Just trying to get a few peoples thoughts on which evo is the better all around or more tunable of the two. My buddy has the chance to buy a low mile 03 GSR, or a new MR that they have at huggins here in dfw. He asked what I would do and I really have no idea, so I figured what better place to ask than here!

 

Well the MR and other 05s put out ~10 WHP more on the stock turbo. But a hotside to update to 05 spec is 300. I would go with what was cheapest and less abused.

 

IMO the MR is overpriced since the only thing it's got going for it are the Bilsteins. I'd vote for a new GSR.

l8r)

 

.. and a six speed

 

I would say that it all depends on the price on the 03 and how many miles are on it. If the car isn't stock I would probably take a closer look at it to make sure it wasn't abused plus check at a dealership if the warranty is still good. 03s are great cars, if everything checks out fine I say go for it. He can also add mods to the car with all the money he'll save.

 

The MR 6 speed is not very good...

GSR is the way to go, new GSR is good cause you won't spend a decade trying to find a hotside for sale and you get a front LSD stock.

 

What's wrong with it? Mine makes butter feel gritty, I've never ground a gear, and missed shifts are down significantly from my STi. The ratios are comfortable, too.

 

its not a question of that, it doesn't take to modding as well as the 5 speed.

 

What do you mean? It can't handle the power? What's the failure mode? I don't remember hearing about any problems.

 

If I could comfortably afford to upgrade to an MR, I'd do so in an instant. For my power level, there'd never be an issue with the six speed, and the fifth gear is spaced so much nicer than the 5 speed.

 

Ruchmate,


How can you tell that the 6 speed from the MR is not too good?, have you even driven one? the answer is NO, I repeat, NO.

Now on the other hand, I do own a MR and I have driven 3 different EVOs, all my EVO friends have driven my car and they all say that my tranny/pedal/shifter/cables and power delivery is soooo much better.

Please , do more research, the MR comes with triple syncros in first and second, moreover the tranny is much quiter, the rpms are way low in the highway therefore the gas mileage is better. The shifter is better, the clutch disc is smoother because it uses longer springs and the shift cables are teflon coated not to mention that it comes with LSD and ACD something that the 03-04 don't have....

 

i didn't argue any of that to be false...the 6 speed doesn't handle extra power as well as the 5 speed unit which leaves it as a liability. if transmission feel is super important to you, then by all means the MR is great. but if you want a car with a lot of horsepower the 05 GSR is a better platform.

the problem is that all the gears of the 6 speed are in the same unit which creates excessive heating, specially with extra power.

ask the man shiv himself.

 

I don't know of any transmission that puts the gears in more than one unit.

I hear it's easier to get a response from the pope than to get one from Shiv. Surely if there's really a problem with the 6-speeds, someone would have reported it here.

 

The six speeds are fine, let's not forget that it's a development of the five speed, not an all new transmission. The five speed also has triple synchros in 1st and 2nd, but not the teflon coated bushings of the six speed. FWIW, I replaced my tranny fluid with redline and now have butter-smooth shifts. What's important to know is that the six speed is designed for closer spacing of the gears, not a lower cruising rpm. The difference at highway speeds is maybe 100 rpm. This changes with the Evo IX where they significantly shortened the top gears.

Takes about 30 minutes, only a little harder than changing the oil. I'm not convinced that I want the ACD either. I haven't seen any real back-to-back testing but it all suggests a fraction of a second difference between the 05 GSR and the 03 GSR, which can easily be explained by the fact that the tests were conducted a year apart. I think that the helical diff contributes more to turn in than the ACD, and you can get a quaife for the 03 if you really care about handling. Also keep in mind that long term, a viscous coupling is lower maint (maint free actually) and longer wearing than the clutch plates on the ACD. Food for thought: Porsche abandoned their own ACD system, used on the 964 Carrera 4 for a VCU center diff. The lack of computer control was offset by the reduced mass and simplicity of the new setup. Even a $110,000 911 turbo uses a viscous coupling.

 

That's becasue you don't understand what he's saying. The physical dimensions of the six speed box are the same as the five speed box, but with an extra gear inside. To do this, Mitsubishi had to compromise some of the cooling properties of the six speed tranny.


You really shouldn't reply so sarcastically on things you don't know about. Shiv picks up the phone at his own company all the time.