SCOOBYD00

Had a nightmare deciding on my next car... EVO v Scooby ended up with - had a fling with a fast Audi but ideally want an out of the box low k's family daily used car - weekend track nutter in the garage so its got to be quick but not hardcore and will stay warranty friendly I hope..

Budget - realistically 20k however can do more or less - depends.

Looking at 54 plate STI for 16,500... toying with the idea of PPP'ing it to end up with an 18k price tag with sub 30k on it.. thoughts (remember main dealer)

Still trying to navigate through Evo world... TBH I would snap up a MR simply by the looks... finding one local (Fife), right colour & price range seemingly a daunting task in itself.

So a Grey MR sub 20k possible? how would this compare to the STi...?

Doing a lot of searching on the forums for old posts but stuck this one up in any case..

LG John

For that money it has to be an MR340, decat, walbro and remap (speak nicely to John Banks and he'll give you pointers and help (he lives in fife)). That'll give around 400/400 and can be done all in for £20k if you shop privately and perhaps pick up exhaust 2nd hand. Yet to drive one myself but I can only imagine it would go like brown stuff off a shovel no matter what road or weather you throw at it

miff13

You can get new euro import sti from litchfields for not much more (with 3 year warranty)

Litchfield Imports

Personally for that kind of money I'd be looking at a older spec c, litchfields have a spec c type ra for £22K.

Evo 8's look good, a work mate has one (2004 mrfq340 in grey, she thought about selling recently and advertised it for £18K), it's quick but not for me seems a bit souless if that makes sense (mind you I've not been in a hawkeye so that may not be any better). Eats clutches, discs and pads too and servicing etc not cheap

SCOOBYD00

Cheers, ideally want a dealer source example.. thin on the ground it seems. If you can find me one for that money from a dealer stick the links up...

Pete N

Not many Evos about for 20k, was looking a couple of months ago. But good luck looking!

As for comment above about evos being soul-less, load of nonsense. If I could have afforded another (unfortunately wrote an Evo8 off last Nov) I would have done. Went back to Scooby because sooo much less expensive, which made it affordable for me. But, my opinion this, and everyone has their own, the Evo for me was a much better drivers car. If you haven't driven one already, do so!!

Bluie

Have to agree about your comment regarding the soul-less, people used to say the same about Skylines, they drive themselves, what a load of bolloxs.

Price wise look at Mitsubishi Lancer Register Forum - powered by vBulletin

Pete

I,ve owned a Tommi Mak, was my last car infact and have had an FQ330 Evo 8, both awesome cars, the Mak was more hardcore than the 8 was, you almost don,t feel you`re doing the speed you are doing when in an 8, (if you know what i mean).

My mate has an MR8 320, Ecutek, fuel pump, Magnex exhaust it was dynod @ 381 BHP Similar torque, it,s a fantastic car, really pulls well, but for me, i prefer a much raw car, that,s why i bought my WRX RA, i was thinking of a 8 MR, or even a 9, but i thought the money i save buying one of the above, i can spend on the RA at a later date and go forged.... just my opinon.


.........Pete.

john banks

Evo 8MR or a 9 are the pick of the Evos to buy, I would think you might just find a nice 9 at £20K and have a good choice of 8MRs. Doesn't matter if JDM or UK as long as you find insurance. They mod up to 380 (8MR) 400 BHP (9) with a fuel pump (£70), exhaust (£300-350 used or Ebay, £500+ retail) and remap (£650 retail, £85 DIY), can help you out here.

You get a powerband like a 2.5 Scooby but with a stronger engine that won't complain if you throw 1.8 bar at the standard internals, intercooler in the right place, very sorted handling which usually oversteers where the Scooby understeers but does give you confidence in its stability once you're used to it. Steering is incredible. The gearboxes can be quite notchy, and it can skip around on the bumps a bit. It also doesn't give the impression of shove that a Scooby can even when delivering considerably higher performance. No Scooby engine note. Fuel consumption on the IX with MIVEC is similar to a Scooby.

Presently I see 1 bar of boost at 2200, 1.7 bar at 2500. With some meth in the tank I still have 1.5 bar at 7000 RPM otherwise 1.4.

Elmer Fudpucker

I have an 05STi PPP for sale with Prodrive springs and a few nice extras

less miles,newer and cheaper than the one you mention.

