Category: Affordable Sports 
Price Range: £29,499 to £49,999
Performance, balanced handling, sharp looks, fine gearchange.
Punishing ride, fuel consumption, running costs.
More at home now on the road than rally stage, the Evolution X has finally grown up.
We'll reserve our ultimate and definitive verdict for when we get to drive the new Lancer Evo X on UK roads, but from our early track-based impressions, the tenth incarnation of Mitsubishi's homologated rally car has still got what it takes to challenge the very best performance cars.
A short spell in the FQ-300 model shows how very different in character it is to the old car. The whole experience is far less hardcore: the new all-aluminium engine is refined, accomplished and easy to live with. Instead of a sledgehammer punch, there's a more linear delivery without any sense of turbo lag.
Official performance figures have yet to be published but even the 291bhp FQ-300 model is expected to sprint to 62mph in 5.2 seconds and reach 155mph.
Like the old car, the computer controlled four-wheel-drive technology is carried over with Active Yaw Control (AYC) ensuring handling remains neutral. As the car starts to oversteer it shuffles torque to the best axle to return the balance back to a more neutral controlled state. The new car also introduces Active Stability Control (ASC), that boosts traction and safety further by employing the ABS system to brake wheels and cut the throttle should it sense slip.
Steering is quick and front-end grip is huge which means that, like the old car, you can achieve incredible cornering speeds. The new car does have a tendency to understeer on entry to the corner, something the old car had an uncanny ability to resist in almost all circumstances.
The Evo X isn't as rewarding to drive as the old model. You are less able to correct understeer by using the throttle, and overall it's a less playful machine. On the track, it's found wanting when you make a direct comparison to the IX, but it's probably more manageable on the open road.
The Evolution comes standard with a five-speed manual, rather than the expected six. No matter, the huge amount of mid-range torque means you don't miss the extra cog.
We spent the majority of our time with the new, excellent twin clutch SST automated manual that, like the VW DSG, predicts the next gear choice and preselects a gear to ensure lightening quick changes. It's smooth too, but it feels like its resisting down changes when driving hard.
The SST gearbox has three settings Normal, Sport and Super Sport, and each increases transmission shift speed and shift point incrementally. It also comes with a launch control program that holds engine revs and at an optimum level before dropping one of the two clutches. In reality, the launch control feels pretty soft, presumably in the interests of preserving the clutch and gearbox.
As with the previous Lancer Evo you can get power upgrades from tuning specialist HKS. The FQ-330 generates its extra 36bhp thanks to a sports exhaust, larger intercooler and free-flow cat, while the range-topping FQ-360 gains a re-programmed ECU.
Latest Readers' Drives About the Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution X
wrote on 02 10 2008