Autoblog

Click the image above for more shots of Tokyo Auto Salon's assortment of Evos.

There were three main show pieces gracing the halls of the Makuhari Messe over the last few days: the GT-R, the new Subaru Impreza STI and Mitsubishi's Evolution X. Autoblog Chinese snapped off a random assortment of pictures showing several different interpretations of the Evo X from a variety of tuners.

From what we can see, some of the aftermarket firms weren't able to get parts fabbed up before the show, but several of the companies featured revised suspensions, strut tower braces, new intake and exhaust components and a few other choice bits. We're sure next year's Tokyo Auto Salon will be far more important to the aftermarket and its customers.

In the meantime, we were able to find out that ARC brought a modified Evo X to the show fitted with a new intercooler, a complete coilover suspension and upgrade brakes. The team of HKS and Camp featured an Evo with an exposed carbon fiber splitter, side skirts and rear diffuser, but, more impressively, Camp integrated its new Computerized Automobile Multi Player, which acts similar to the GT-R's dash-mounted screen that displays a variety of engine parameters in lieu of a row of analog gauges.

Finally, Team Orange's D1 Evo X was on the show floor and at a Mitsubishi Ralliart shindig. The team's all-wheel-drive drifter came sporting a full carbon fiber body kit and wing, a new set of Enkeis and Lord knows what else.

Check the gallery below for more live shots from the Tokyo Auto Salon.

Our pulpy friends over at 2002 Hogback Road have gotten their hands on the latest version of Mitsubishi's Evo, the Evo X. Car and Driver's November 2007 issue has a preview of the Evo X, and they found that while the new car gives up speed to the outgoing model in a drag race, it kicks it in the teeth if curves are on the menu. Any car that can run a 13.8-second quarter mile is not slow, anyway. Consider that you get that kind of speed for a base price of $30,000, and 295 horsepower from two-liters is impressive. C&D's numbers are from the Evo GSR, and a JDM one at that, but changes for US-bound Evos are down to details.

Putting the 295 horsepower and 300 lb/feet of torque to the ground in a seamless manner is a bucketful of acronyms. There's a new dual-clutch sequential gearbox called Twin-Clutch SST that is bolted to four coordinated systems that get the overall descriptor of Super All Wheel Control. S-AWC combines a center differential with yaw control, stability control, and a rear differential with separate clutches for the left and right wheels. The structure is stiffer and lighter, and in the boy-racer arena, the Evo's always been a sweet driver, which hasn't changed. In fact, the character of the car has become a little less uncouth, which purists may cry about, but the rest of us will just giggle like schoolgirls as the Evo X replicates the video game experience IRL.

[Source: VWVortex]

Thanks for the tip, Chris!

Everyone's attention so far has been on the Evo, but the AWD turbocharged terror won't be the only hot Lancer model in Mitsubishi's updated fleet. Previous reports suggested that a cheaper WRX-rival was in the works, complete with a turbocharged engine and AWD configuration, and this latest Ralliart prototype spotted in California's Death Valley seems to back up those reports.

Like the Evo, this test-mule featured a front mounted intercooler, bonnet scoop and dual exhaust pipes, but missing were the widened fenders, imposing rear wing and the blacked-out bumper insert.

During the launch of the new Lancer late last year, one company official revealed that the Ralliart model would be making a return, this time with a greater influence on performance. With the addition of cut-priced performance cars like this and the styling of Subaru's new Impreza range gone sour, Mitsubishi's new Lancer range is poised to become the next cult classic.

[Source: Winding Road]

Isn't it obvious who won?

Bringing together the best of the best handling cars from various price classes and axeing those with exorbitant price tags to keep things relevant for those of us in the peanut gallery, Motor Trend came up with a list of 32 contenders for the title of Best Handling Car in the World. After a vigorous battery of road tests, they narrowed it down to just 10: the Honda Civic Si, Mazdaspeed3, Mini Cooper S with the John Cooper Works package, Mitsubishi Evolution IX MR (both from 2006 as the 2007 versions haven't hit the pavement yet), the Honda S2000, BMW 335i, Porsche Cayman S, Lotus Exige S, Chevrolet Corvette Z06 and Porsche 911 GT3.

