When I was a kid, before my age registered in double digits, playing in the dirt and mud was a pretty appealing idea. One day after a hard rain, my friend and I decided a foot race through my dad’s then empty, but very muddy, garden patch would be a great idea. Maybe I thought I would be fast enough to glide over the mud? After a few heats, I was happily caked.

A few decades later, this idea sounds a lot less appealing and more like, well, laundry. That is until Mitsubishi’s Lancer Evo MR sneered at me from my driveway. This is a car just as competent on a dirt road as it is on tarmac. In fact, this car is made to play in the dirt, as the Evo’s rally racing history will attest.

I don’t have much desire to run through my father’s muddy garden anymore, but powersliding a Lancer Evo MR through it sounds like a hell-of-a-lot of fun. I’ll just tell him I’m roto-tilling the dirt.

WRC dreaming
The Evolution MR is the most hardcore Lancer that Mitsubishi will sell you in the United States. If you’re looking for a rally car with a warranty, it doesn’t get much closer than this. The list of performance-orientated parts is long and starts with Brembo 4-piston brakes in front and 2-piston grabbers in back. For suspension, you’ve got Blistein struts, Eibach springs and stabilizer bars, with light-weight BBS alloy wheels at all four corners. Underneath, you’ll find a trio of torque shufflers, with a pair of limited slip differentials in the front and rear and an active differential in the center ready to send power to the wheels that need it most. Least we forget the heart of the monster, there’s a 2.0-liter four-cylinder with a twin-scroll turbocharger spinning to 291-horsepower that is mated to Mitsubishi’s insane TC-SST, dual-clutch transmission ripping off shifts so fast you’ll freak.

The sum of all these parts is electrifying.

To call the MR nimble or responsive is a hilarious understatement. Zig in, zag out, dart in, and dart out. Need to dodge that exhaust pipe sitting in the middle of the road (something you see in Detroit a lot) at the last second? Simple. The amount of lateral grip you’ve got to play around with here can only be described as immense. When you find a tight “S” corner combination out on a country road, it’s usually followed by an “Oh! I’ve gotta do that again!” The particular left-then-right combo I’d just found required at least five passes, each at a faster speed and each with the resulting “wow” after the car did it with ease.

On the last pass, however, the MR’s brakes were put to the test as a white Pomeranian chose that moment to try and chase the car he had no hopes of catching. The Brembos slowed the car in a hurry, and tracked straight ahead with no jukes to the left or right, over the fierce high-pitched barks of the toy dog.

In the opposite spectrum, getting away from the mutt didn’t take long at all. Acceleration to 60 happened in around 5.3 seconds. The MR certainly doesn’t stop pulling at 60. Or 80. Or…well, never mind. After a sprint up to some miles an hour, my passenger turned to me with a grin and said, “I felt like a missile!”

The steering talks to you, telling you that the tires are riveted to the road. That feel is making its way from the road up to you through a very firm, sport-tuned suspension that corners as flatly as almost anything on the road. That almost unreal grip doesn’t come for free, however, as I absolutely felt every tiny bump and expansion joint in the roadway. If you happen to run over a squirrel, you’ll be able to tell if it was male or female.

The Recaro sport seats make the bumps semi-tolerable, though once you hit the big potholes, hang on for dear life as the shock waves running through the body of the car will have you checking for loose interior pieces, shorted speakers and wet pants. One of which, I experienced intermittently. (It was the speakers. Really.)

Speaking of those Recaro seats, the “like-a-glove” feel to them is fantastic, but I sure wish the seats adjusted vertically. Shorter people may actually have an issue seeing over the hood and steering wheel. As for the rest of the interior, well, it’s still as cheap as the $14,000 Lancer in DE trim. That said, we forgave the Lancer Ralliart for its bargain basement interior, and in the MR, I’m simply too busy smiling to care.

Natural habitat
Zipping down a paved country road toward the end of my time in the MR, I passed a turnoff for a winding dirt road. The words “I wonder…” passed through my head. One U-turn and 20 seconds later, I realized I was going to be late getting home.

Move the traction setting to “gravel,” turn the active stability control off and prepare to do your best Travis Pastrana impression. Which as it turns out, is not that hard to do. The MR managed to instill as much confidence racing down a dirt road as it did a paved road. This is a rally car at heart.

While stomping on the gas through a corner might lead to a fantastic death on some occasions that’s exactly what you’ll want to do here. Wave to the cows on the other side of the fence and you slide around the corner sideways perfectly, kicking up a brown rooster tail as you go. Powersliding a corner has never been so easy, so controllable and so much fun.

Clear out those old cornstalks, dad, I’m coming for a visit.

Why you would buy it:
One big reason is the Subaru WRX Sti, the MR’s main competitor. The Subie is quite ugly, while the Mitsubishi isn’t.

It’s a rally car with a warrant, and it can hold its own against German competitors at the track. Maybe even a Porsche or two.

Why you wouldn’t:
The interior may offend your good taste just a little too much. The bottom line may offend your wallet a little too much as well. The “regular” Lancer Evolution starts at $6,000 less.

Of note:
The “2008” is no typo as Mitsubishi has decided to skip the 2009 model year for the Lancer Evolutions. Watch for modest updates for the 2010 model year.

2008 Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution MR base price, $38,290. As tested, $41,515.
Technology package, $2,550; Destination, $675.

Words and photos by Chris Doane.

    Print This Post