Category : New Cars Exposed
Back to Blog
Share This
When we got our 08 STI, we went over the whole car and pointed out all the differences, and made comments about the changes. Now that our EVO is in our hands, it gets a turn under the microscope. PERRIN as a company was a little unsure of what to do about the EVO old and new. There isn€™t many of them compared to STI€™s and the customer base is very different that the Subaru guys. There were already some established companies making parts for them out there, and while we were one of the first people to our EVO 8 a long time ago, our brand name didn€™t really stick with the EVO guys. The EVO was on the chopping block ready to be diced and cooked, then a long time customer of ours stopped by with his new X. From that day on, things changed! The car looked sweet, but not too €œricer boy€, gone was the boring interior, and other things that plagued the older EVO. Not to mention our customer let me take it for drive, which was pretty nice. My initial impressions were, Its not slow, Steering is sweet, seats are sweet€¦..maybe we need to rethink the EVO?? Also in the back of our mind was the fact the Ralliart EVO is coming out soon, which will bring the EVO to many customers not able to spend $35K.
BODY
First off the obvious, the body. I love the looks of the new EVO. In the pics and articles I saw, I really liked the nose, but the rear looked really big. Much bigger than the older car, or WRX/STI. But in person, both cars sitting next to each other my mind change a bit. The front looks way more aggressive than the older EVO, the flares the side skirts, and everything from the front to the middle of the car is really making me want to buy this car. But whats with this useless Toe hook port, am I missing something??
yup, nothing behind here???
Now onto the rear. It is way bigger/taller than the previous EVO, but its not that bad. The black lower part of the bumper really breaks it up. The wing on the car we saw was the taller wing like the good old Carbon fiber wing of the past. Many guys explain their dislike for the newer €œCheaper€ Wing, but I can see beyond the missing carbon. Mitsu was smart in ditching carbon for plastic in that it can save costs in many ways. Not only cost to build, but to replace when someone gets in a wreck. I like the 2 tone nature of it along with the additional diffuser at the top. The shape of the wing is that of a true race car, with the center foil being at an agle to catch the wing coming off the roof. Like the APR wing used on so many import race cars. (Not import €œracer€ cars but real race cars).
Very cool detail on the X's wing
One thing I liked about the body that is very similar to the STI, is the side vents. These vents really and some flavor to the rather plain side panel. Its not really that plain but compared to the STI with the over exaggerated flairs it needed something. Again like the STI these vents are functional. They let built up pressured in the engine bay have another place to go.
Mitsubishi very elegantly did away with the monster vent in the hood, and added smaller vents. The front 2 vents are just like the older car where they help get rid of the heat and air coming through the radiator.
The new vent Mitsubishi added was the center scoop toward the rear of the hood. The older vent in the from the EVO 8 and 9 was not only for the radiator, but to help get rid of some of the heat coming off the turbo. On the X, Mitsu installed a scoop to blow cool fresh air over the turbo that was now mounted at the rear of the motor, not the front. More on this scoop and its functionality, later.
The body, under the car, has some other cool things I really like. Starting at the front of the car the first thing is something I have seen on Porsches. The front brake vent/scoop mounted on the control arm. Mitsu was very smart in how this was adapted to the body and chassis. The lower €œskid plate€ has channels molded into it to direct air flow right to these scoops. The scoops, simply blow air over the rotors. Simple, effective, and clean!
Working our way back to the rear of the car, I noticed another really cool thing. The EVO has a built in tranny cooler! Again it uses the air already traveling under the car and scoops it up and directs it over the tranny and center diff housing. Again, simple, cool and effective!
In the middle of the car is another small thing to help with wind turbulence under the car. These little flappers are probably there for 2 reasons; one is for keeping road grime off the suspension components and two, for deflecting wing over the suspension components. This helps reduce wind drag and cut down on road noise. This is a common thing found on many Euro cars, first time I have seen it on a car made in Japan.
The rear of the EVO has a few very subtle vents. Its these really small details that make me like the EVO more and more. Next to the license plates are some smaller sized vents that let some of the pressure escape around the muffler area and out the back. When traveling at a high rate of speed I am sure these vents help with the back bumper buffeting around and help get rid of some lift.
