I'd definitely take the STi over the EVO. I'm way biased against Mitsubishi, of course, but I do prefer the STi in just about every way. I think the EVO probably handles better, but that can be fixed with the STi for not too much money.

 

"As its been said before... any fool can drive fast in a straight line. You can turbo the crap out of a station wagon, or grocery getter... and its still that.

The Z has the handling, and the style... along WITH the performance. Cheaper than the STI and EVO (in the trim level I bought).

So, original poster, I think the concensus seems to be... go back to your "Custodial Engineer" job at Mitsubishi, and drive a few cars before you try and spew facts. "



Are you saying the Evo doesn't have good handling?

 

I will respectfully disagree with this. Factory truboed cars are much more friendly to upgrades. $6K on a Z and you get an SC or maybe a turbo. I would guess it would take about half that much money to keep up with a FI Z. Then you have enough money left over to make one of thoes four doors eat up the Z on the track. JMO.

 

Driven at 10/10ths I would reckon that the Evo is more fun, faster, better handler, etc...

But looks are important, and the Evo looks like a (forgive the expression) riced-out Lancer.

Slap a big spoiler, and a body kit on a base Lancer, put it next to an Evo, and ask the average person which is the "sports car" and the answer will be "neither".

Ask all the rubber-neckers I pass in my Z what I'm driving and they will all instantly know what it is, if not in name at least in intent/purpose.

...and yes, I am that vain!

 

With your analogy, most people should be plopping some cash down for a V-Twin.

 

So with $3K you can make a 2 liter four cylinder go from 271 HP to 430 HP? (this is how much a Z has w/turbo or SC)

 

the evo is already running like 19psi of boost... how much more you think you are gonna pump in there to keep up with a 400rwhp Z >???

yes factory turboed cars are easier to mod.... but what do you plan on doing to the evo to get it in the 400+hp range?

500shot of NOS? maybe you will win the first run....

 

let's be objective here.

a stock evo or sti will beat a z in most performance columns. i don't think there's too much debate about that.

a modded evo or sti will still beat a modded z in most performance columns.

i had a down payment and an order in for an sti before i got the z. i was actually slated to get one 2 weeks after i took deliver of the z. i have been a nissan fan for a long time as my last car was a modded maxima and while i loved the z, the performance/value of the sti was too much!

then my mom went to get a pathfinder and i accompanied her. she hated the sti and thought it was a "pimp" car with the gold wheels so to amuse her i checked out a z. i took it for a drive and fell in love and bought it that night!

performance is good - but looks are important too, and i have recieved nothing but comps on my z. i've seen two or three sti's on the road and i'm glad i made the decision i did.

one person on the sti board made a great comment once.... he said (and it's true because i attended as well) that at the ny auto show last year the z/g35c display had admirers from little kids to old men to gorgeous women. the sti/evo booth had 12 yr old gran turismo players. haha. very true.

 

so true

 

Same reason some people prefers Ferrari than Porsche. It's all becuase we car people don't buy car with common sense, but with passion.

 

As someone stated before, you're not going to get much more performance out of either the STi or the EVO without making some big and expensive changes, like larger turbos or at LEAST larger impellers and all of the changes that need to be made for them, like ICs and IC piping, fuel system enhancements, etc. Its NOT cheap to make some well-setup and tuned mods for either car. Getting approximately similar numbers to the FI Zs will be almost as expensive and still pretty labor intensive, in spite of the fact that they're both factory turbo cars. It may end up being slightly cheaper than the total for setting up an FI Z, but not by much, especially if done well!

Here's just one example to illustrate:

recent car and driver article

This EVO doesn't perform THAT much better than stock and there are over $6,000 worth in mods on it.

"The good news with the Evo is that a lot of the good stuff is already there," says 29-year-old founder Shiv Pathak, who named Vishnu for the Hindu god known as the Preserver. "The bad news is that there isn't a lot of power to uncork for cheap."

That says it all.

