Yes they are fun to drive, and are seriously capable asphalt cars. But you should mod the snot out of it -).

Yes - this the is problem with the Subies and Evos...when you do run out of grip, you are usually going very very fast....

The same could be said for any high performance car. The issues are how it actually handles at speed, what happens at the limits of traction, etc. No one complains about what happens when you run out of grip in a GT3 or a new BMW M3, they are very safe cars on the track.

From what I've heard from a track instructor, (and Evo owner), in stock form they suck at the track. Understeer, too much FWD bias, etc. They can be modified until they are "faster than anything", but really are best at canyons, tight twisties and loose traction situations like snow/gravel/etc.

"A good car for robbing banks", is how he put it. :cool:

Classic Tommi onboard :D

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That one is a lot better w/o the sound. :)

How many Darwin awards have been given out to spectators at those races? :eek:

I will elaborate. Being AWD cars, they are very easy to drive fast. In fact, as a wise man once said- "any quadruped can drive one of these quickly." In fact, they are very difficlut to loop. I remember doing a course years ago, with a lift off oversteer exercise where the intent was to spin the car. There were 911s firing off the track all over the place, the instructors said to those us in WRXs and EVOs- "come in 10mph faster than we have told everyone else and on the whistle get on/off/on/off and try to unsettle the car." There were some very funny corner lines achieved as a result, but no spins. I clubbed one for years and only ever spun it once, on a sodden track. I cant count how times 911 spins Ive had.

Consequently, when people have crashes in these cars- on the road and in rally- they are often the classic understeer crash- straight off the road at high speed. They still only stop like any other car.

The place to start with making them handle is the diffs. EVOs and WRX do very well at tarmac rally.

And yes robbing banks....they were famous for ram raids- where the car is driven reversed through the front of a shop, loaded with plunder and and away....the AWD allowing grip on polished marble floors....police gave up trying to chase them...lol...

My car has Quaife LSD diffs. I'm pretty sure that the stock ones are open diffs. I still have them, at any rate.

"stir fry" would be an awesome vanity plate..

More fun than a Callaway Scirocco but not nearly as easy on the eyes.

Rice rocket
 

Finally got the Evo together, got it smogged and registered last week. There are a few small details left but it's pretty much back to stock. I've been driving it for 3 or 4 days and it's fun. Lots of grip and of course it's faster than snot even w/o mods. With mods, they can be the fastest car with license plates.

In Porsche terms, it's quicker than a stock 930 by quite a bit. And it's cool in its own way but I'd rather slide around in a 911, myself. :)

They do have quite a following and I've met a few other Evo guys buying parts, plus took it to a well known SoCal Evo shop for some of the de-tuning work and to re-flash the ECU back to stock. All of this was necessary in order to get its first ever smog check, it was either this or register it in another state. We were committed to bringing it back to stock anyways to sell the car and components when I decided to buy it.

It's really tempting to mod it a little now since it does not need another smog for 2 years unless I sell it. Boost is addictive and another 75-100 hp is as easy as putting some of the parts I have on the shelf back on. I got it aligned on Friday and drove it on Mulholland for the first time Sat. AM, on that road there is nothing that would be faster than this car except for a modded Evo. There was a Cadillac CTS-V that looked modded a little chasing me, we were not going crazy but when the road opened up I'd crank it up a little and he was following, when the Evo boosted I would walk away a little in the corners. Especially the tight ones.

"A good car for robbing banks." Indeed. :cool:http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1398054068.jpg
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Funny you should say that. Evos have a rabid following among young gear heads that i was thinking about today. When I was very young, I lusted for that Scirocco partly because it was almost within my grasp, financially speaking. My friend's 22 y.o. son wants this Evo so bad it's killing him...if you put a 2006 997 and this Evo next to each other, he'd rather have the Evo.

I don't think it's a bad looking car, in its own kind of rally way. :cool:

Nice job getting all that back together. Upside sure was that it was all still practically new, so no frozen bolts or worn out bushings to worry about!

The car is about as good looking as an 80s Chevy Caprice. It is attractive due to performance, like a Glock pistol. But pretty it isn't. I'd drive one!

G

It's great that you're road-ready with your Evo, Denis. That certainly is a nice batch of hi-po rice you have there! SmileWavy

The shop I took it to, Road Race Engineering in Santa Fe Springs, is a cool place. They work almost exclusively on Evos and they are busy. They did a lot of the engine mods and tuning originally on the car, so we decided to have them switch back the cams and intake plus a few other parts and re-flash the ECU.

I did not know what to expect of the place and I must admit that I had visions of stereotypical immature ricer guys, etc. I seriously have had zero exposure to the "tuner scene", other than the first F&F movie.

What I found instead was a very cool shop and very cool guys, every bit as professional and serious about performance as any Porsche race shop I've been to. They had their AWD chassis dyno in use when I was there and several great rally cars. :cool:

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Very cool Denis, the Evo is a great car with a very strong following. They don't pop up cheaply, even trashed with high miles. I drove a highly modified one that was scary, scary fast. I'm sure when it comes time to sell, you won't have any trouble.

It's a tough debate whether to drive it and let it lose some value or convert it to Porsche money right away. It sat for ~3 years and I was not even sure what the exact mileage was until I bought a battery for it to fire it up. Lower than I thought: :)

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Jackpot!

Pretty cool car! Briefly considered one of these as a DD, but just never found one that I could afford that hadn't been beat on or painfully modded.

Exactly why Denis will do well. There is such an incredible amount of crap out there when it comes to Fast & Furious Japanese sports cars. Thousands in mods, but broken A/C and the seats are shredded.:rolleyes: Obviously today's teens have more disposable income than I did.

Like the BMW M3, and certain other cars, the typical buyer when new was a rich teenager or 20-something. Most get thrashed/crashed and modded. When it comes to modding a turbo car, the potential for horrible abuse is always there. It's too easy to grab the cheapest, easiest 100hp than to do it right.

My car was owned by a young guy, (22 when he bought it new), but he's beyond meticulous and has a mechanical degree plus unlimited pockets. The only mods left on the car are things like ARP studs and Quaife diff, ironically things that make it stronger and more reliable but no faster.