The evo viii is most unhappy over a rough road at 20-30 mph. In the end, though, we were both wrong. Mike welch at road/race put a stick and a spring scale to good use and found some numbers for us. There's no denying the rally-bred japanese car's popularity, and we've seen this in evidence for the last few years as some of our highest ranking pages have the been evo pages, whether the evo vi tme (tommi mäkinen edition) road test, or the evo vii cover story.

While the evo viii has lost none of its berserker attitude, with an explosive power delivery that's as intimidating as it is addictive, it's been carefully refined to offer even more mid-corner grip and there's a little more sophistication in its ride and handling too. Masses of cornering poweri was out on some quiet country roads with plenty of bends. Road rally racing is not a much appreciated sport in the u. Market specification evolution viii derives many parts from the japanese market lancer evolution vii gsr, which is essentially the base-model evo.

Outputting 195kw @ 6500rpm, which is quite a tasty figure, the intense acceleration comes from a very flat torque curve. While we don't have any images of the latest evo's interior, mitsubishi informs us that all the usual suspects will be there: Sports instrument panel with central tachometer, full-scale speedometer (reading up to 170mph), leather 3-spoke momo steering wheel, shift knob, parking brake grip and the evolution viii is fitted with recaro front bucket seats.

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