Hello, I've been lurking for awhile here checking out the new X's. The community here seems to be very positive and I like how everyone chimes in and everyone seems very helpful.

Just a quick intro about me and story. I'm on my 2nd car, well...SUV. I drive a 2006 Toyota 4Runner Sports Edition 4x4 V6. I love it, I play drums so I needed something that I could haul my kit in and also I like camping, good for towing, dependable, so on and so fourth. Well, a guy I work with a guy owns an EVO9. I never knew what an EVO was prior to my experience, it just looked like a car that Vin Diesel should be driving from the Fast and Furious - LOL - Don't mean to insult, but hey, thats how it looked to me. Everyone at work always talked about his car and I asked him for a ride to see what all the "hype" was about. So, I sit in his passenger seat and begin to think, how fast can this really be..I mean...its just a car, big deal. I start to fasten my seat belt and begin noticing all the gauges and what looks like a PSI boost gauge and stuff. We idle for a bit while he warms up the engine. Well luckily for us, there is a nice straight away in front of our work place. I've never been in such a car before, so I really didn't know what to expect. We sit in the middle of the street and he asks me if I'm ready...I shrug ignorantly and say..."sure." He has it set in what looks like neutral and slams the gas...I notice his gauges come to life, especially the boost gauge. This is all happening in seconds.....he then throws it in to 1st.

Now, this is the point where I pretty much **** my pants. Remember, I drive an SUV, my MPH gauge cuts off at 110mph. As he shifts from 1st to 2nd (super hard at that) my body is still left from where we started and I hold on for dear life as the butterfly stomach feeling begins to take over. Before I know it we are at 100mph and barely into 3rd gear as we have to stop for a light. He makes a U turn and it starts all over again back to our work place. As it turns out, he had the EVO9 MR that was tuned, yet all stock still. Guess it was an ECU flash or something plus some other stuff. I was impressed to say the least.

Ever since that day, within that hour, that minute, and that second, I have been completely and utterly hooked...I MEAN HOOKED on the EVO.
I have fallen in love with the new X.

I now know what one of the things missing from my life is...a quick, fun to drive, mod-able, car.

Well thats my little story, onward to the questions:

1st off, the GSR version does not appeal to me. Why? well...I don't race or do drag racing, I don't have a whole lot of extra money laying around to do crazy mods either. Most importantly, I don't know how to drive stick...embarrassing, a bit, but I've always had an automatic, so never really needed to learn stick (though my gf says otherwise)

So that makes the MR perfect for me.

What exactly are the differences between the GSR and MR besides the manual vs. an auto-manual?

How slower is the MR compared to the GSR? I've seen from some of the posts that the MR is only a bit slower than the GSR, by only a few seconds when doing 0-60.

As I understand it, the MR is automatic, uses manual trip-tronic like shifting, and paddle shifters. Correct?

What is the super-sport mode that the MR features? You can leave this feature in auto as well?

I'm trying to understand it, but just how fast is the GSR or MR off the line? I'm looking for zippy, butterfly stomach effect. I'd love more than anything to scare the crap out of my girlfriend or my dad when I slam the gas down. I know the MR will probably act differently compared to the GSR, but would the MR provide this same effect?

I'll leave it at that for right now, I'm sure when I'm at my desk tomorrow, I'll be adding more questions to this thread.

So tempting, I'm in Orange County, and South Coast Mitsubishi is only a freeway away from me. I see all these new owners of the X getting gas at what looks like a familiar gas station near South Coast. Hope its me doing the same one of these days.

 

nobody can tell you how the MR is compared to the GSR. Wait about a month or two after the MR comes out before you believe anything anyone tells you. The best thing I can tell you is to use the search feature. There is alot of interesting reading on both models.

 

Don't let not knowing stick deter you from the GSR. I'm just saying that you might get the MR, then realize that now that you have a sports car and you like and enjoy driving you wish you had and knew how to drive stick.

Really you can learn it in like an hour. If you don't mind a bit of embarassement just tell the dealer your interested but don't know how to drive stick and they might give you a quick lesson... if your buying the car of course.

Only reason I say this is because I had ~3 hours driving time on a manual before i got my evo and I learned fine. Of course I stalled a few times and whatnot... but drive for a week and you'll love it. If you love that thrill that comes from the power in this car then you'll also love the added connection you get with the car from stick.

Lastly the MR is more of a track car then the gsr. GSR 0-60 range from 4.6-5.2 seconds depending on who you ask and MR I've seen is around 5.2. So for you they are no different acceleration wise. On top of the Automated manual, the MR has upgraded shocks/wheels/and slightly upgraded breaks. Also comes with leather interior.

