#Blogpost: 7 Reasons Why I Chose an Evo X

I waved goodbye to Elena, now I say hello to Ellie Goulding, my new (used) Evo X. I’ve owned her for about a day now and I absolutely love her. Now, some of you may wonder, “Why did he get this? Why did he picked this over a Charger or an E60, a 7 series, everything”, well, read on..

1. The Engine

I love the turbocharged and intercooled DOHC 16-valve inline-4. Don’t get me wrong, I love the big roaring sound of an S85, the burbly sound of the S62 and the HEMI, or the smoothness of an Audi 2.7 turbo engine. But there is something about this 300 hp 4 banger. What? 300 hp? Yes, 300 hp. That’s not bad for a 4 cylinder engine. There is a big turbo lag on it but it’s still smooth and makes a pretty good noise too (despite having turbochargers)

2. Potential Investment?

Note: This is all purely my own predictions and assumptions

“Real car guys don’t use cars as investments”. Well, I don’t, I daily drive the Evo, not letting it sit in my garage.

With the Evo now discontinued, the only thing that is close to it is probably a GT and a Ralliart, and well, they’re not as good as the Evo. So, people want the Evo and it’ll become a collector’s item and it’ll rise up in price. Maybe with me daily driving it, it won’t rise up the value but, it’s a thing that could be pointed out.

3. AWD

I won’t have to worry about weathers anymore! Yay! In 2015 my cars are/were: Miata, M3, M3 ZCP, M5, 911 and let’s face it, if you’re driving through some dodgy conditions, you’ll pee in your pants. In here? Nope. Rain? No problem. Snow? She’ll eat it. STI drivers? That should be interesting. Dirt roads? Fine. It’s such a nice car to drive on any conditions.

4. It's Not a Hard Car To Drive

The Evo is such a forgiving car. It will let you drive hard but it won’t let you kill yourself, there’s a lot of technologies in this car. I can brake way later than my M5, I can easily put the power down because of its AWD and because it’s AWD, I can drive it in some nasty conditions.

5. It's Still A Fun Car

I said that it’s a really easy and forgiving to drive but it’s also fun to drive. All of its tech and its goodies doesn’t take away the fun and the involvement. Even now after the end of its life, the Evo X is just about the most fun car to drive hard out there for me. There’s just something special about the car: The sound it makes, the way its peaky power band punches you in the chest, the cartoonish handling — it’s so easy to drive it quickly, with a large margin for error. I’ve yet to find another car that can pull off the same ridiculous maneuvers an Evo can, though the upcoming Ford Focus RS has potential.

6. Racing Heritage

The only place where you’ll find such heritage in a road car outside Mitsubishi’s Evo is probably Subaru and Porsche. Sure, bring in the Toyota guys with their Celicas and their AE86s but their “bond” isn’t as strong as Mitsubishi’s, Subaru’s, and Porsche’s. There’s this AWD, the DCT that you get on the MR version, and the raspy I4, the handling, the car overall, you know, you can feel that rallying is in the blood of the Evo.

7. It Brings Back Some Childhood Memories

This one might be slightly personal but, yeah. There’s some childhood memories on a Lancer. My Dad used to own one of these and I remember when I was very little, I had breakfast in the garage staring at it, revved it a bit, and buying a Lancer Evo kind of reminds me of my childhood, And I remember having a Tommi Makinen poster when I was like 12 or something. Ah, it just brings back some memories. Cruising around with my Dad, things like that. Memories…