EVO vs STi

[skylight]

Sometimes you really have to pinch yourself in this job. Here I was in what was probably the only Mitsubishi Lancer Evo in Canada, riding along a snow-covered back road, in cold pursuit of a $47,000 Subaru STi. The two cars (sticking to the speed limit, which was tough in these conditions) were kicking up a storm cloud of snow, their engines were humming and whooshing in their turbocharged power bands, performance winter radials clawed at the ground, and I was having the time of my life. A cold January morning in the ultimate, not-available-here forbidden fruit rally special and its mortal enemy: life didn't get much better than this.



The conditions really couldn't have been any better; the highways had been plowed, the back roads were covered with a fresh dusting of snow from the night before, and the sun helped mitigate some of the record-cold temperatures. We set off in the Lancer first, Tom openly curious about the car that has, until now, been his primary competitor in the Canadian Rally Championship. First impressions? That it's a lighter-feeling, less-substantial car - "more of a tourer," he says. The 2.0-litre engine produces 271 hp compared to the STi's 300, but the real difference is in the way it delivers its power: the Evo's speed builds linearly until somewhere around the tach you realize how fast you're going; it has none of the initial thump delivered by the STi's larger, 2.5-litre engine. They sound pretty similar though, a smooth four-cylinder thrum overlaid by the restless whooshing of a turbo's wastegate.



The Subaru is not just a faster car because it pumps out an extra 30 hp and has an extra gear in its six-speed box. The Subaru has a traction advantage that comes from the way its three differentials have been set up: with a front limited-slip unit, a computer-controlled central diff, and a rear limited-slip, it seems to find traction where the Evo, with its open front diff and more simple mechanical centre diff, seems to just spin its wheels, scrabbling at the pavement and sliding across the snow. "The STi feels like it's really dug into the ground," Tom says. The Evo feels like it's dancing across it. "But if you put a limited-slip front diff on the Evo, it would probably do just as well as the Subaru." (In fact, Mitsubishi sells in the States an Evo 8 RS with a limited-slip front diff, no sound insulation, no radio and A/C, for $2000 less than our regular US$29,000 standard Evo.)



All of this has to be put into a bit of perspective. The conditions we were driving in were (intentionally) extreme; we'd chosen snow-covered roads with a helping of glare ice to explore the cars' handling, and on pavement in more normal conditions, they'd be very close indeed. On pavement, the Evo is actually the better of the two. It has a sweeter shifter whose five longer gears give allow you to experience a longer accelerative rush through each cog; its steering is alive and writhing in a way the Subaru's never is; and because of its taller stance and bigger glass, it's easier to see out of and place accurately on the road, even though it's actually larger than the STi in every dimension. It may not be as fast as the Subaru, but it's still darned fast, hungrily closing gaps between clumps of traffic and passing cars ten at a time. The interior's a nicer place to work, with huggy but not confining Recaro seats, a more polished wing-shaped dash design, and a metal-and-leather Momo steering wheel much nicer than the STi's faux-granite and leather piece.



In the end, we decide while standing around in Tom's back yard (which we've used for some of the action photography), there's less to separate these two than you might expect there to be. Driven by a sane driver on any regular road, and they'd be equally capable, fast, and exciting up to speeds pretty far beyond the legal limit. For regular use on comparable tires, there'd be nothing in it. On slippery surfaces, there's a more of a difference, but that's primarily because Mitsubishi's made a conscious decision about what equipment to include for the U.S. market, and what price they wanted to sell the Evo at. For in Europe there's an FQ300 version (FQ standing for f***ing quick, of course) with not only 300 horsepower and six gears, but also an active centre differential and front limited-slip. Compared apples-to-apples with an STi, Tom thinks the car you choose would largely be down to which car's styling you prefer, or whose rally team you choose to wear the colours of.



Would he choose the Subaru? "Of course, I'm biased," he says while tugging on his blue-and-yellow toque, "but as a rally driver, the fact that the STi gets better through a corner - with maybe a little bit of that initial fight on turn-in but also the way it really hauls you out of one - is more confidence-inspiring than the Lancer, which starts out so well but comes out more wobbly. On the road, there's very little to distinguish the two, however. They're both incredible cars, faster and more capable than most drivers will ever need." Too true, but I would never complain about a surfeit of capability in any car; that's what makes vehicles like this as exciting as they are.