I think EU regulations allow for different plate number configurations to accomodate manufacturer car designs. After all the function of a plate number is to identify your car.

 

Anybody that thinks the FQ-400 is "stock" is way off base. I've read the article on what went into the FQ-400 and it IS a modded Evo, pure and simple. The only thing that was of some interest is the launch control that they put on it ... all of the other mods are mostly simple bolt-ons that anyone here in the US can get. If you want the US equivalent, get yourself an Evo (regular or MR), slap a Vishnu stage 1+ on it, add a TME turbo and you're pretty much there (minus the launch control). The FQ-400 is not warrantied by ... it is covered by UK's "Ralliart".

l8r)

 

Still it could be worth a hell of alot of money down the line as a collector car.

 

Ru4real
The reason why it is like that is because of the EVO design, Normally it is the same as the rear Licence plate but white retroreflective, cause the Evo utilises almost every duct on the front bumper for cooling and the likes, they had to use the lower profile Plate, normally used on Motorcycles, (although the bikes do not have a front licence plate) but the rear plate is the same size, as the one on the front of the evo.


Also to the rest of you out there who still think the VFQ400 costs $80,000 are wrong, the UK (British Pounds) price you see is inclusive of Tax (17.5%) and on the road costs, you have to remove these items from the UK price to give you the base price and then you do the conversion over to US Dollars.

Oh and personally yeah it is great to have an EVO of a Subaru over there in the UK, as we have some excellent roads suited for those kind of vehicles, BUT I gurantee you that most of you would loose your Drivers licences in a week. (Actually it is one day)
The Cops are ******* over there and will book you for speeding, they don't even have to be present to give you, your ticket.
Once you get nabbed on a speeding camera, in a week you'll get a summons to appear in Court,your better off just pleading guilty and pay the fine and receive the points, (max 12 like here) So if you get stopped by a cop and he gives you 3 points per tyre (Spelling is correct for Tyre in UK) for lack of a legal tread depth (minimum is 1.6mm) then you're up to 12 points straight away, all it takes is one more thing like a defective wiper blade (1 point) and you're out, also as soon as you go over 100 mph it's an automatic suspension of your licence, no if's and's or buts, the cops have heard every excuse in the book, it doesn't slide.

So don't automatically think the grass is greener on the other side, cause I can tell you all from experience it ain't.

 

I have absolutely no idea why the Plate on the front is White and the plate on the rear is Yellow, I lived there for 25 years and it has always been like that.
I guess the white is easier to see when a vehicle is coming towards you, and the yellow is a little more soothing to the eyes as opposed to white reflective glare from your own headlights when following a vehicle.

 

The FQ 400 is running Team Dynamic Wheels (17x8 in gloss black) that weigh in at 20lbs and cost $180 a rim. I found out from the company rep.

The front brakes are AP Racing 6-pot ($3395), while the rears are stock.

The front lip looks like Do-luck which anyone can buy at $700.

Aesthetically, if you want to make your car look like the FQ-400, it shouldn't be too much
of a problem.

Steve

 

There is a BIG difference here. Factory backed tuner such as "Ralliart", "AMG", BMW M", "TRD", "Mazda Speed", etc..... modded car is way different than what your local tuner and yourself can ever accomplished. IMO, its the only way to go. You are paying big bucks for the technical know how of the "expert" factory tuners, warranty service, much higher resale value, aesthetic, track/windtunnel tested, and a true thorough bred which worth keeping.

Remember MBZ 190e Evolution II, Cosworth Sierra RS500, Lancia Delta Intergrale HF, Renault R5 Turbo, Lancia Stratos, BMW M3 2.5 evolution etc...? I am not exaggerating, the FQ400 will destined to be legendary as the fastest production sedan in the world in year 2005. And what about the EVO regular with vishnu stage 1, +2, +3, +4 with 800 whp? A modded car? A ricer?

No matter what a person do to a stock M3, it will never be a M3 CSL. Owner can invest ten of thousands of dollar on a CLK320 to make it crazy fast or gold plated it, but it will never be the mighty CLK DTM.

Building a factory performance car is more than just slapping parts on it, its alot more than the sum of its parts. It's the overall balanced package that shine.

Now back to the FQ400, they run the car on 2 miles oval track for 24/7 at 140 mph for 2200 miles aday just to test all the parts. So, anyone please tell me which evo owner/independent tuner have the time and resources (oval track in your backyard) to accomplish this. Anyone think the couple of "experts" in Vishnu and an evo owner can do a better job than the people in Mitsubishi, Ralliart, Motec, HKS, Owen, or Flow Race combined?

 

Yes. Many tuners are highly educated and experienced in their field; don't underestimate their skill and knowledge. Tuners can easily achieve performance that surpasses factory-offered versions, and a 2 mile oval track is not necessary. Auto-tuning can be complicated, but it's not rocket science.

 

hey steve,

brakes are ALCON........

