Quote:
Originally Posted by exitspeed
From Autoblog:
It didn't take long for Japan's journalists to get the new STI and EVO X side by side, and the results are now officially in. Tsukuba circuit regulars Kazuo Shimizu and Manabu Kawaguchi spent an afternoon thrashing around the notoriously twisty short circuit just north of Tokyo and here (drum roll please) are the best times they could ring out of the AWD rivals:
Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution X : 1:06:46
Subaru Impreza WRX STI : 1:05:95
EVO / STI
2006 1:05:07 / 1:04:72
2005 1:04.88 / 1:04:17
2003 1:05:30 / 1:04:69
2001 1:05:17 / 1:06:56
1998 1:04:69 / 1:06:73
1996 1:07:00 / 1:05:92
1994 1:06:52 / 1:06:26
1992 1:10:90 / 1:07:99
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That's pretty depressing for the EVO X. Along with some of the other tests of recent, its further proof that the X is one of the weakest versions ever.
Interesting how the new STi is slower than the outgoing model by quite a margin. It doesn't deviate too much from its predecessor, and all the changes hypothetically seem to be advantageous (more power, less weight, rear multilink, etc). In that sense, I totally disagree the STi's new suspension design proved its worth. It hasn't proved anything so far. It's not fair to claim that the new STi is better simply b/c of one test like this, but it should be interesting to compare further with other tests in the future. So far, I see no evidence the new STi is meaningfully better in performance than the outgoing model.