Category : New Cars Exposed
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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??









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.













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.



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.