Well I went and did it, I traded in my 2010 speed3 and bought a 2010 mitsu evo se. I was just not happy with speed as my daily driver and I have always wanted an evo. I will still check out this site cuz 6 months ago my wife and I bought a 2010 CX-9, and i still have my 2004 Mazda 3. I have enjoyed reading the threads on this site and have gained some valuable knowledge. Keep up the good work!

Odd question about your Mazda 3. Did you ever find the plug that the Tape/MD selection on the stereo system went to?

Congrats on the Evo purchase!! You'll have to let us know what you do to it.

Damn, I think you downgraded. :\ Smoked a modded Evo X twice on the highway in my Speed 3. And their interiors are bleh. But AWD is definitely nice from a stop. I'm sure it will be a fun car. Sorry, didn't mean to bash it. Congrats on the purchase. What color is it?

Umm... pics??

As Tbot would say: "Pics or ban"

nice, been thinking of this. They are a little slower once moving, but the potential is great and the AWD system is top-notch. Can I ask what you got your EVO X for?

erod550 wrote:Damn, I think you downgraded. :\ Smoked a modded Evo X twice on the highway in my Speed 3. And their interiors are bleh. But AWD is definitely nice from a stop. I'm sure it will be a fun car. Sorry, didn't mean to bash it. Congrats on the purchase. What color is it?

This is a bit of the old "SRT-4" argument haha. I honestly don't think it's much of a downgrade per se. The new EVO X has a good bit of potential as the 4B11 motor appears to be fairly stout and the twin-scroll "super-16G" (basically what it is) turbo is a good bit bigger than the K04 found in the MS3. If both are running stock turbos, running roughly equal mods & equally aggressive/conservative tuning, the EVO X is going to make more peak power. However, from a freeway roll, this advantage is diminished, as the EVO is going to have less area under the curve (2.0L PI motor with bigger turbo vs 2.3L DI with smaller turbo/spools faster), the EVO has a larger drivetrain loss (AWD vs FWD) and the EVO weighs considerably more than the MS3.

Honestly, from a roll, if you both had equal mods, I would have thought it would have been pretty similar.... either way though, IMO, neither of them are "drag" cars. For a car that excels at drag racing, I think you made a GREAT choice (new 5.0 Mustang FTW!!), RWD, solid rear axle (may be a limiting factor for autoX/road racing, but damn sure not for drag!!), and large V8 motor with over 400hp stock. That's a drag car. Granted, Ford has done a wonderful job at making that thing handle a lot better than it's spec sheet would suggest, kudos to Ford and the new Stang.

With that said, I prefer the interior on the MS3 over the EVO, but for a sports/performance oriented car, I think the EVO is a pretty big upgrade over the MS3. I say that not based on drag racing timeslips (neither one of them were made for dragging), but based on handling prowess & track/autoX times. Both are sport compact cars, highly modified econoboxes from that factory, designed to be both practical and fun to drive, but drag racing is not their specialty. In their respective classes, both pull pretty fast lap times under the right circumstances. I would say either of these cars is more at home on an autoX course than a drag strip, and in that arena, the EVO X dominates the FWD MS3. The fact that the SCCA ranks the EVO X as a B-Stock car (now BS, formerly AS), whereas the MS3 is ranked in D-Stock (DS):

http://cms.scca.com/documents/2011%20Tech/2011%20stock%20listings.pdf

This is further exemplified by the fact that C&D ran the new EVO X SE around VIR over 5 seconds faster than the fastest MS3 they've ever ran around that track:

http://www.caranddriver.com/features/10q4/lightning_lap_2011-feature/sortable_times_3a_complete_lightning_lap_times_2006_to_2011_page_8


^^^Given that VIR is a big track, with lots of straights & high speed sweepers (not a very tight/technical course that a car like the EVO would excel on) that typically favors a car with a strong top end (not the strong suit of a turbo-4), and both seem to offer similar top end pull, that's saying a lot about how well the EVO is able to take advantage of the corners.

