Very true. Just a drop-in intake filter, turbo-back exhaust, and a tune will get you pretty close.

 

evo is the best bang for the buck and makes great power gains for little money and it handles too !

 

I loved the Cobra but the last few weeks I've started falling out of love with it.

I've been driving high performance mustangs for the past 4-5 years. I just want something new I think. Both technically and otherwise.

I'm a big gear head and memorised all kinds of random mustang information. I wrote out a couple full pages of info about heads/intakes/badging specific year differences, trans differences, blowers, suspensions etc.

I dont know too much about the EVO yet and hell its something new to learn and get into.

I also need a winter vehicle soon so this might be the time to jump on an Evo. My credit isnt so hot right now and I need to get rid of the Cobra for hopefully what I owe on it. But maybe I can find an evo for $400/month or less. I dont want to go right to an 03 for money since I view it as a platform and the 9 is most likely what I'm after.

I might just be converted yet...

 

I just recently picked up an 04 evo 8 for around 19k. 44000 miles. been the best car decision i have ever made. i still have the die hard friends who are all about american muscle cars 100% and after stomping them in my evo, their eyes are kinda open. as far as the comment about the awd being only for straight line above, quite often the FTD at the local auto cross events is an 03 Evo 8 in STU (street touring class U, stock drivetrain, ecu flash ok, drop in filter ok, not too many modifications). you can modify these cars to do just about anything you want them to do from drag racing, auto/rally cross, road racing, full out rally or just a mean SOB on the street. come winter time get you a nice set of snow tires (my fave are the blizzak's) and you can pretty much drive through anything old man winter throws at you with out much trouble.
good luck on the evo quest, and welcome aboard.

 

Thanks for the welcome

Hopefully I can find one to satisfy my modding habbits. Are
the 8's really bad to start with? Or should I get the 9?

Is the ACD really a good feature or what? Will it break easier and is it a big deal to get one without it? Trying to rank whats important here...

 

cobra, ftl.

 

Many muscle car people laugh at my car when pass by. But most of them cant even beat me in straight line. They think evo is another cheap rice burner. too much american pride

 

Welcome aboard dude...let the fun begins...Squeezing so much out of a 4 cyl....ur gonna love it...

 

I used to think evo can make power easy w/out spending a lot of money, but I realized you can do the same w/ some V8 like the Corvette C6 or even Z06. they can benefit a lot from just intake header and exhaust. I came to realization that small displacement can make lot of hp/tq but in higher rpm, meaning less usable power/torque, unlike the V8. If you want an EVO, let me tell you, the wing is not a symbol of "rice" it's designed with evo's tall roof line, it provides stable high speed manner. Then how come the RS doesn't come with wing? that's b/c in Japan tuning industry works close together with manufacture and the RS version is the one for tuners to install their own wing, seats, wheels, brakes etc. In Japan you can get RS w/ out recaro, 17inch wheel, brembo brakes. If you want buy an evo don't take the wing out b/c you think it is rice. It's those people who put ugly, useless wing on their family sedan made evo looks like ricer.

 

Personally I say the IX but t anhat is just because I had one. You can make it kill people with very few mods. 9sec9 a tuner on the forums here got with indyevo another member and they are running damn close to an 11 second pass with a filter and manual boost controller.

Thats still with everything in the car and I mean everything like even the spare tire.

You wont be disappointed at all in the car. Intake, TBE, O2 dump or housing, and a 9sec9 tune and you will be running an 11 almost guaranteed lol.

 

Welcome. The evo is a great car. Before I test drove the evo, I hadnt really considered it because I have always been into sports cars-- 2 seaters. I had a c4 vette, and a modded mr2 turbo before this. When I first test drove the evo I was hooked. And the wing grows on you, I like it now.

 

I've converted lots of my V8 friends, although it was never by pressuring them. Usually we would just go out and romp on our cars and then they would wonder what it was like to ride in a turbo 4 cylinder that could outrun their V8 RWD 2-door cars. After giving them a ride, quite a few of them would always become interested, and a couple of them actually bought Evos of their own.

If you want a quiet (yet free flowing) exhaust, go the route that I went. Get a Megan Racing O2 housing, a 3 inch downpipe, a MilSpec 100 cell cat, and a 3 inch cat-back. Weld a black Vibrant oval muffler on to the end instead of doing one of those canister muffler things. The canister mufflers will be loud and all of your V8 buddies will instantly assume you've went full-tilt riceboy.

The wing is a personal preference. I've got two different trunks. One with the wing and another without it. It's easier that way as the double sided tape that holds the wing on is where it gets most of the stability (in other words, if you take your wing off and reapply it without the same double sided tape, it will flop around at highway speeds).

MIVEC tuning on the Evo 9 isn't that advanced. Most people just use the JDM MIVEC map as it's a known strong map. Standard timing and fuel adjustments is where you will gain most of your power through tuning.

Take the shiny OEM tail lights and have them painted by EvoDave. I had him do my stock ones after I went through the trouble of ordering Evo 7 tail lights only to find that they were pink and not red.

 

The most fun you will ever have.

 

My favorite thing about the Evo.

 

I used to be like you and all about the muscle. I still have a 67 Dodge coronet that I drag and it runs 11's. I went for an evo ix because its a great DD, good mpg, its fast in a straight line and can handle very well.

The only thing I would suggest is looking at what you really want to do with it. The best option might be what I did. Use the muscle car for the track and use the evo as a DD. If you bracket race, an auto with manual valve body is more consistent that a manual and its faster/easier to launch especially if you run a trans break.

I love my Coronet because I built it myself and if something breaks I can fix it myself. Hell you can get a 10 second drag car dirt cheap these days, so much cheaper than you can build one yourself.

The only downfall of this is that I cant fit my evo, coronet, 24' car hauler and a Ram 2500 in my driveway at the same time........