Category: Affordable Sports 
Price Range: £29,499 to £49,999
Superb acceleration, awesome traction and grip, accessible power for day-to-day driving.
Low ride height can be tricky over speed bumps, expensive to buy and run.
Ferociously quick but surprisingly easy to live with - but its £50K price tag is steep.
With a power output of 403bhp and 0-62mph figure of 3.8 seconds, you would think we're talking about a Ferrari or a Porsche here. But no, this is a Japanese saloon.
Of course, Mitsubishi's Evos have always been far more potent than your bog-standard Japanese saloon - and the latest incarnation, the FQ-400, goes even further.
What makes this particular Evolution X all the more alluring is the fact that all that horsepower is extracted from a 2.0-litre four-cylinder 16-valve turbocharged engine, giving it over 200bhp per litre. And it's all thanks to a revised intercooler and a new strengthened turbocharger.
In terms of external changes, there's a more aggressive body kit - including front splitter, side skirts and a modified rear wing - a lowered ride height, huge bonnet vents and a huge rectangular central exhaust. All of these tweaks help the FQ-400 look even more like a stealth fighter.
But these changes don't come cheap: this range-topping Evo costs £49,999, putting it directly in the firing line of some of the best driver's cars for that price, such as the Porsche Cayman, BMW M3 and Lotus Evora.
So is the fastest Evo X available worth the extra money? Read on to find out.
Latest Readers' Drives About the Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution X
wrote on 02 10 2008