FWIW, the new Stang on VIR absolutely RIPS!! Although not a huge shocker given the numbers they've been putting down, a track like VIR suits that car very well

Either way though, I don't think I would ever say going from a MS3 to an EVO X SE is a "downgrade" per se. It's a big upgrade in some ways.... having AWD in the snow is one of them. Having it's retard-proof YAW control system that allows even the most mundane of drivers to look like a total hotshot in the corners is another. Huge Brembo's from the factory is another big advantage, as well as a larger potential aftermarket. The ability to pull sub 2.0 60 ft times
on all-season tires in the event you do want to drag race is another advantage. The factory Recaro's are nice as well. I would even say the EVO X is a better looking car... but that's subjective.

Really, IMO, for anything other than freeway pulls, the EVO is an upgrade. With the exception of it's god-awful cheap interior (sorry OP)... I've driven both numerous times, and I really do think the MS3 has a nicer interior, with the exception of the EVO's factory Recaro's. However, in all actuality, the EVO X SE costs around ~$12,000 more than a base MS3... so while it offers several advantages over the Mazda, really, for $12k more, it should. You get what you pay for. Just my $.02

Congrats OP, enjoy the new ride.

Thanks for the comments, pics will follow as soon as this horrible weather is over and I can get it cleaned up from the drive home from denver. The evo is white in color and I paid $12500 difference. Yes the interior is not as nice, and I loved the bluetooth system in the speed3, but at least I don't have the awful smiley face front end any more, lol. So far I really like the evo's tranny and paddle shifters, and the awc has been awesome.

I always wrestle with trading in my car for an evo and my thought process goes like this:

- My car is great, but I really would like AWD, maybe I should get an STI

- STI's are cool but Evo's are a bit better

- Holy crap, aftermarket for Evo's are pretty damn expensive and MS3's are going to kick my butt stock

- I'll just put more money into my MS3 and save up for a GT-R =)

nice buy, i was looking at getting a clean evo8-9 but finding one that hasnt been abused is a pain. and then like said before i sit in the interior and its the same deal with a srt-4 the interior is a marginal improvement over the el cheapo car its based on and the fact the msm outran a stockish evo10 from a light. ( just intake and exhaust which surprised the hell out of me and my passenger)i dont know if i can do it with the amount of time and money i have in my car....
im not knocking it, speeds except for the 6 its a battle of traction and you dont have that anymore, they do have slightly more potential even if mods are absurdly expensive. and to have more room than the lockable glovebox they call the miatas trunk would be amazing plus i may have to agree its debatably better looking than smilyface mazdas depending who you ask
either way congrats on the purchase, im a wee bit jealous!

pics or it didn't happen!

jk

congrats on the new car. can't wait to see it

Meh. (looks at tsx)

No, but seriously... meh.

Congrats:)

roninsoldier83 wrote:This is a bit of the old "SRT-4" argument haha. I honestly don't think it's much of a downgrade per se. The new EVO X has a good bit of potential as the 4B11 motor appears to be fairly stout and the twin-scroll "super-16G" (basically what it is) turbo is a good bit bigger than the K04 found in the MS3. If both are running stock turbos, running roughly equal mods & equally aggressive/conservative tuning, the EVO X is going to make more peak power. However, from a freeway roll, this advantage is diminished, as the EVO is going to have less area under the curve (2.0L PI motor with bigger turbo vs 2.3L DI with smaller turbo/spools faster), the EVO has a larger drivetrain loss (AWD vs FWD) and the EVO weighs considerably more than the MS3.

Honestly, from a roll, if you both had equal mods, I would have thought it would have been pretty similar.... either way though, IMO, neither of them are "drag" cars. For a car that excels at drag racing, I think you made a GREAT choice (new 5.0 Mustang FTW!!), RWD, solid rear axle (may be a limiting factor for autoX/road racing, but damn sure not for drag!!), and large V8 motor with over 400hp stock. That's a drag car. Granted, Ford has done a wonderful job at making that thing handle a lot better than it's spec sheet would suggest, kudos to Ford and the new Stang.