FQ-400 is Lancer Evolution VIII MR FQ-320 plus:
• Custom built Garret GT Dual Ball bearing Turbocharger
• Owen Developments custom manufactured cast Stainless Steel Exhaust Manifold and Exhaust Elbow
• Omega Forged Pistons
• HKS Forged Con Rods
• HKS 680cc Injectors
• Zytec ITP116 High Pressure Fuel Pump
• HKS 1.6mm Steel Head Gasket
• Motec M800 OEM ECU
• HKS Iridium Spark Plugs
• Jan Speed High Flow Sports Cat
• Alcon competition derived 240mm high clamp mode, heavy duty clutch complete with Cera-metallic 6 paddle sprung centred drive plate
• HKS High Strength Head and Big End Bolts
• Alcon Mono6 Brake Kit incorporating Monobloc 6 pot road caliper with 343mm curved vein Disc on a Aluminium mounting bell assembly with Ferodo DS2500 brake pads
• Ralliart Aero Mirrors
• Carbon Fibre Front Lip Spoiler
• Carbon Fibre "Sharks Tooth" Rear Vortex Generator
• PIAA High Performance Light and Wiper Upgrade
• Gloss Black Team Dynamics Lightweight Alloy Wheels
• Driver Training Course

 

oops my bad.

 

I agree wholeheartedly that a car is more than the sum of its parts, and when I see shops like Vishnu putting their car through things like the One Lap of America race and the upcoming 25 hours at ThunderHill, it tends to make their products every bit as worthwhile as what goes into the FQ-400, ditto for the RRE prepped Evos racing (and winning) out there.

I'm not trying to dis what went into the making of the FQ-400 nor am I trying to deny that it is a great car ... it's a fantastic car. For me it just doesn't fall into the OMG I gotta have it category (just like the MR doesn't).

l8r)

 

I really don't know why people keep saying Vishnu is a great tuner. I remember on one of the sport compact car magazine issue where they have stock RS vs all those modded evo, the vishnu version cost thousands more, less than 1 second faster on track, no warranty, and need to run on 100+ octane fuel. It looks pretty crappy for me.

In addition, on the car and driver super car challenge, the more "advanced" vishnu evo is even worst.

Car and driver said, "Unfortunately, the car couldn’t piece together all these “bests” in a single run because of a pesky intercooler hose that wouldn’t stay attached."

For me, I wouldn't want to take a POS like this to track, keep trying to reattach intercooler hose like this. Imagine everyone else is having a great time on track, and you are removing your bumper, jacking up the car and crawl underneath it to reattach some hose?

The reason why the Vishnu have this issue is because they didn't run their car 24/7 for 2200 miles aday, and they don't have the resource to do so. If they didnt' do the car right for themselves, what can customer expect to get from them?

 

.... umm, I for one got a car that puts out 50% more power than stock with stock drivability and stock reliability for over 10,000 miles so far. Of course YMMV...

I really don't know why you're so hung up on this 24/7 testing. Even admitted that it was more of a desperation move because they were rushing to get the car out in time. They'd have preferred a better test schedule than just running the car around an oval (the Nurburgring or the Vette test track come to mind). I'll be very curious to see how the FQ holds up under extended real world racing conditions...

l8r)

 

Sorry, I have to underestimate the skill and knowledge of independant local tuners. One of my friend/neighbor Daniel Bella builds Honda Indy and F1 motor for a living. And he travels around the world with HRC motor and rent them out to race team for 2 million each per year. Why doesn't he work for a or be a tuner himself, because for really knowledgable guy like him, he wants the challenge. And only factory race team can let him work with unlimited budget and resources. He showed me an all carbon valve cover. It cost honda $5k to build and it was one of the four prototype that they didn't like, so they basically just threw away $20k for a simple cover.

If you need a brain/heart surgery and your life depends on it, do you go to county hospital or John hopkins/Cedar Sinai? Will you find the best doctors in county hospital?

Its easy to get acceleration, anyone can do it including myself . But the hard part is consistency, reliability, and overall real balanced "PERFORMANCE".

OMG, you mean you don't know track time is absolutely essential for performance tuning? Even the humble stock MR is extensively tested in Nurburing to get it to be slightly faster than the stock evo. If you don't test, how you know it works. Its call proving a hypothesis, I think i learned that in 6th grade science class. If it is not tested, its not proven.

Most if not all the performance related car/parts we have today are knowledge gained from track time during various forms racing (f1, Grp A, rally, Grp B, LeMans)and private testing.

 

A lot of tuners are excellent, and there are probably a lot that are bad. I'm sorry I didn't qualify my points to the n-th degree for you. Geez.
I also didn't say track time wasn't valuable. I said a 2-mile oval track is not necessary to produce good results. Nurburgring is not an oval!!
Believe me, I know the value of testing, because my career has been in product development. Be sure that all performance car parts have been improved over the decades by racing.