Ladies and gentlemen of the forum. I finally sold my POS mustang and am ready to get into something awd. Rwd in Maine is not ideal considering our roads/snow/slush problems we have especially here on the coast. My biggest dilemma is, what evo should I buy? I have no interest in these "manual" paddle shifters. I like true blue manual gearboxes with a clutch and all that jazz and I really don't like fancy electronic sensors that cost thousands of dollars to fix and hours to install on my end or else the car wont run properly. I like old school cars, but I love new age performance and understand that I'm gonna have to buy somewhere in between. My question to you is this: What evo should I buy? I hear a lot of good things about the evo 9's, and a few people swear by evo 8's and I even know one crazy guy who loves his evo 10 (although he has paddle shifters and says he drives manual). I don't care about luxury options and features, just looking for a strait up performer and while I'm fairly certain an evo fits the bill, I'm not 100% sure I'm right as I've never lived with/ driven one before and I'm not sure which one is best to modify, and cheaper to maintain.
Just another note: I want to use this for autocross... Am I crazy for wanting to try that? Will it be able to hold its own or is it more of a street preformer/rally car?

TLDR: Looking for best model with priorities in this order: Cost of maintenance (low)>maximum power/ tune-ability> reliability> lowest price

appreciate the help guys and let me know which model I should buy (and year if applicable)

Welcome & thanks for joining us on the EvOM boards. You and I are about the same when it comes
to cars & options. I have the EvO9 RS which is considered the stripper model (race car prep ready)

Take a look at this thread & review the diff models avail. I think you should really consider an RS model

https://www.evolutionm.net/forums/ev...oking-evo.html

Look.for the best condition low mileage 8 or 9