With that said, I prefer the interior on the MS3 over the EVO, but for a sports/performance oriented car, I think the EVO is a pretty big upgrade over the MS3. I say that not based on drag racing timeslips (neither one of them were made for dragging), but based on handling prowess & track/autoX times. Both are sport compact cars, highly modified econoboxes from that factory, designed to be both practical and fun to drive, but drag racing is not their specialty. In their respective classes, both pull pretty fast lap times under the right circumstances. I would say either of these cars is more at home on an autoX course than a drag strip, and in that arena, the EVO X dominates the FWD MS3. The fact that the SCCA ranks the EVO X as a B-Stock car (now BS, formerly AS), whereas the MS3 is ranked in D-Stock (DS):

http://cms.scca.com/documents/2011%20Tech/2011%20stock%20listings.pdf

This is further exemplified by the fact that C&D ran the new EVO X SE around VIR over 5 seconds faster than the fastest MS3 they've ever ran around that track:

http://www.caranddriver.com/features/10q4/lightning_lap_2011-feature/sortable_times_3a_complete_lightning_lap_times_2006_to_2011_page_8


^^^Given that VIR is a big track, with lots of straights & high speed sweepers (not a very tight/technical course that a car like the EVO would excel on) that typically favors a car with a strong top end (not the strong suit of a turbo-4), and both seem to offer similar top end pull, that's saying a lot about how well the EVO is able to take advantage of the corners.

FWIW, the new Stang on VIR absolutely RIPS!! Although not a huge shocker given the numbers they've been putting down, a track like VIR suits that car very well

Either way though, I don't think I would ever say going from a MS3 to an EVO X SE is a "downgrade" per se. It's a big upgrade in some ways.... having AWD in the snow is one of them. Having it's retard-proof YAW control system that allows even the most mundane of drivers to look like a total hotshot in the corners is another. Huge Brembo's from the factory is another big advantage, as well as a larger potential aftermarket. The ability to pull sub 2.0 60 ft times
on all-season tires in the event you do want to drag race is another advantage. The factory Recaro's are nice as well. I would even say the EVO X is a better looking car... but that's subjective.

Really, IMO, for anything other than freeway pulls, the EVO is an upgrade. With the exception of it's god-awful cheap interior (sorry OP)... I've driven both numerous times, and I really do think the MS3 has a nicer interior, with the exception of the EVO's factory Recaro's. However, in all actuality, the EVO X SE costs around ~$12,000 more than a base MS3... so while it offers several advantages over the Mazda, really, for $12k more, it should. You get what you pay for. Just my $.02

Congrats OP, enjoy the new ride.

<< Owned. LOL

And yea, I do tend to give a lot of "SRT-4 arguments" because my last two cars were an SRT-4 and MS3, haha. Slow from a dig, bat out of hell from a roll. My friend who is all about Evos and I have some fun conversations about which type of racing shows which car is actually faster.

You're right, the Evo will massively outhandle the MS3. Even though the MS3 is usually rated as one of the best handling FWD cars, it's still FWD, and the massive understeer whenever you get on it going around a turn is what finally made me fed up with FWD and prompted me to make the switch. I loved the straight line performance of my MS3 but after driving my slow as balls Miata around offramps and tight turns and loving how fast I could go, I just couldn't do the performance FWD thing anymore.

Having AWD and being able to drive it in the snow is a huge bonus and one that I really miss now that I'm stuck driving my POS Miata in the snow while my friend is driving his brand new 2011 STi and going anywhere he wants. At the same time, most of the paint chips I had on the front end of my SRT4 and MS3 were from sand and gravel being thrown at the car in bad weather, so my Mustang should stay looking nice longer since it stays tucked away in the garage.

Sorry, didn't mean to make this thread about me and the Evo X is a great car and definitely has a ton of potential. They are very versatile and are very fast in almost every situation except a high speed roll (unless heavily modified). They definitely look better than the Genpu, though I do think the first gen MS3 looks better, but I'm biased, hehe. And you got the best color for the Evo X - White. Congrats again and sorry to crap on your thread.

erod550 wrote:<< Owned. LOL

And yea, I do tend to give a lot of "SRT-4 arguments" because my last two cars were an SRT-4 and MS3, haha. Slow from a dig, bat out of hell from a roll. My friend who is all about Evos and I have some fun conversations about which type of racing shows which car is actually faster.

You're right, the Evo will massively outhandle the MS3. Even though the MS3 is usually rated as one of the best handling FWD cars, it's still FWD, and the massive understeer whenever you get on it going around a turn is what finally made me fed up with FWD and prompted me to make the switch. I loved the straight line performance of my MS3 but after driving my slow as balls Miata around offramps and tight turns and loving how fast I could go, I just couldn't do the performance FWD thing anymore.

