(cross posted from another forum)

hey guys,

well, after about 6 year break, i have decided that it is time to enjoy driving to work once again so i plan on buying an EVO X in the next few weeks. However, since alot of changed since i owned my last evo (a EVO 8 in 2003), i do have a few questions that i am hoping you fine folks can help me with:

1) i am having the hardest time deciding between an SE or a GSR. since this will be my daily driver, i am VERY tempted by the SE and honestly, it does have everything that i want. my only concern is reliability of the SST and long term cost. i know that i do want to have about 350-400whp max but i am scared that at those power levels, the SST will be very unreliable and very costly to replace. if this is the case, i will simply go for the GSR with the SSS package and simply will have to deal with driving a manual again

2) as stated above, my goal for the car is a reliable and livable 350whp-400 max. i think that i am going to start with a TBE, a filter and AP and then slowly buy parts as they become available and once i have everything, go to Ivey for a custom tune (i think that a FP red with supporting mods is what i am going to go with). does this sounds like a good plan?

3) since i will be buying the car right as winter begins here in Boston, i will need to either buy snow tires for the stock rims or buy rims + tires for the winter. do you think that it would be better to just sell my stock tires as soon as i take them off and them buy new tires and rims for the summer?

any other feedback you guys can give me would be greatly appreciated and i am super excited to be back behind the wheel of a real car!!!

 

Hi
I'm in the market for one as well. Waiting for the 2011's to role out and have pretty much made up my mind on what I want.

My dilemma, too, was between the SE's SST and the standard on the GS-R. I read a lot of great things about the SST and initially thought that's what I wanted. I drove a SST and standard around the block and they were worlds apart. The paddle shifts on the SST's weren't as responsive and instantaneous as I thought; there was about a 1-2 pause between each shift; either going up or down. To me, the SST felt really mechanical and rather something comparable to a PS3 or similar gaming system.

Needless to say, I felt a better connection to the standard box. I'd say drive both and decide.

 

I've driven an SST and am going to have to disagree with you. I walked away still wanting a manual, however the shifts on the SST were lightening quick. I remember thinking it was literally impossible to manually shift so fast. Maybe you had it in regular drive mode?

 

sst is amazing and awesome as daily driving, but gsr you get more control, and itll handel more hp.

if you want 450+hp = GSR
if you want a daily driver with 450< = MR/SE
either way its an evo

 

Your best bet is to definitely test drive both. I know for me and my long term goals the gsr was a better fit. Just for a heads up though, if you plan on going fp red you'll probably end up with a bit more than 400 whp with all supporting mods, even excluding cams. Best of luck with whatever you decide, and enjoy!

 

I agree, SST is pretty cool. But really, it's a personal choice and you have to decide on what's important to you and what trade-offs you're willing to make.

 

SST will be more convenient if you drive through traffic. But could be costly if you make more than 400 with the Red, because then comes the skepticism with if the tranny will hold up. As far as tires, I would use the stock rims and just buy a good set of winter tires. Buy a new set of rims/tires in summer, which is exactly what I'm doing!! Last, out of order that the OP posted in, but as for your mod route, it sounds good, but it's your car you can go with whatever you want first. Be sure to post pics when you get the car and let us know!

 

I personally went with the GSR. Although time trials will show lower numbers with the sst for me it still felt like an automatic. I would take the longer shift time for feel more in control. IMO the 5 speed gives a truer feel. But again the only way to know is to try both. The real big turn off for me was that the sst transmission is as of right now a non serviceable item so anything goes wrong you are looking at a full replacement. luckily it seems like everyone is having good reliability from this trany.

As for the tires I live in northern ohio we see a good amount of snow here. I would say it depends on what you want to do with the car in the summer. For me i wont be tracking the car and its a dd so I opted to sell the stock tires asap almost brand new and buy a good set of high performance all season tires. If you are going to track the car I would keep the sockies and get rims for them and use the stock rims and get some winter tires. As you probably know expect to get only about 8,000 miles or so out of the stock tires depending on how you drive with them.

 

I say SST is worth it with current generation!

 

I just bought a GSR and as a person who comes from auto trannies never looked back. Mind you I drive a lot in the traffic. I re-discovered fun in driving. No matter how how advanced tranny is if you don't have a clutch it's just "pushing a button" which is boring. You might say there are paddle shifters, but it does't feel the same and you get lazy in the end and computer shifts it for you. My take if you want more driver involvement in DD go with GSR.