Tuesday, May 26, 2009

The Mitsubishi EVO History

Okay as I promised , this is my first article which represents a personal point of view and discussion of one of the most amazing Japanese cars made ( The Mitsubishi Evo series )

First I would just like to remind you that this only represent my personal point of view , and maybe some advice for the tuning lovers and that's it ...

So to start with , I'll just remind you of the history of the Mitsubishi Evo first before focusing on a certain model .....

The Mitsubishi Evo series started back in 1992 When the first Mitsubishi Evo I was produced it had the looks of a normal sedan car with a couple of sporty add-ons but that's it ( shape wise ) it was powered by a 2 litre engine ( 4g63 DOHC turbocharged ) with nearly 260 HP ( manufacturer's specs ) but it was around 240 on the wheels , but it was brilliant , compined with it's AWD system the car was amazing , it entered few international events and nearly won them all , this was the birth of a Mitsubishi star that's going to live to our present day and this first model only sold 5000 cars ....

Later in the next year 1993 a second model of the Mitsubishi Evo was introduced it was called the EVO II ... equiped with the same Engine ( the 2 litre 4g63 DOHC Turbo engine ) but some how they squeezed out an extra ten horses out of reaching 250 HP with the same torque as the older model , changes to this model also included the body , where a range of paints were added and a bigger spoiler now rested on top of the trunk , also equipped with the AWD system which was brilliant steering wise , this model was produced from 1993 till 1995 the it's production ended to be replaced by the new car in the series .....

The Mitsubishi Evo III , was launched in August of 1995 to replace the EVO II , and this car even had more improvement , style wise , it was more aggressive , had front facelift to get more air to the radiator and intercooler , also some brakes imporvements , even bigger spoiler than the last model , and again some how they manged to get an extra 20 horses out the 2 litre engine , reaching a figure around 270 HP at 6300 rpm and 309 N.m of torque at 3000 rpm which is really good for a car that weighs less than 1200 Kilos ... also equipped with the AWD system which by that time had become a signature for the EVO and will be introduced in all of their models later on....

In 1996 Mitsubishi launched their new EVO IV which had a complete remake , the chassis was changed , complete body and face lift was done , the car now was more appealing yet more aggresive ... The engine was rotated 180 degrees for more balance , the car's Differential for both front and rear wheels was redesigned , had a new twin scroll turbo charge to the same 2 litre 4g63 engine which helped boost up the power to nearly 280 HP at 6500 rpm and 352 N.m of torque at 3000 rpm , this model boosted the EVO models to new hieghts and all the 10000 cars that were made were sold pretty quickly .... had only one downside weight wise , the GSR version weight about 1350 kg that's nearly 150 kilos more than it's predecessor...

Then in 1998 The Evo V was introduced again with lots of body work done on it and again another face lift... the car was even more aggressive now , and had some work done on the engine speically the Cams to increase their duration , the ECU was replaced by a flash ROM and the braking system had some work done on it as well.... this car was intended to be a part of the Rally world because of the new rules of that year that was set..... the turbo on the engine was improved once more to produce the same HP output but with higher torque reaching 372 N.m at 3000 rpm.

In 1999 the EVO VI was introduced to replace the EVO V with nearly the same exterior shape but with the remodeled front bumper ( now without the huge fog lights as in the previous model)
the engine however had some work done on it , speically on the intercooler and radiator for longer durability , several speical editions were found from this model including the Ralliart edition that was tuned in the UK and had more than 330 HP , the Tommi Makinen edition that was styled as a rally car with recaro seats , and other interior changes and lowered height .... it's production ended in 2001

In March of 2001 the all new EVO VII was put into production , with a new chassis base , new looks ,interior etc.... everything was changed with this model the exterior look was redesigned again , to be more aero-dynamic and more aggressive , vented hoods came as standard to increase the cooling system effeciency , while the power of the engine remained nearly the same as before ( rated at 280 HP at 6500 rpm ) , but the car had a totally new and improved differential system using a cetneral differential unit at the center of the car and redesigned front and rear differential unit that produce more accurate power distribution to the AWD system.... while another gearbox option was introduced later in 2002 offering an Auto gearbox instead of the standard manual 5 speed gearbox , but the auto gearbox was just as good as the manual one....

In 2003 the EVO VIII was introduced which was similear to the previous model , but with some exteriour redesign including the tail lights , the colors , and BBS wheels and major work done on the suspension... the engine stayed the same in the standard version but there was a couple of limited versions of this EVO model introduced that offered a lot more power including the most powerful official production evo model the EVO VIII FQ 400 , which produced 400 HP and was an amazing car regarding it's handling , acceleration and shear power , it was even faster than the Lamborgini Morcialago around the track of the famous BBC show Top Gear...

In 2005 the EVO IX was introduced with nearly the same looks as the previous model , but now it has a modified engine , it's basically the same 2 litre 4g63 turbo engine , but instead of using the normal cam shaft and valve lift , they changed it to MIVEC which is mitsubishi's variable valve time mechanism , that lead in an increase of power of the engine rated by the company at 286 HP although others ( non-official sources ) say it's more than that , it's more like 310 HP , and it makes sense and explains why the car can do 0-60 in 4.3 seconds... anyway this model stayed in production till 2007 .

And the Final addition in the EVO series to our present day is the mighty EVO X with again totally rebuilt body , engine , transmission , everything , they just built a car from scratch ...
this model has it all , and it's in a tight spot also , because it has a big reputation to stand for and you can't just make nine successful model and then make one that sucks....
many people doubted the car when Mitsubishi said that they will introduce it with a normal 5 speed manual gearbox , but another model also with a totally new 6-speed gear box that uses a technology called (TC-SST) which is short for Twin Clutch Sport Shift Transmission... it's revolutionary invented by Mitsubishi and available in the GSR model ... the engine itself is also a completely new engine , it's a 2 litre turbocharged MIVEC engine that's called the B11T which produced about 300 HP at the crank . This car has it all , luxury , performance and looks , it looks as a raging sea monster that's looking at you just before it eats you or something ... by far it's the best looking EVO from up front , the back side is another story , I wish they had made it with the same aggressivness of the front side , but unfortunately they didn't....
Anyway I'll talk about this car in another article in details because it has so many things to discuss.

for now I'll wrap up this article and leave you waiting for the next series of articles in which I'll start discussing the tuning options and different combinations for and EVO IX including performance , exterior and interior customizing as well in details ....

so stay sharp till we meet again .....

No comments:

Post a Comment