Anyway, if you research, read around a bit on these forums you can get a base GSR for 30k. It has the same power and the manual is fun to drive man. thats what i would do if i were you. Also the twin clutch on the MR is brand new and no-one knows how it will handle mods, but the 5speed in the manual is supposedly awesome for handling extra power.

The only reason I'm saying this is because you sound alot like me (I wasn't really all that knowledgable on cars... my friend drove me in his supped up RSX and i became hooked) I had the base lancer and so I started looking at the evo and fell in love. The base lancer had the paddle shifters, but I was fortunate enough to realize that shifting with the paddles just did not offer the connection that I wanted to the car. The base lancer has a different and not as good transmission as the evo MR but its still the same basic paddle shifting idea.


As far as what supper sport mode is: The MR has an automated manual transmission. When you put the MR in drive it will drive like most normal automatics in the sense that it will accelerate to a certain rpm and then shift to the next and so on so forth. There are three settings that this can be in: normal, sport, super-sport. Normal mode will seem the most like a conventional automatic., it will shift lower in the rpm range and be more fuel economic. Sport will keep the engine rpms higher (hence giving you more power) but being less fuel economic. it will also shift faster and give you more of a "jerking" sensation.

Super-Sport is intended solely for track use. The car has to be at a stop and you have to hold the "sst mode" button for 3 seconds to put the car in super-sport mode. This mode will then keep your rpms as close to redline as possible. Hence you will have the most power but it will be very non economic and it will also be very noisy.
Lastly you can use the paddle shifters to do the shifting instead of letting the car automatically do it.


I honestly think you should reconsider getting the manual GSR. It is cheaper but does not sacrafice any of that butterfly stomach effect. For crying out loud, I took my gf out a few days ago and taught her to drive my car. she drove it around for an hour and stalled once! she did better then I did when i first had the car (I like to think its because I'm an amazing teacher) Point is don't let the fact its a manual deter you. You will learn it fast and it is easy but also really fun.

 

well said!

 

Hey, great story. That's happened to me with so many people at my work as well. They have no idea what an evo is and then after a quick hell ride they are addicted.

Good luck with your purchase, I'd go w/ the GSR. You talked about the guy slamming thru the gears in your story, I think you'd be more happy doing that yourself.

 

haha the evo is amazing isent it? anyway i cant say for sure, but i imagine the mr is just a little bit slower 0-60 then the gsr since it dose not use all of its torque when it is launching. if anything id say it would be .1 sec. slower if anything but then agian thats just a guestimation. BUT anyway i started driving stick on the evo...its not too hard... oh and plus wait till you take your evo around a corner! you will not believe how it handles!

 

hey same story here and like everyone else I think you should go with the manual.

Part of what I liked about getting a ride in my friends Evo IX is the raw power and hard shifts, it felt like the car was doing everything he wanted it to do..very raw and powerful.

I too dont know how to drive manual, I mean I know how to drive it, but I've never ever driven a manual before..and yet I am looking to buy an Evo IX or Evo X manual anyway. One of my main requirements is to have a manual in the car, so I can tell it what to do and feel the car better..its just a much better driving experience.

So in all, youre not alone and plenty of people didnt know how to drive a manual (hey most of the cars in US are auto anyway). Even my friend who drove me around in his Evo IX learned to drive stick in his STi before he sold it for an Evo..everyone goes through it.

I really think you should go with manual, youll be thanking us after all.

 

same here. i Learned stick in my ix. i drove off the lot for the first time stalling lol.
OOO but was it worth it.

 

Thanks for the moral support with stick, it is a bit embarrassing, but it would be pretty fun to learn stick in a time tested manual GSR.

Definitely something to consider when making such a purchase.

I'm curious about this super-sport feature.

Is this something allowed only on the MR? When you say it stays in the high RPMs, sorry for sounding dumb here, but do you mean it sits there idling at a high RPM or it will shift at a high RPM? What do you mean by loud, because the engine doesn't shift till a high RPM is reached, this causes lots of engine noise correct? As far a efficiency, gas mileage goes to crap if constantly driving in super-sport mode right? Super-sport mode vs. the manual GSR, technically the GSR can perform like a super-sport depending on how you want to drive your GSR right?

Reading some reviews about the MR, they mention that super-sport is ridiculous, meaning, its fast, quick, puts you in your seat type feel. It was mentioned that it was for track racing, but....this is a feature that could be enabled if you want to have a bit more fun driving on the freeway and stuff correct?