Jon

Pete

John, that is very true, the Evo doesn`t push you back into your seat like a subaru ( unless you,re on a GT30 ETC..LOL) But they do pull all the way, where as the Subaru starts dying off a little imo....


.......Pete.

SCOOBYD00

My old GT30 Classic went well... this is a different brief - need to find a standard car for a while and not have to mod it.. we shall see... thanks guys.

RRH

Have to agree with the soul-less comments- I've had several type STi RA's, and there's currently an STi4 2.5, circa 350/350 in the stable, plus my latest acquisition- an Evo7 with internals and a load of other bits- with 565

The Impreza has much more character, the evo is quicker. The Impreza would run rings roung the evo in the wet- as would most imprezas when compared with like for like evos.

Pete

Interesting to hear that, i thought my 2 evos weren,t brilliant in the wet, i thought it was just me... feel more confident in the Subaru..

RRH

Imprezas are much more composed in the wet

LG John

^^^why? I'm surprised by this? Never knew evo's were **** in the wet - what's the problem?

SCOOBYD00

Interested. I always found my old sti's to understeer like a bugger in the wet. Type R was more tail happy mind... ; o )

I've seen lots of video footage with EVO's sideways I'm assuming these comments are based on them oversteering in the wet? Please explain. Ta

john banks

A 9 with the centre diff setting changed in the wet doesn't seem too bad (after an M3), although not as good as my old Scooby on P1 suspension and Goodyear F1s. The 8MR and 9 have more compliant Bilsteins, but also come with tyres that are not so ideal in the wet - Yoko A046 (but are great in the dry). I hear it is better but still grips well in the dry stuff on Michelin Pilot Sport 2.

LG John

Where are they letting go from john, front, back or both?

AudiLover

If you want to be the king in the wet buy a quattro audi. They are kings of traction. However if you are a very skilled driver there is currently one manufacturer that audi just cant quite beat at the moment, and thats the GT3 series 997 porsches. They are crazy in the wet (in a good way)

LG John

AL, have you ever actually watched a Haldex Audi try and decide where to put the power coming off the line at crail/pod et al? Most scoobys and Evo's are halfway down the strip before the Audi has made its mind up.

Before you get all defensive Auid's are one my favourite brands of car but it annoys me that you continously made false claims.

Dark Blue Mark

Ive got Toyo's on mine and soon to have Bilstien and Eibachs.

At the moment in the wet its as ridiculous as my STi 5 was and then some!

With regard to buying one. I dont see the point in buying one of the high spec ones. 2 schools of thought here. If you can stomach 5 gears and small rear spoiler, a 260 can be modded to high 300's with little issue.

Or, do as I did and go for an FQ300 (with leather ) and decat, intake, downpipe, fuel pump and get it remapped (Bob Rawle did mine) and its now poking out over 300 bhp at the wheels - or 386 by WRC's calculations.

The power he got from mine was close to what most get from the same mods on a MR.

An MR gives you cams / trubo housing etc that will allow you to 400 ish so just go for the lowest end one of them you can get.

My point is, what are you paying for once you go over a 300 MR?

I would avoid any of the Unichip models.

AudiLover

lol well its not exactly fair to compare a haldex audi to a fulltime 4wd vehicle. Compare Quattro cars to full time 4wd vehicles to make comparisons fair.

However scoobies and evos of the like most of the time wear high performance no frills tyres. Audi's tyres have to factor in comfort, reduced roadnoise etc.

And also heres proof that audi are traction kings along with porsche.




1:27.2 - Porsche 997 GT3
1:27.4 - Porsche 997 GT3RS
1:27.5 - Audi B7 RS4
1:28.4 - Porsche 997 Carrera S
1:29.1 – Porsche Cayman S
1:29.2 - Lamborghini Murcielago LP640
1:29.6 - Maserati GranSport
1:30.3 - Chevrolet Corvette C6
1:30.9 - Porsche 987 Boxster S
1:31.0 - BMW M6
1:31.0 - Audi 2.0 TT TFSI
1:31.3 - Audi S3, 2007
1:31.5 - Steinmetz Opel Astra OPC
1:31.8 - Ford GT
1:32.2 - Alpina Roadster S
1:33.4 - Aston Martin V8 Vantage
1:33.5 - Koenigsegg CCR
1:33.6 - Mazda 3 MPS
1:34.1 - BMW 130i Sports Package
1:34.2 - Pagani Zonda F
1:34.2 - BMW Z4 3.0 CSi
1:34.7 - MTM VW Golf V GTI
1:34.8 - Jaguar XKR, 2007
1:35.1 - Volkswagen Golf GTi DSG
1:35.6 - Mercedes-Benz SL65
1:35.7 - BMW E60 M5
1:35.8 - BMW 335i
1:36.2 - Mercedes-Benz CLK DTM
1:36.5 - AC Schnitzer 6er Tension
1:37.6 - Mercedes-Benz SLK55 AMG
1:38.2 - Ferrari F430

