I took my friend's brand spankin new STi to the twisties I normally take with my Evo yesterday. My initial impressions corresponed with the magazines about the steering and suspension in that it cannot match the Evo. The real surprise is the power. Wow, that thing is fast. It's not that big of a difference on straight roads than the Evo, but on the tight and twisty sections it pulls so hard out of corners that it can simply keep up with an Evo if not pull away by just by muscling it's way around. It's a scary kind of fun. You have no sense of what the car is doing. You just hope the car sticks and it does, but all the while it feels like it's gonna just fly off the road. Unlike the STi, the Evo has to rev alot more to get into the powerband while the STi has such a huge well of torque pretty much everywhere, especially around 3200 rpm. It truly feels like a 300hp car. In the end the Evo feels like a race car with a motor matched to it's chassis. If it were a motorcycle it would be a Yamaha R6, setting the fastest lap time depends on your skill. On the other hand, the STi feels like an oversized mega motor in a small car, similar to a Yamaha R1. The diameter of your ***** will determine how fast you will go. In the end you can't have everything until you own a Porsche 911 Turbo.

 

This seems in line with what Paul Hansen and some new STi owners are saying. The STi doesn't seem to be a car you just jump in and drive fast.

People are always talking about cars that "make you look good". That is cars that make driving fast, smooth even if you're not. The M3 and the EVO seem to be cars that do this.

Paul has said (over and over) that the understeer the reviewers were complaining about needs to be powered through. You need to learn how to power the STi around a turn trusting the DCCD/suretrac to send power to the right wheels. Driving the cars back to back is probably a bit maddning(sp?). The EVO deff. handles better but the STi also must be learned before people can get the kind of lap times we've seen from Japan and from a few of the reviewers who have spent more then an afternoon driving the car around a track.

Having said that both of these cars are amazing and it's even cooler that they go about getting there very differently. How boring if they drove the same

pk!

 

I too have driven both cars.

Paul Hensen is pointing to the STI's front suretrac LSD, he notes most drivers do not know how to properly use it.

When I drove the EVO, I felt the car communicates very well and the handling was very good, there was some lag but I enjoyed the quicker steering which can be fixed on the STI.

On the STI, what I noticed is that it feels very heavy and 6 gears is a lot of shifting, the 1st gear was so fast, it's almost useless. 2nd gear is very useable. The car feels very planted, it doesn't have the EVO's super quick reflexes, it's got muscles.

 

I was just wondering, which is the better buy for the buck.

To me, its the EVO but do think it just depends on which you enjoy/like better.

 

I think with the STi, You just have to trust yourself..and be willing to go the distance...where as in the evo..the trust is already in the car...