THE WELL KNOWN "WIRA CONVERT" IN MALAYSIA - MITSUBISHI LANCER EVO III

 

The Mitsubishi Lancer Evo III, more precisely the Lancer Evo of the CE9A generation.

It is an admittedly underappreciated car with little public exposure to add to the fame that cars like the Toyota Supra, Nissan Skyline GT-R, and the younger Evos, among many others, took full advantage of thanks to significant pop culture exposure, whereas the only known major appearances of the Evo III in pop culture were in Initial D for a short time period and "Thunderbolt," a Chinese movie starring Jackie Chan driving a tuned yellow one. However, its obscurity makes it an appealing option for car fans who prefer underdogs over conventional options.

It employs the classic Mitsubishi 2.0L 4G63T turbo four pot churning out roughly 280 HP and a 0-60 time of 5.5 seconds, just like the Evos before and after it... If you ask me, that's pretty good for an early 1990s car, but that's to be expected from an inhibited rally car for the road, and sticking with that theme, it enjoys rutting in dirt like a pig in the mud, and while it is more than capable of performing well on tarmac, the way the Evo III's suspension is set up means that it is more pliant in unpaved situations compared to her younger iterations.

Inside the Evo III is what you’d expect out of a hard-boiled 90s Japanese performance car; dreary black plastic dash board, ordinary shifter knob and boring carpets, but the retro Recaro seats and Momo steering wheel breaks the mold and gives the car some sporty character, although it doesn’t hide the fact that a run-down shack is probably more coddling than an Evo III’s interior is, or any Mitsubishi for that matter, so unless you’re used to uncomfortable interiors, then road trips are going to be a bit of a hassle.

So, what does the Evo III compared to? Other comparable choices include the Subaru Impreza WRX STi, its one and only genuine eternal opponent, the Toyota Celica GT-FOUR, a like-minded competitor with two fewer doors, and the Ford Sierra RS Cosworth four door, another rally car-based turbo four-cylinder saloon with an excellent history.

Finally, the CE9A generation of the Lancer Evolution should be considered when searching for a car that is a lot of fun yet aggressive and capable of being tweaked to perfection from the start when looking for a car to import or buy domestically depending on where you are from. You get amazing off-road performance because to its AWD system, a snappy turbo engine that gets you everywhere quickly, and thanks to its relatively straightforward engineering as an early model Evo, you can alter and maintain the car with less difficulty than you might anticipate. What is there not to like?