The folks at Motor Trend feverishly tracked on-center feel, skid-pad testing, step-steer, lane-change/swerve stability and ride quality, using gadgets to measure results precisely and not allowing looks, reputation or even emotion get in the way of their final verdict. It's perhaps the most thorough and objective comparison test we've ever seen performed, and as such, it offers a lot of data for the reader to digest. Almost too much, actually, as evident by the graph at the article's conclusion that tries to encapsulate every bit of data for each car in a siezure inducing spider graph (shown above).

Which car won the battle? We don't want to ruin it for you, so click through to find out. [Hint: the winner can be found on page 8 if you're like us and hate surprises]

[Source: Motor Trend]

Here's a post all the domestic-or-nothing crowd should enjoy reading. Of the 10 most expensive cars to insure as listed by Insurelane, only one is American-made, and it's no longer produced. And on the least expensive list, seven are Big Three branded (nine if you count Volvo and Mazda as Fords).

It should come as no surprise that the Mitsubishi Lancer Evo and Subaru WRX aren't cheap to protect, while GMC Safari and Pontiac Montana owners can probably pay their premiums with the half-eaten Cheerios found in their back seats.

As we all know, lots of factors determine your personal rate (age, driving record, number of cars you've totaled right there in your insurance agent's parking lot, etc.), but imports will generally have higher rates over comparable domestics due mostly to more expensive replacement parts.

See the top five on each list after the jump.

[Source: Insurelane]

Alright... so you've openly lusted after the performance envelopes of road-bound rally cars like the Subaru WRX STi and Mitsubishi EVO IX MR, but you can't get around their frump four-door roots, or their look-at-me aerodynamic addenda. So what's keeping the two firms from building a lighter, more lithesome coupe?  Mitsubishi has little excuse, as it already has the rumptastic (if overweight) Eclipse in its fold, a car that was once upon a time known for its turbocharged hooliganism.

Subaru, however, doesn't have the same luck-- the last time it did a two-door coupe, the interestingly-styled SVX, it was an overweight, slow-selling cruiser, not a true performance car. So while enthusiasts have waited around for some time for the boys and gals at Fuji Heavy to pack their winning mechanicals in something smaller and sexier, it's taken the WRC wizards at Prodrive to deliver.

Seen here is the P2, a car that's been hinted about for some time, and Jeremy Clarkson of Top Gear is the first scribe we know of to drive it... as well as suffer its ill-effects.

Based on Subaru's diminutive R1 supermini, but packing the drivetrain from the WRX STi with a bigger turbo, and the attractively 'New Edge with chunk' styled P2 puts 345 brake horsepower worth of smack down. The net-net? 0-60 mph in 3.8 seconds, and a top speed of 174 mph.

Better still, Clarkson figures, is the handling. The engineers at Prodrive have not only figured out some sort of indescribably complex anti-lag system for the turbocharger, they've gone and developed a driver-adjustable active center differential. While the latter trinket doesn't sound terribly different from a bog-standard STi's piece, the Subaru's is essentially a mechanical system, while the P2's is supervised and informed by all manner of sensors, including yaw, throttle position, and so on. The end result is a coupe that can be neatly tailored for the demands of the road and the driver-- safe as houses understeer, or tail-out antics. It all works so well that it makes Clarkson sick-- literally.

Sadly, according to JC, ProDrive has no plans to put the P2 into production. 

[Source: TopGear via YouTube]

You may or may not be a fan of "The Fast and The Furious" movies, but someone's buying tickets, because Universal Pictures is releasing the third film in the series this summer - "The Fast and The Furious: Tokyo Drift." If the trailer's anything to go by, there should be some rivetting action sequences. The acting? Well, who cares, really?

Regardless of the movie's artistic merit, you couldn't ask for a better product placement opportunity for a tire manufacturer than a movie about drifting, and Toyo Tires is all over this one. Not only is Toyo rubber on many of the cars in the film, but the company is holding the national "Gettin' Sideways Sweepstakes," with the Grand Prize a red Mitsubishi Evo 9 like the one shown above. Interested? Get yourself to a Toyo dealer or log on to toyosweeps.com.

[Source: Toyo Tires]