I'm just trying to get a better understanding how fast is fast when it comes to the Super Sport mode.

I do like the extra creature comforts of the MR, leather, more quiet, i enjoy those things

being 1 with the car through a manual is nothing I've experienced before (obviously as I don't know stick) so its something I don't quite see yet from your perspectives, those of you who do drive a GSR or stick for that matter.

 

basic rule is the higher the engine rpms then the more horespower the engine is producing. For racing application/ fast acceleration you want to keep the engine rpms as high as possible. For daily driving you want the rpms as low as possible (lower rpms means more gas efficiency). And yes, I said it is loud because the engine makes alot more noise at higher rpms. This is especially true for a turbo car.

Your engine rpm is determined by what gear you are in at what speed. For instance in the gsr 50mph is around 6k rpm in second gear, but only 2k rpm in 5th gear. If you floor it in fifth gear at 50mph the car will accelerate but not very fast or thrillingly. If you floor it at 50mph in second gear then your gonna get a nice rush untill you hit ~60mph which is redline and then you shift into 3rd and go to 80mph....

Anyway, point is that an automatic transmission does the shifting for you. You can do everything in the GSR that the MR sst does except allow the transmission to shift itself.

The super-sport mode is a setting that applies specifically and only to the SST transimission. It is telling the transmission that you want maximum power. The transmission will therefore, as per my example, have the car in second gear when your going 50mph. Where as in normall mode it would have it in 5th gear. (If you floored it in normal mode it would downshift to 4th gear to give you more power, this is what "overdrive" means on an automatic car).

So in super sport mode the transmission will keep the rpms at the best range for best power, which is also the worst range for fuel economy. For daily driving you would leave it in normal mode. If you want to have a little more fun in daily driving then you can flip it into "sport" mode on the fly. This will keep the engine rpms slightly higher and therefore the car will have more power.

You can only put the car in "super-sport" mode when you are stopped and you have to hold the button for 3 seconds. This mode is only for track use. The rpms will stay high the entire time you are driving. so if you start to brake, the car will downshift to keep the rpms high and the car poised for maximum acceleration. Also you will not be able to "coast." Ever heard of engine braking? This is where you are in a low gear for the speed you are travelling. Since you are in a low gear the engine has to spin at high rpms. When you are not giving the engine gas, then its the momentum of the car causing the engine to spin at those speeds. The engine obviously has alot more friction when spinning at 6k rpm as opposed to 2k rpm. Therefore the car will slow down quickly and feel liek you are braking. This is why driving at high rpms is horrible for gas mileage.

If you put the car in this mode and went to make a freeway trip you will hate yourself. Yes you will have maximum power when you go to pass someone, but your ear-drums will probably explode before the end of the trip. And your trip won't be very long as you will be having abismal gas mileage...

As for the reviews saying the super-sport mode is jerky this has to do with the speed at which the transmission shifts gears. In normal mode it shifts the slowest, in sport it shifts faster and in super-sport it shifts the quickest.

Anyway, you will 90% of the time drive in normal to be fuel economic. the other 10% of the time you will drive with it in "sport" mode or use the paddle shifters. The paddle shifters allow you to control the car just like a manual except for without having to use a third pedal... the clutch.

This brings to the paddle shifters. You can controll the shifiting that the MR does if you want to have some fun. This will provide you with somewhat of the experience of driving a manual car. (but trust me, its not the same. Driving a manual is completely different then driving an automatic that you can controll the gears on). If you are going to use the paddle shifters I recomend you put the car in "sport" mode first as this way it will shift quicker.

Ok, so if you use the paddle shifters in the MR or get the GSR you will be able to do the same things. Primarilly, since you are controlling the gear you can keep the rpms high for maximum acceleration. You can also then shift to a high gear for cruising to be fuel efficient. Lastly you can downshift before accelerating to pass a car as opposed to flooring it and waiting for the transmission to automatically downshift to give you that extra power you need.


Lastly, you can get leather seats installed in your GSR. Ask your dealer about that. You can also get the car sound-proofed later. Although if you get the SSS package with the rockford fosgate unit you won't need the sound deadening
But in all seriousness the GSR isn't that loud. And if you enjoy the thrill and excitement of being thrown into your seat you will also enjoy the sweet beautiful hum of the engine. The sound that tells everyone your car eats most other cars for breakfast/lunch/dinner and midnight snack.

