The Faster Master Meets Fast Bastard
By Jason Kavanagh
We're playing follow-the-leader in the 2008 Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution MR and the 2009 Pontiac G8 GXP. At the word "go," the heavy-lidded gaze of the G8's front fascia suddenly swells up in the Evo's rearview mirror. The sound of a rip-snorting V8 gains urgency before crowding and then finally overwhelming the Evo's tepid turbocharged whoosh as the G8 elbows its way past the Mitsubishi on the road.
It's a troubling moment for the Evo. Here's an icon that has earned a reputation for slaying giants and it's getting smoked by a Pontiac, of all things. A freakin' Pontiac. Evolution, indeed — it needs to mutate into something that has another 85 horsepower if it is to stand a chance against this GXP right now.
A New Flavor of Alphabet Soup
What was that? A comparison test involving an Evo and the other car isn't a Subaru? Life's full of surprises. Get a helmet.
Forget about the Evo's natural rival, the Subaru WRX STI. Pontiac's V8-powered rear-wheel-drive GXP boasts not a single scrap of rally breeding, yet shares its mission of versatile performance with the Evo in a way the STI cannot. For example, both the G8 GXP and the Lancer Evolution MR are very high-performance cars that can be had with some kind of automatically shifting gearbox.
Here's your comparison: These are simply the most user-friendly overachieving sedans available for $40 grand.
The Lowdown
Consider for a moment that the G8 GXP is the most powerful Pontiac ever built, including all those Firebirds with halitosis-spewing poultry on their hoods. Don't burn your Burt Reynolds posters, though. This four-door sedan promises to continue the Trans Am's legacy of high performance.
For starters, the Corvette's 6.2-liter LS3 pushrod V8 is stuffed into the GXP's engine bay, and it generates 415 horsepower and 415 pound-feet of torque, an amount just slightly less stonking than in the Chevy. A six-speed automatic transmission comes as standard equipment. Yes, you pay more for the optional six-speed stick. The original Bandit had a slushbox, too. Coincidence?
Options are few for the GXP. Aside from the manual gearbox (which this car lacks), there's a $900 sunroof (which this car wears). Otherwise, it's no different from the stick-equipped GXP we recently tested, from the suspension upgrades to its limited-slip differential. The GXP's final price is yet to be announced, but hints from the Pontiac peeps have us pretty confident in our $40,895 estimate, including destination.
The Lancer Evolution MR is powered by the same 291-horsepower turbocharged inline-4 found in all Evos. Its six-speed TC-SST dual-clutch automated gearbox is the sole transmission choice in the MR, and our test car (plucked from our fleet of long-term test cars) has been optioned with fancy Phantom Black paint and the Technology package, which includes navigation, premium audio and satellite radio. Its price with destination totals $41,785.
Technology Can Bite
Time has been kind to our long-term Evo, because even with 6,000 miles on the clock, it's quicker than when we first tested it in July. It now tackles 60 mph in 5.4 seconds (5.1 seconds with 1 foot of rollout like on a drag strip) and runs the quarter-mile in 13.8 seconds at 99.7 mph. These results better its earlier performance by a few tenths, suggesting perhaps that its turbocharged 2.0-liter four-cylinder engine benefits from a few thousand miles of hard driving.
For all the ballyhoo about automated manual transmissions, the MR's TC-SST gearbox really hamstrings the Evo when it comes to catapulting forward from a standstill. Revs are limited by the engine controller to only 3,200 rpm when you're two-pedaling it on the starting line, which are too few revs to fully exploit the massive traction of the car's all-wheel-drive system.
What's more, if you do a few launches using this two-pedal technique, brake-torquing the car, the clutch pack soaks up enough heat to make the Evo belch up an electronic white flag, and it goes into self-protection mode until things can cool off. A Pro Stock drag car it is not.
Shattering Preconceptions
The G8 GXP, on the other hand, could do burnouts all day. Sure, its six-speed autobox doesn't have the sophistication of the Evo's dual-clutch affair, but the flip side is that it is also simpler. Heat doesn't enter the equation unless we're talking about the pavement that's liquefying beneath the rear meats during the GXP's 4.9-second sprint to 60 mph (4.6 seconds with 1 foot of rollout like on a drag strip).
And although the Pontiac out-flabs the Evo by nearly 400 pounds when you compare curb weight (4,049 pounds for the GXP and 3,658 pounds for the Evo MR), the big American sedan kills the quarter-mile some 0.7 second quicker than the all-wheel-drive upstart, blasting the 1320 in 13.1 seconds at 107.6 mph. Bye, bye, Evo.
When you lay into the throttle in the GXP, you don't get whacked in the chest by the force of acceleration, yet the speedo needle swings across the dial as if propelled by an irresistible magnetic force and the transmission's tall gearing makes the sensation seem endless.
When we got the keys to the GXP, the Pontiac guys casually mentioned that a GXP equipped with the automatic will out-accelerate the version with a manual transmission. Something about launching better, but we were too distracted by the GXP's good looks to remember the particulars. Sure enough, this performance by the autobox-equipped GXP trumps even the manual-transmission version we tested.