 

Which would you rather have, a high performance purpose built sports car driven by a motor that has gotten reliability and performance kudos from industry pundents for well over 10 years (the VQ) in a car made by a company with a great reliability track-record and is running at a reasonable level of tune for its capabilities, or a tarted up econobox 4-banger that is turbo'ed to within an inch of its life from a company that has questionable reliablilty?

Maybe the EVO has a slight advantage in a few catagories on paper, but come on, the decision is easy.

 

Couldn't have said it better myself

 

230KMPH = 143.75 MPH
260KMPH = 162.5 MPH

You said the Z will top out at 143.75 MPH. Do a search on this board and see how fast people managed to drive their Zs, or yea while at it check the grass that you've been smoking.


And to the guy who drove Evo at 10/10th, no offence but Michael Schumacher can't do it consistenly, so please ... .

 

I like both cars, but only own one. So I must come to the Evo's defense. I think some of you are unaware of the Evo's history, and think of it as a Lancer OZ on steroids. America always takes the cheap, slow, lower end models of foreign cars. Even our Evo has a cheaper awd system. We miss out on many...Audi RS4, Subaru Legacy turbo, Nissan skyline, Civic type R, -99 Rx-7. We don't even get all the Fords..Sierra Cosworths, Ka
...etc
But back to the issue..The 4G63 engine has been around for a while too. Just because they don't put it in every sedan and suv doesn't make it any less impressive. Here is some

Evo History........

 

The Lancer isn't the only car with the 4G63 engine, ya know.

By the way, I did say I owned a Mitsu and it was an AWD turbo car. I also drove an EVO VI and I was pretty impressed with it years ago.

Plenty of us ARE aware of the EVO's evolution (lousy pun, yeah) and history and we're still not THAT excited about it. For me its not really the performance that's an issue. Its Mitsubishi.

 

Anyway these threads are funny! IMO, the Z gives you the most bang for your buck for a sports car--and with the word bang, I'm including, price, performance, looks and proven reliability. The Evo is a nice, fast car. But looks so ordinary--like all the other cars on the road. When I first saw a Z on the road, I had to catch up to see what it was and it made me say "wow"! The Evo on the otherhand did not do the same for me. When I did see one on the road, I did speed up to catch the car and take a better look, but I did not have that 'wow' feeling like I did the first time I saw the Z.

I'm not trying to attack anyone here, but why is it non-Z owners(except potential/aspiring Z owners) post on a Z messageboard? And come to the defense of other cars?

 

You do have to know what the EVO is to appreciate it. The fact really is that Americans don't know. That's a selling point for the Z, if you ask me...

 

wait a minute guys...hes got a point. great i wasted my money on this z and now i want a 4 cyl sedan instead. see what happens? im all too easily persuaded when someone makes a valid point.

...so, do they do group buys on evo's or what? whose in with me, eh?

 

i'd like to put my 2c in about this. also being a AWD 4G63 owner, i can safely say, you can get a LOT of performance for 6$. first and foremost, my views are comming from the eclipse's 4G63, which is 210 hp stock, my thoughts on the evo are estimations. also, included in that 6K for the Z, does that replace engine internals? if not, the Z will be greatly limited by its potential since it cant safely boost more than 5-7 psi. right now, with no internal modifications, i am boosting 22 psi, because my engine is designed to handle boost. with 6K on a 4g63, all you really need is intake($150), exhaust($700), bigger turbo ($1000), and big FMIC (but since the evo has one already, thats not entirely necessary). from then it just comes down to fuel pumps and boost controllers. get an S-AFC ($400) and AVC-R ($600) (of course you could get a cheaper boost controller, manual ones run as cheap as 50$) and tool around with your settings and boost levels at various rpms with various fuel levels untill your satisfied. the great thing about the evo is that a lot of the little things here and there are done for you, and the only things you need are the big things. but anyway, if a Z replaces its internals, and runs higher boost, it will probably be faster than a 4G63, but those engine parts are quite expensive, along with the SC/TT + all supporting mods.