One small detail people might miss about the new chassis is where Mitsubishi strengthened it up. EVO of the past had very bad crash test ratings and this showed in the insurance rates for the EVO and how easy they were to total. For those who had a sunroof, and stiff suspension installed on their EVO, they may have noticed the creases that started to appear. I couldn€™t believe this until it started happening on our shop 8. Each side of the car had areas where the body started to buckle! This is not good. Mitsubishi helped this potential problem on the X with some really slick ribs in the roofline. These look really cool on the car, and to the passer-by they are hardily noticeable. But they are pronounced enough that a €œCar Guy or Gal€ would see this and know something is up!
No more issues with the roof caving in
While the new chassis design and bracing the X has makes for a better overall platform, it does have a downfall, weight. The new X weighs about 300lbs more than the old EVO, this means its got some extra work to do to be as fast. It just means it has to have more power.
Last but not least is one thing I really don€™t like about the outside. The Exhaust tips! They are not even straight! They are crooked, and just do not fit the back of the car. These have to go! Oh ya, and the butt is too plain, it needs something to break it up. How about a sticker, a PERRIN sticker!
WHEELS
This is an easy category. They are a perfect wheel for the in stock from. They are 18€x8.5€ so they can support a 265 pretty easily, and still look stock. But they are perfect in other ways, that make them €œnot so cool€ that you don€™t want to replace them. We have fit some 275 wide tires on our EVO with a 9.5€ wide wheel, and it was perfect! Our JIC magic wheels are on the way!ENGINE
Just like the body changed drastically so did the engine. The STI also made a huge change this year, but the engine didn€™t really change much. For Mitsubishi, the new engine was long over due. Its not that the 4g63 was a bad engine, but come on, Iron?? Are we living in the 60€™s? Anyway I love the new engine. Who cares if some of the things are weaker, or valves are smaller or ports are smaller. These are small details and to 90% of the customers looking at modding this car it will have ZERO effect on the HP they make. Aluminum blocks are what all modern engine are made from, and plenty of aluminum blocks make 700WHP with no issues. So, to those naysayer€™s out there about the new engine, get back in your Talon and shut it! Ahhhh, that felt good. So back to the new 411B motor. A few tuners have already taken this apart and shown you its guts, and while this is cool, its not something we plan on doing for a long time. Tuning the stock engine with stock internals is important to see how far this engine can go before things go wrong.
The new engine for those who don€™t know is an all aluminum engine with forged connecting rods and crank. Pistons are a high quality Mahle pistons which should hold big power levels and like the 8/9, these will not be a weak link to increasing power. Mivec is also a big part of this engine. Its big competitor has displacement as an advantage to the EVO, and the MIVEC is a big part of how it is just as responsive as the bigger engine. The wizardry behind the Cams make the turbo spool quicker and keep emissions good and clean.
Pulling off the plastic engine cover, we fine a lot of similar but different things. The fuel rails are the first things that caught my eye as this looked to be the same part as the previous car. Long and flat, these are going to be a restriction for the big power guys.
Also right below the flat fuel rail is a brand new part. MAP sensor, does Mitsu know what these are used for? I sure hope so as this is a good sign that X€™s ECU has a much better/smarter boost control system. On the old car the ECU would cut fuel based on MAF readings and RPM. On this car it for sure is based off of a boost reading of about 26psi. With good engine management on the way, this is a good sign we have a lot of freedom when playing with boost.
Gone are the belt driven cam gears in place of the newer high tech timing chain. The chain method provides a much longer service interval and nearly failure free operation. The valves are now pushed down by a cam and bucket, not a rocker arm. Less parts to add cost, less parts to fail. Variable cam timing is on both the Intake and Exhaust cam, not just the intake cam like the 9.
While we are still on the head, another thing Mitus improved on was the coil on plug coils. The older EVO used 2 coils and a wasted spark setup. This means that the coils would fire 2 times per cycle instead of only once. The new coil on plug setup is great as longer coil charge times can be had, and the coils will have more time to cool down between firings which all means less potential for coils to burn out.
As we work our way down to the bottom, we come across the new pistons, and rods. Like mentioned before these are high quality forged units. But the rods are different in that they are shorter. If you look at the bore and stroke of old and new engines, you will see the older engine had a small bore and long stroke (85mmx 88mm). The new engine is a more €œsquare€ built engine in that is has a shorter stroke and bigger bore (86mmx86mm). This is a better combination for high reving engines, and sure enough the new engine revs 500RPM more than before. So do I venture to say 8000RPM could be totally doable with an ECU tune??
