Originally Posted by Ludikraut

That car is begging for bigger wheels/tires.

Originally Posted by mitsu_lover625

http://www.motortrend.com/future/spi...ncer_evolution

http://www.motortrend.com/future/spi.../photo_04.html

I wish those BBS wheels made it to production...

Originally Posted by FLK

^Good eye you are correct!

The car looks like it flows better without the spoiler, the color of which doesn't even match the car. Hmm, I bet a lot of us will go wingless.
Also it needs wider wheels and tires to fill the wide fenders, it looks a bit weak as it is.

Originally Posted by machron1

^^
They probably inferred this based on some common leading indicators...Let's see if we can come to the same conclusion based on what we already know.
Now, what do we know?

Weight

General consensus is that it will be heavier by ~200 lbs or so (which I personally find difficult to believe, but that's what's generally said so we'll leave that be).
Since current Evo IX weighs in at:

• 3,219 lbs (EVO IX RS)
• 3,263 lbs (EV0 IX)
• 3,285 lbs (EVO IX MR)

Then we should Expect the Evo X to weigh approximately:

• 3,419 lbs (EVO X RS) (+6.2%)
• 3,463 lbs (EVO X) (+6.1%)
• 3,485 lbs (EVO X MR) (+6.0%)

So, on average, it will probably have a 6.1% increase in weight. OK, sounds reasonable. What else do we know?

Power

Peak horsepower

Nobody knows for sure, but I've not seen many (if any) figures that weren't somewhere between 300 and 320hp. The current Evo IX is rated at 286hp. So that's an increase of between 4.9% and 11.9% peak horsepower. So, let's say it will be at least an even 5% more powerful, which leaves us with a 1.1% power-to-weight deficit it would seem.

Peak torque

Since this topic is rarely discussed (or possibly rarely read by me), we can just assume torque increases at the same rate as horsepower, and for what it's worth, probably a slightly higher number than the peak horsepower since that's how the current Evo is.

Power under-the-curve

A couple things not really brought up much are exactly how much the additional MIVEC cam and direct injection will help make more power under-the-curve, as did the addition of a single MIVEC cam on the IX. Count on more power down low, less turbo lag, and possibly nearly doubling the increases seen on the Evo IX. For example, if MIVEC puts a certain amount of extra power under the curve in the IX, I would guess at least 80% of that amount again will be present in the 4B11 with dual MIVEC and direct injection. And since the IXs are such beasts compared to the VIII's, I'd imagine it will be significant enough as not to be excluded from the power-to-weight and acceleration equation of the Evo X. Maybe good for another 0.1 to 0.2 seconds off a 1/4 mile time?

Drivetrain

The estimate was almost certainly taking into consideration the new Mitsubishi Sequential Shift Transmission (SST), which should shave at least 0.1 seconds per shift, and on a 1/4 mile blast, shifting 4 or 5 times, that shaves nearly half a second off the 1/4 mile time. That is fairly significant...

1/4 mile time

So, the magazine in question tested the Evo IX to run 13.5 in a quarter mile. We all know they can do better than that stock, but that's the number this magazine is probably basing their estimates on. So, let's see how fast it will probably be based on what we know:

We can even the playing field by using a 1/4 mile calculator (http://www.jcalculator.com/?c=1_4_mile_calculator). So, assuming the average driver weighs 175 lbs, the actual curb weight of the average Evo IX and the average Evo X would be 3438 lbs, and 3638 lbs, respectively. According to JCalculator, that would be good for 1/4 mile times of 13.34 and 13.38, respectively. So, it would appear the 1/4 mile time calculated only from peak power-to-weight ratio would be nearly identical, even with the additional weight. Shave off 0.4 to 0.5 seconds for the SST gearbox, maybe 0.2 seconds from some extra power under the curve, and you are looking at a theoretical 1/4 mile between 12.98 and 13.08. Not too shabby. However, if you factor in the fudge of this magazine running the test, adding about 0.2 to the time, we might expect the X to actually run between 13.18 and 13.28 in their test, which is very much slower than their 12.5 estimates. But...maybe they learned that an actual IX is capable of hitting 12.9 stock even though they only tested it to run 13.5. If you factor that in, the difference between the JCalculator 1/4 mile estimate and the actual Evo IX fastest stock time is 0.44 seconds faster. If you take that into account for the X, a more true estimate for the X is probably somewhere between 12.54 and 12.64...which is somewhere around the Road and Track estimate. Maybe they actually did mean to say what an Evo X is capable of rather than what they are going to run, since they may know they are slow...so, yeah I think a 12.5 1/4 mile with only 300 horsepower, even with the additional 200 lbs, is not outside the realm of possibility.

Mods

I would guess based on how easy it is to make substantial gains with the IX, it will be even easier (once the ECU is cracked) to make even more substantial initial gains with the X given the same types of mods (exhaust, boost controller, reflash, meth, etc.). It is well known you can extract 330 whp from a few bolt-ons on the IX without much difficulty because of the MIVEC and larger turbo. Since the X will have even more MIVEC to play with, plus direct injection, I would hazard a guess that 360 whp would be fairly easily attainable with a similar approach. However, I expect the limitations of the aluminum closed-deck block to come into play after that, making huge horsepower gains on a stock bottom end more difficult than a VIII or IX. For me, that's fine. I'm not on a quest for that much power. But for the hardcore, maybe they should stick to the old 4G63.