i swear i have seen someone have one posted on here before so there has to be room. When i had my oz i put on a fmic and ran my own piping. I also had a evo 7 front end conversion so it has a larger opening. But the real benifit from a smic is that it should have less of a pressure drop.

 

I'm sure you could us SMIC, but I just don't see the point. The pressure drop isn't exactly massive with a FMIC (as long as you don't use some bumper wide monstrosity) and the cooling effect will be greater from air coming straight on than air coming perpendicular to the vanes.

 

Dont know why people are always trying to mess with a good thing. FMIC is tried and true. if you get the right size its really easy to put on and piping can be easily fabricated. Why start getting into overly complicated things that will probably work worse than a standard FMIC. 18x7x3. Get an intercooler that size or smaller and you can fit it behind the stock bumper

 

The only way you can efectively perform a TMIC is if you have a scoop or if you do a Rally configuration set up which is a "V" shape inverted, being the radiator on the botton half and the TMIC in the top and still you need a big opening on the hood.

Either way, for a lancer you don't need a big intercooler because if you were to ever put a turbo you can't put a big turbo due to the engine caracteristics.
You would be limited to low boost and low flow therefore just about any small-medium Intercooler should be sufficient.

FMIC is your best , cheapest and more funtional way to go.

Carlos