But don't go thinking the GXP is some one-dimensional muscle car. Our testing shows the G8 GXP's best stop from 60 mph to be 108 feet, compared to 113 feet in the Evo.
What's more, the G8 offers superior practicality. Its trunk volume is positively huge compared to the Evo's puny offering, and while rear-seat passengers fit well in the Evo, there's much more legroom in the G8. The Evo's cabin has shed the dime-store furnishings of previous iterations and now has a bit more style than even the G8. Still, the Mitsubishi's cabin echoes with a hollow boom on the road compared to the G8's interior, and the driving position is really hurting for a telescoping steering wheel.
Measured on the respective merits of these cars so far, things aren't looking so good for the Mitsubishi.
And Then the Road Curves
The G8 has breezed ahead of the Evo at this point. But since we're not the kind to give up easily, we're still hard on the gas in the Evo as we chase the G8 GXP. Then the first series of turns approaches.
From turn-in to midcorner to track-out, the Evo claws back big chunks of ground from the Pontiac's lead. Quickly the realization settles in that it's not just the Evo's heroic mechanical grip that plays to its favor. You also have a terrific sense of what the Mitsu's chassis is up to, since the steering is immediate and unfiltered in its communication. In no time you are slithering the Evo at its limits in full command of its cornering trajectory.
Now that we're away from the drag strip, the dual-clutch transmission's brilliance emerges. It snaps off gearchanges with decidedly more finesse and responsiveness than the GXP's six-speed automatic, and further offers multiple shift strategies in both automatic and manual modes. The GXP's traditional slushbox is a stone axe in comparison.
Leveraging Its Assets
A few turns later, the Evo noses past the G8. Open tarmac lies ahead, revealing a sequence of switchbacks. As we approach, the Evo's torque-transfer all-wheel-drive magic enhances the car's playfulness and promotes a neutral balance in the corners that can be adjusted with the throttle or a dab of left-foot braking. It's easy to place the Evo where you want it, and the traction of the all-wheel-drive system lets you reapply the throttle early and deeply as you hit the apex.
The Evo's 69.7-mph slalom run handily stuffs the GXP's 63-mph performance, and could have been better if its all-wheel-drive system had faster reflexes. In these circumstances, more of the Evo's performance envelope can be used more of the time, so one turn seems to flow naturally into the next. The Mitsubishi is simply faster and more engaging in these conditions than the GXP.
And it's not as though the GXP can't find its way through a chicane. Despite its size and weight, this G8 is a genuine sport sedan. Grip at the front is surprisingly tenacious, and the car's long wheelbase ensures that rotation toward the corner's apex is progressive. The chassis is terrifically solid — think BMW, not Buick. It's obvious that a lot of engineering sweat went into making this car hide its weight so well when driven in anger yet ride with such comfortable fluidity.
But the GXP's steering is deaf and mute compared to the Evo's, and its steering wheel is too large and pockmarked with odd tumors around its rim. The automatic transmission is also all wrong for this kind of open-road driving. And grip? At 0.95g for the Evo to the GXP's 0.87g, it's game, set and match. The tighter the road, the farther ahead the Evo pulls.
Sealing the Deal
Surprisingly, the Evo MR is the better-equipped of these two cars, overturning the notion that rally replicas are for masochists. In addition to the aforementioned all-wheel-drive and the automated manual gearbox, the Evo offers a navigation system with a 30GB hard drive as well as keyless ignition. The Evo's seats are a hundred times more supportive than the GXP's wider-is-better affairs, and the Mitsubishi's shift paddles on the steering column are made for full-throttle driving. Details like this make the Evo even more convincing as a driver's car. As a result, the Evo MR has a substantial edge over the GXP in this portion of our test scoring. And it turns out that this edge is enough to seal the deal.
The Pontiac G8 GXP does more than politely ask to be invited into the sport sedan mixer; it kicks the door in. Sure, it lays waste to the Evo in any contest of acceleration, but it's more than simply quick. Instead the G8 GXP is well-rounded in a way that carves out a special spot in the hierarchy of drivers' cars. Of course, even though the G8 GXP is quicker and cheaper with an automatic transmission than it is with a manual, you should still get the stick, as the auto just shaves too much man-burger from the LS3 V8's hairy chest in terms of driving satisfaction.
That it takes a car as good as the Evo to best the G8 GXP is a testament to what GM has accomplished with this Pontiac. The Evo MR is a car that has a high level of technological sophistication, and while an artificial test-track environment proves frustrating, a more complex driving environment like an imperfect road course reveals the Evo's organic approach to performance. The bits harmonize into a cohesive whole to decisive effect. Not only is the 2008 Mitsubishi Lancer Evo MR the more capable handler here, it has precision and tactility that the 2009 Pontiac G8 XP can't touch.
The Evo MR isn't about the numbers. It's about an amply equipped package which delivers a complete driving experience that's accessible to everyone. And that's why the Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution MR wins this comparison test.
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"bye bye Evo" 