Having AWD and being able to drive it in the snow is a huge bonus and one that I really miss now that I'm stuck driving my POS Miata in the snow while my friend is driving his brand new 2011 STi and going anywhere he wants. At the same time, most of the paint chips I had on the front end of my SRT4 and MS3 were from sand and gravel being thrown at the car in bad weather, so my Mustang should stay looking nice longer since it stays tucked away in the garage.

Sorry, didn't mean to make this thread about me and the Evo X is a great car and definitely has a ton of potential. They are very versatile and are very fast in almost every situation except a high speed roll (unless heavily modified). They definitely look better than the Genpu, though I do think the first gen MS3 looks better, but I'm biased, hehe. And you got the best color for the Evo X - White. Congrats again and sorry to crap on your thread.

I forgot you used to own a SRT-4 haha! Off topic: when I was in Iraq (many years ago), out of boredom, a buddy of mine and I used to spend a good amount of time over on SRTForums, specifically in the War Stories section (before they deleted it), where we did almost nothing except for talk shit and start flame wars haha! I wish they wouldn't have deleted that section, we had some seriously funny stuff posted over there.... not because we had anything against SRT-4's, but just because it was pretty much un-moderated, and a fun place to talk trash in general.... *sigh* sometimes I miss my days of "trolling" haha! I also had a bet with my buddy Dan that he couldn't get banned from posting in War Stories... he won the bet, but only after posting transvestite porn LOL! Fortunately our IP's were dynamic, and went through several proxies ect, so they were never able to IP ban us haha, just screen names... Dan must have been banned a dozen times before they just gave up. Either way, it was hilarious and a great way to pass the time on a 12 hour shift in the desert. [/OT]

I agree with you about FWD though... I've owned 1 turbocharged FWD car... 1.... never again. Granted, it was my 2nd Gen DSM.... F*ck. That. Car. True Story. Unequal length half-shafts, open front diff, no traction/stability control to speak of and horrid weight distribution. That thing was a torque steering, wheel-hopping monster that was utterly useless in either a corner or anything lower than the top of 2nd gear. By comparison, the MS3 might as well walk on water haha! The MS3 is likely the best handling (stock) FWD car I've ever driven... but at the end of the day, it's still FWD. The weight over the front end/drive-wheels and tendency to understeer makes it easier to live with in the snow vs. a RWD car, but beyond that, I'm not a big fan of FWD. Great for being cost effective (vs. more complex AWD cars), making back seats more usable (no driveshaft tunnel), getting good fuel economy (horizontally opposed engines can make for small cars/lack of a long hood ect), and of course, as mentioned, typically a bit better in the snow.

However, when it comes to performance, there is almost no arena in which a FWD car is going to dominate a comparably equipped RWD/AWD vehicle. Although, arguably FWD cars have been doing pretty well in rally racing, but still not dominating AWD vehicles. I'm really not a big wrong-wheel-drive fan if I have other options... In truth, I prefer RWD, but settle for AWD cars due to their increased traction and stability in the snow. There's a part of me that sometimes thinks I should have just bought the RWD 335i over my AWD 335xi and just spent some extra cash on a beater for the winter (like an old Subaru Forester or something), but I suppose I do like being able to drive my 335 daily, even if I can't do big smoky burnouts or induce power-on oversteer haha! It tracks pretty well though, still has good weight distribution and handles more like a RWD car up until the limit (RWD based chassis, AWD is RWD biased ect).

My distaste of FWD is also a large part of the reason why I bought a MS6 over an MS3 many years ago... that and with the $3500 rebates combined with invoice pricing, they were comparable in cost for me back then haha (picked up my MS6 Sport brand new for $23k back then). Giving up a bit of speed is worth it to be able to go WOT in 1st gear when needed and have a chassis that works harder to resist understeer & torque-steer. Granted, most AWD cars still push/understeer, but the ability to get on the throttle a little quicker coming out of the apex & control your line with the throttle to a greater degree makes up for it. As does the ability to go ice racing up at Georgetown Lake!! (They only allow AWD/4WD vehicles on the ice up there).

Either way, I guess I should quit bashing FWD, and stop pissing on the OP's thread haha. Congrats again to the OP, enjoy the new ride.