The block being aluminum is inherently a little weaker(still not weak in my book), but there are a few things that make up for it. The cylinders walls are a semi closed deck style. This means instead of the cylinder walls floating in the tops of the block they are captured by small supports.
Below the forged crank is a girdle. A small but very cool feature found on the X. The girdle an aluminum piece that bolts to the cranks bearing caps. This keeps the crank case flex to a minimum. So far this thing looks like its set to make some big power.
The only bad thing about the new motor is that the Dodge Caliber SRT-4 has nearly the same motor, but bigger displacement. This relationship with the SRT-4 kind of takes the mighty Mitsubishi down a level for me.
Beyond the engine are the fun things that bolt to it and make power! The turbo on the X is a different than before. But its not just a bigger turbo, but in fact it has a smaller compressor wheel than previous EVO turbos, but a bigger exhaust housing. At first this may seem like its going to loose spool and make less HP. But remember the turbo is right next to the engine so the exhaust energy helps kick the turbo into motion. So the larger 12cm (vs.10.5cm) exhaust housing makes for some great top end performance. And in our dyno graphs it shows.
As said before the turbo is located at the back of the engine, not the front. This makes for a shorter path for the exhaust to get to the back of the car. But in turn makes for replacing the turbo a little trickier. While looking at the turbo you may notice the €œChimney€ on top the manifold. If you remember earlier we were talking about that new scoop in the hood, this is what its for. The scoop blows air over this €œchimney€ evacuating the heat off the turbo and manifold. A nice clean way to keep engine bay temps at bay. On thing to take note of is the razors placed all over this area. The heat shielding is very sharp and in very precarious places that will for sure make for some bloody knuckles. Be careful!
Finally Mitsubishi got away from drive by cable throttle body. Many are thinking this is worse! Well yes and no. In stock form It can be programmed to make the car feel sluggish, or non responsive. It also can effect overall HP in that is closes right before redline. But in the hand of tuners, Drive-by-wire throttles are a great thing. We can change the relation of the pedal to throttle, make it more responsive than if it were a cable. Also flat foot shifting, launch control, or antilag settings can be had by some tweaking.
Like all other EVO€™s and not like Subarus, the intercooler is in the front, where it should be. This provides the best, coolest, most consistent charge temps. But for 08 The routing was totally change. With the intake and exhaust system being flipped around, the boost routing would also have to be moved. A clever and simple route for the boost tubes is up and over the radiator. This is made possible by the new redesigned front end. With that big shovel type front end, it gives them room to go over the core support.
The intake system for the turbo is just like the older EVO but kicked around and turned a bit. Now the MAF sensor is a more normal round type with a normal 0-5v sensor. The older system used a Karmen type of sensor, which is based off of frequency. These proved to be a little finicky from time to time. Attached to this is the higher quality EVO MR type aluminum BOV. Gone is the crappy plastic BOV! But what makes this whole thing strange is the BOV routing. There€™s like 6ft of tubing going from the boost tube to the BOV! There are 2 obvious places to tap the BOV into, and where Mitsubishi did it, is not the obvious place.
The air box has the normal front type air scoop to get its fresh air from. But like most all other car, this sucks from a low pressure area. No ram air intake here! The filter looks like a real simple thing to install, look for a high flow filter from us to come out real soon.
Now onto the other things that keep the engine rocking, and held back! Like the older EVO there is still the 100% functional scoops mounted on the passenger side feeding the oil cooler. Another small but important feature you don€™t find on the Subarus. What is strange is both driver and passenger side grills have a vent, and both have exhaust vents cut into the plastic wheel liner. So why is there one on the drivers side? Is this for a future tranny cooler??
When we get to the exhaust, we can see that it€™s a much straighter shot to the back of the car. Less bends, and less piping surely make this a decent exhaust. Its decent, but not great. Great would be a 3€ SS exhaust and a straight through muffler. The older EVO had one cat and an 02 sensor after it. The new €œcat pipe€ actually had 2 cats in one piece. There is one physical cat, but 2 bricks. In between these 2 bricks is the 02 sensor. I know in the EVO world its all about getting rid of the cats. This is not legal in any state, nor something we condone. High flow cats are not restrictive, and we see this with all the testing we do. So expect to see the PERRIN €œCat pipe€ with a cat in the pipe€¦..