This is a rather new addition to Sport Auto’s Supertest so the list is short

All of the wet water course tests are done with the traction control systems on, except of course with the vehicles which do not have the system (IE Ford GT)

This helps clarify things. For example, magazines have told countless times before that the TC system on the 997 GT3 is the same one on the Carrera GT, It's known as a rraction system which allows a lot "play" before it's activates. This helped the GT3 a lot!

On the F430 matter,

I'm not sure If anybody recently watched Best Motoring's test of the F430 but they rain the F430 on a wet circle track attempting to drift the vehicle, they tried each traction mode (five setting's total), they found rain and snow mode to be extremely intrusive. I would assume the F430 was run in "rain" mode and that meant the acceleration was extremely limited.

SportAuto SnowTrack test

-Audi S3
-BMW 330xi Coupe
-Lamborghini Gallardo (manual)
-Mercedes S500 4matic
-Mitsubishi Lancer Evo IX
-Porsche 997 Turbo (no PCCB)

1. Acceleration 0-100 km/h on snow (with/without ESP)
8,7 s (8,9 s) - Audi S3
8,8 s (8,9 s) - BMW 330xi Coupe
8,8 s (8,9 s) - Mercedes S500 4matic
9,1 s (-,- s) - Mitsubishi Lancer Evo IX
9,3 s (10,2 s) - Porsche 997 Turbo
10,5 s (12,9 s) - Lamborghini Gallardo :t-hands:

2. Braking 100-0 km/h on snow
108,6 m - Mercedes S500 4matic
112,0 m - Mitsubishi Lancer Evo IX
114,2 m - Porsche 997 Turbo
114,5 m - Audi S3
117,3 m - Lamborghini Gallardo
119,3 m - BMW 330xi Coupe

3. Handling on track (on snow) - 2,7 km
3.39,9 min - Audi S3
3.41,8 min - Mitsubishi Lancer Evo IX
3.43,9 min - BMW 330xi Coupe
3.45,4 min - Mercedes S500 4matic
3.51,2 min - Porsche 997 Turbo
3.51,4 min - Lamborghini Gallardo

4. 18 m slalom on snow
40,3 km/h - Audi S3
39,5 km/h - BMW 330xi Coupe
38,1 km/h - Mitsubishi Lancer Evo IX
36,7 km/h - Lamborghini Gallardo
36,7 km/h - Porsche 997 Turbo
34,7 km/h - Mercedes S500 4matic

Dark Blue Mark

Yeah I drive in snow everyday

john banks

Kenny, it is the back end that slides under power but it is very benign considering the performance.

No Scooby in either test AL mentioned, and were they all on standard tyres for the snow tests? S3 does do well, I'd consider one IF the standard turbo and injectors were capable of 400 BHP (they're not) as it would be a nice refined all rounder with excellent fuel consumption, as it is it would be too much like my wife's Golf GTI with a chip and 4WD. It is my wife's car for a reason - she likes warm cars, but not proper performance cars. I will make the compromises for performance.

LG John

And you guys are seeing this as a bad thing In the impreza I find when she's pushed too hard in the wet she understeers through hedges! I MUCH prefer keeping the rear in check under power in the wet as you can set yourself up to take the corner faster usually with just a few degrees of drift angle (nothing hero like). Sounds like this can be done in the EVO if you have the ***** for it.

Dark Blue Mark

I find it starts to get a bit scary when you run out of computer control

No it does come out quite nicely.

There's a good roundabout I use to test the different ACD settings and snow mode it great fun at 60 mph with your foot flat to the floor