is it possible? thinking of starting a project.. are the unibodies the same as an evolution?
no flaming please, and don't tell me to just buy an evo.. i want to do something custom and different, i just want to see what i'm getting into

 

there are several threads on this....do a search and you will come up with loads of info .
But in a nutshell.....no and no.

 

Lancer Es to an Evo... ull spend so much more money to transform ur car into an EVO. Yea u answered ur own question... buy the Evo

 

He is in Canada.....no Evo's allowed!

 

uh....man you say custom and different how is biting off another car custom and different? I really hate it when people try this and since the mods don't like me talking **** I will keep it to a minimum. There are a lot of things you can do to your car why not looking in to a body kit that does not resemble the evo DO NOT get an evo 8 wing drop some $$$ in to the engine (turbo). That way people will look at your ride and give you respect!!! If you try to turn your car in to an evo a lot of people will talk crap. including me!!!

 

Anything is possible. I suppose it could be done but you'd need to strip the body panels off. make the 140-something welds that the ES doesn't have that the EVO does, fabricate the transmission and engine to fit onto the chassis and then reattach body panels. if you do actually do this. you can do the underneath parts but don't try to make you exterior look exactly like a stock evo. at least pull of a totally different custom look.

But by all means, do what you want to do with the car.

 

+1

 

try body-kit.com, they have some good kits, then work on building your engine...the 4g94 can be built pretty strong with alot of cash.

 

glad to see you want to be different... if you want to make it look like an evo then go for it...

as for the people in that want say "GO BUY AN EVO" because they own one... just ignore them... there better than us... well at least they think so...

the lancer is based off the evo (generally) so im sure with a few changes and quite a bit of $$ you could do it... I have seen an RA that had a custom body kit and changed to have an evo 5 look... as far as being made fun of because you want to be different... like i said before just ignore that guy... he's obviously a clown..

If your looking to mod there is accolade as well as http://www.roadracemotorsports.com ... probably gonna get my u-pulley from them in the next month... so far nothing but good reviews about them

lol... shave the door handles chop the top down a few inches... lower it on some 22's after rolling the fenders way out, weld the back doors seams closed and turn it into a roadster...lol.. just kidding...

just some questions... what all did you want to do...

 

he cant if he wanted to.. Viva la Canada

 

cosmetically, it can be easily done compared to engine and drivetrain wise. You'll be looking at a crazy amount of money to invest. And in the end, I dont think you'll get a product like an Evo to be honest, they are tuned a certain way, that's why they are the Evo's. I'm sure you'll come close to an Evo, but it'll never actually simulate one.

 

I can understand your idea of customization. If you can fit the EVO body panels onto the lancer unibody then you would certainly have a very customized look in Canada. If you're willing to compromise, you can buy a body kit and some external accessories to get the EVO look from Accolade. I would imagine that most people in Canada wouldn't be able to tell the difference.

In terms of performance, replicating that is a different story, since the entire drivetrain and handling package between the two are completely different. You'd be looking at swapping out the engine, drivetrain, and suspension package, and probably have to do some custom work to get the right suspension components to fit. A RRM turbo kit, rear strut bar, clutch kit and tiebar, in addition to the TIEN coilover kit will do quite a bit to improve its drivability. If you were willing to spend that kind of money on performance, you could also add a LSD which would help settle the understeer from the beefed up engine. You could go with the LSD from RRM which runs $1100, or you could try a Phantom Grip LSD converter, which has been featured in tuner magazines as an actual functional product (www.phantomgrip.com). Some people have claimed the Phantom Grip wears out the spider gears, but those claims have been pretty much unproven.

If however you are hellbent on doing a pure-evo conversion, from body to drivetrain, I don't think anybody short of a well versed Lancer/EVO mechanic or Mitsubishi engineer is going to be able to help you.

 

Please keep us posted with what you decide. I'm kinda interested in what you'll do...

 

Moving to Newbie/FAQ

 

Only 1 Evo swap has been successful so far. The shop is in Montreal, and the price tag was somewhere around 10 grand and that's without AWD.