whp. And they really made some silly upgrades like sparkplugs and an oil cooler. Not really much of anything.

Like STi2EvoX said, only way to do this right is to give both teams equal mod money and have them do similar mods. Then compare the two. Oh, AND LIST ALL THE DAMN MODS.

What a poorly thought out article.

 

It's a good review to show that the STI needs a lot more modification to perform at the level of the Evo X.

 

 

Agreed. Pretty lame that mods weren't spelled out, especially for the Evo. Without that list, speculating about what the Evo did/did not have (as some here are) is just as lame. The engine mods don't look very impressive on the STI, and would be a non-factor on a tight track like this. Even an off-the-shelf AccessPort reflash will blow that out of the water power-wise.

The thing I thought was really odd is that the driver complained about understeer on the Evo: here's a video that shows this test...(track action starts about 1:25).

http://youtube.com/watch?v=F1K6mDgFHj0