The rest of the exhaust is 2.25€ tubing with tons of heat shields all over it. The shields are ok, but they got to go! Along with this over shielded exhaust, is an over built 02 sensor holder. I think Mitsubishi could have knocked off $1000, or added NAV for free if they just moved the 02 sensor to the other side of the car.
The muffler section is a little strange in that it€™s a center inlet design, which wouldn€™t be so bad if it entered exactly in the center. After a few runs on the dyno you can see how it starts to dis-color. Another strange thing is them muffler section is connected by another flex joint. Why is the question, who knows!
After we got 600miles on the clock we dynoed the car, which really surprised us! As seen above our muffler got a little color, as did our bumper with the flames we saw!
And the video we did€¦€¦€¦€¦€¦
DRIVETRAIN
The Tranny is similar but different. Its laid out very similar, but with a lot more trickery involved with making the car get around the corners. We didn€™t invent the S-AWC system, so we are not going to pretend to be experts. We could just copy down what all the magazines say about it, but the truth is it works. You point, it steers, simple as that. The ECU modifies the Throttle, brakes, front/center/rear diffs and makes the car go! Its nice to know all this cool stuff is happening when going around corners, it makes me want to see what the ECU is actually doing. Oh wait, I have the Super A-Wack (S-AWC) display! This is great, while I am going mach 5 around the corners I can watch the Super A-Wack display move around and tell me whats going on. Seriously, the display is a gimmick, but its cool to see move as you corner hard.
To control the diffs, and apply different TQ to the wheels, the cars uses hydraulics. The pump and reservoir are moved to the back of the car out of the engine bay. It€™s a great way to take some of the weight off the front of the car and move it to the back. Mitsu also moved the battery back there for the same reason.
While we are at back of the car, lets look at the suspension. Like the older car, lots of forged aluminum bits. There is no reason for Mitsubishi to go and change the rear suspension because it worked so well. The same basic multilink design is used, but for some reason they changed out one of the nice aluminum arms for a steel unit. Must have saved them, what, $5? But really not much different here. There are a couple added braces running from the diff mounting supports, to the subframe, and from the control arm mounts to the subframe.
The front suspension is very similar to the older car, but more boxed in around the rear mount of front lower arm. Obviously this was done to stiffen up an already rock solid mount. The good news about the front is that our PSRS looks like it will fit! The old subframe had a huge cut out for the exhaust to pass under and with Mitsu rotating the engine around, this allowed for a stiffer flatter sub frame. A small but cool detail.
All these little things make the EVO a very solid handling car. The suspension is stiffer than the STI (which is good and bad), and the steering rack ratio is a lot faster so it takes less input to make it around the corners. The rack is the one thing Subaru should have taken note on a long time ago. WTF Subaru? Oh wait, this article is about how cool the EVO is€¦..
Interior
The interior doesn€™t have a lot to say other than, Finally! Finally the interior better fits the cost of the car. Almost every inch of the car got revamped. If we look at the old car, every piece of the X is better. Better finish, better materials, better fit, better everything. But, here comes the but, its still not up to par with the Subaru or some of the Euro cars. There are definitely things left to be desired about the interior. For me, it€™s the steering wheel, and textures on the plastic controls. And where€™s the telescoping wheel? The STI has this and makes for a great seating position for us tall dudes. But I think what makes up for all the interior issues for me is the seats! Like previous EVO€™s the seats are perfect! Even the little fake carbon headrest trim is kind of cool. There is one more thing that is a step down in the controls department. The Shifter. It used to be super solid, super smooth, and nearly perfect. But now its clunky and almost hard to drive smoothly. I hope that as time passes it get better, but at this point with 800 miles on the clock it is far behind the STI in shifter quality.
Oh one more thing. The clutch. Its way different than the other cars around the shop, and almost weak feeling. Maybe Mitsu used too tight of a restirctor in the hydraulic lines. This could be a problem once we start going to the track and doing some launches. But who knows we will see!
Ok fine, one more thing. The trunk! If you get Fosgate Stereo like we did, you quickly find that the trunk is a little tight. I am sure you can cram a golf bag or dead body can fit back there, but neither of those things are items i plan on putting back there. This is an area where Mitsu cheesed out on. The carpet, the trim pieces that cover up the floor boars are pretty cheap looking. Its like they went down to the craft store and the Depot and make a floor. While we are talking about the trunk. Also the window washer is back there but located in a spot that is going to be very hard to fill. Esspecially when we put our Water injection system on the car.