Also the suspension is not as bumpy as you would suspect and is quite nice if you like the feel of being connected to the road. The suspension is also something you will probably mod aftermarket if you get this car.

Anyway, again i say get the GSR. You will not regret it. If you are looking for it to toss you in your seat you can do that just as hard in the GSR as the MR. Also its not hard to learn stick and you will grow to love the controll and the connection to the car.

Lastly if you get an EVO you WILL mod it aftermarket. The aftermarket for this car is huge and so tempting and inviting you will not be able to resist. But thats ok because your car will become even more badass.

ANYWAY, trust me dude. As I have now wasted about an hour of my life writing two explanations to answer your questions in order to save you the hassle and trouble that I went through reaserching these things.

Also stay active on the forums. Use wikipedia to look up what abreviations you don't understand or other terms. And in a month you will be talking like a car expert.

 

well..ill be the first one to say it..thanks for the lesson, although I knew most of that(except for overdrive on auto) I am sure lots of newbies will have learned something from that.

i find the pedal shifters sort of video game like, I understand why they might be quicker during a race..but if its just a street car and not a track car, I really dont get the idea (well I do..to have an auto and manual at the same time) lol but cmon..

 

Wow, thank you! that was quite the write up and a great read. Thank you for you help and for the guidance and opinions you have contributed to this thread.

like I said, great community here. Its nice to see people openly helping EVO noobs such as myself.

 

hehe, go back 3 months and I was you...

 

lol March 28 my first car, my first stick, my first Evo (X).

Here's my little story xD

Monday talks to dad about cars, attempts to convince him to buy me a car, he says call your aunt if she says she'll go with you then I'll buy it so then I'm like okay... I'll call. Calls aunt ask her and she says Yes without me even begging lol.

Tuesday goes to Mitsubishi Dealer ship in SD and saw the Evo X (I wanted the previous Evos before the X came out but parents said a new one of 2008 so yeah) I was talking to the dealers and the one I wanted was for 38k. 2 hours later, go home and tells parents about it and they said ok they'll buy it.

Wednesday Dealer calls me and says we got a sale the Evo you want will be sold for 34k! and I'm like yay me, so tell my parents and they are like okay tell your aunt and take you when she can, so I call my aunt and she says friday morning and I'm like omg. So after I hang up, I remembered that I DO NOT know how to drive a stick xD. SOOO I call up like 5 of my friends and ask them if they could teach me how to drive, and all of them said, no dude I'll teach you when you have your car, or others say no man my parents will kill me, basically all excuses so I'm like (geez cool friends I got there huh?), so I then I call my other friend that doesn't have a car, and he says "I'll tell my brother to teach you" so yay me. We go to his brothers house and he teaches me in his civic hatchback, and there I stalled a few times and he taught me some of the basics. so I go home since it was late, but in my head I'm like "At least I know how to drive it and shift it now."

Thursday comes, and I feel nervous about me getting a manual car with only 1 hour of practice... so then I call up my uncle which lives in Tijuana (Mexico, just by the border from where I live, which is San Diego.) so then I go over there and he decides to get one of his friends and they let me borrow the car and I practice for another hour and then I went back to SD and slept.

Friday morning wake up 3 hours before I was suppose to meet up with my aunt because of excitement. So then at 10:30 AM my aunt picks me up, we go to the dealership and there it was the beautiful Lancer Evolution X GSR (Silver) so then we go for a test drive, the guy asked me if I knew how to drive a manual, and me knowing I have only practice manual for TWO HOURS in my entire life, I say Yes (lmao). He then drives out the car 2 streets up and parks and tells me to drive it. I get on the driver's seat, start off the car a but jerky but didn't stall! so then I thought I was just gonna drive around the dealership but uh oh! He says hey watch go forward and you will see the freeway 5 and just go south, and in my head I'm like (HOLY $**T ) so then I'm like Okay... I stop by the red light before the freeway, and once it turned green, I almost froze xDD. So then I start driving it to the freeway shifting every 3k RPM getting it to like 70mph in 5th gear and then we drove back and as soon as I got to the dealership, i was like omfg I have never driven that far with a manual xD. Anyways then after I bought it I was all happy and all that but then I forgot I had to drive it home, BUT there was one problem xDD. I don't have a freaking license... I only had a permit, no adults were with me but my aunt, but she had to drive her car back as well, so then I was like crap I'm screw. but then I just asked the manager if the guy that attended me could drive it back to my house, and so he did and they sent someone to follow and picked him up. Once I got home I was just sitting in my Evo X and thinking that it was just all a dream and I would wake up anytime soon. But yeah the feeling was so good after having the GSR, right now I'm better at driving it. I was practicing at my street where there are not a lot of cars going by, and my drive way which was kinna like a mini tiny hill, so I could make sure I could drive in hills and not roll back.


So here's my tip for you, if you are buying the car and have no experience with the car, ask the dealers to drive your car home, and then you practice somewhere near your house that has no traffic or anything you could accidentally bump into. Also make sure you practice HILLS, those are scary at first and try to find someone that knows how to drive manual. Anyways let me give you an awesome video I was watching after I got my Evo X. The guy in the video, basically explains everything to you, although the car is different, the process is the same, so just practice getting the feel for it. All I gotta say is, don't rev the RPMs to above 3k RPMs while holding the clutch and not letting go at all, all you get is a burnt smell from the clutch. For me I usually rev around 2.5k RPM or 3k RPM and put the clutch at the hook up point and then slowly add gas while letting go of the clutch even more so I don't jerk so much but I still kinna do, but hey! no stalling xD

So yeah don't be afraid of getting a manual, you'll actually enjoy it after you get the hand of it, and DON'T GIVE UP, all it takes is some practice AND some more practice after the practice xD

So here's the video from where I learned a lot of useful tips on driving a Stick.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=B59-pWSPoZU


PS: I won my first race 3 weeks after I got it against an Eclipse from a red light at 0 MPH (was actually scared when the eclipse challenged me xD) We were racing for about 2 blocks so yeah it was a short race, but hey a race is a race and a win is a win ^^

hopefully this was some what helpful on how it feels and hope you get a GSR instead of the MR ^^

 

**WARNING LONG POST ABOUT THE TRANSMISSION** Skip over if you don't want to learn about it. More details about the MR are in the last paragraph.

Apparently people replying here don't not all that much about the new transmission being put into the MR. It is by no means the same as a typical automatic, and it is not even remotely comparable to the transmission in the lancer. The lancer uses the typical planetary gear transmission with paddle shifters to allow you to "chose" what gear you want. It is slow, bulky and nothing like what will be in the MR. You can read more about it here and here

The transmission being put into the MR is closer related to a sequential manual (used in race cars and rally cars) and close to identical the VW's DSG you can read about it here, here, and here. This transmission has 2 clutches, one clutch controlling gears 1,3, and 5 and the other controlling 2, 4, and 6. Briefly how it works, lets say you accelerating in 3rd gear, the ecu is monitoring the cars information rpms speed, etc. it is calculating what you will be doing next and setting up the transmission, getting it ready for 4th gear (in reality this takes a fraction of a second), and just when the time is right it disengages 3rd gear and engages 4th gear in fraction of a second. This is what happens in the normal, sport, and super sport modes, also I THINK in these modes you are also able to use the paddles to tell the car what gear you want, but from what I have read, and the reviews I have seen you don't really need to. You also have the ability to put the car into manual mode which will allow you to change gears whenever you want using the paddles just like you would in a manual, the only difference is you don't have to push in a clutch and it shifts much faster than you ever could in a typical manual. I would recommend reading the referenced articles if you are interested in learning about the potential of the new transmission.

Also this transmission is definitely not primarily for track use. I think the mistu released primarily for use a a daily driver. they are trying to target a wider range of people now. As a result a lot of people are going to be using this car as a daily driver, and while you are stuck in traffic on your way to work you don't want to be dicking around with a manual. on the flip side the transmission has the ability to preform remarkably well and allow you use the car as a true evo when you aren't driving it to work or what have you. Also if you get this car you are going to want to drive it fast, and learn how to do it well. For example when you are coming into a turn fast with a manual you are going to have to down shift, while rev matching, while keeping the throttle up, while left foot breaking and this is no easy task. From driving my Audi RS4 around a high speeds I have learned this process gets old real quick, I can't wait to get my evo MR and not have to worry about all these things in addition to navigating my way around the turn.

Also there are a few differences with the MR which no one has really gone into. Other than the biggest thing (the transmission) which is mentioned above. The MR also has forged alloy wheels as appose to the cast alloy which are stock with the GSR. The basic difference is forged is stronger and lighter than cast. However this is an option on the GSR. They also upgrade your suspension with Bilstein shocks and dampers. The also have a little bit better brakes, the brakes on the MR are two pieces and vented to reduce weight and improve cooling. The interior is upgraded with nicer parts to set it more withing the range of other 35-40k cars. And it included 11lb of sound damping. Hope this helps you decide on which to get.