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When I first discovered the World Rally Championship, it was all about the fierce rivalry between Subaru and Mitsubishi. Colin McRae and Tommi Mäkinen captured my imagination with their bright blue and red rally cars sliding, jumping, and occasionally crashing their way through rallies. These two manufacturers left the WRC years ago, but their legacy (mostly) survives to this day with the Subaru WRX STi and the recently discontinued Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution. This rivalry came to Mighty Car Mods in the form of a daily driver battle that pitted Marty’s Evo X against Moog’s WRX.
This may seem like an unfair match, as Moog’s WRX is not the more racing oriented STi. But Moog has modified his WRX with a better suspension and more horsepower. Marty’s Evo is bone stock and has an automatic dual-clutch transmission better suited for city traffic. That’s all well and good in town, but how do they do on the track? It seems that Moog has more than offset the power disadvantage his WRX had in stock form, topping 120 mph down the front straightaway of Sydney Motorsport Park.
Marty’s Evo may shift faster with its dual-clutch transmission, but the WRX pulls away from him ever so slowly, and even Marty says he would prefer a stick for the track. When it comes to the corners it’s no contest. The Evo wallows and rolls on its stock suspension while the WRX remains flat, maintaining better grip and more speed. In the end, they declare Moog’s WRX the winner, forcing Marty to sell his Evo as agreed.
But you have to hand it to the Evo for holding its own against Moog’s modified WRX as well as it did with no track preparation whatsoever. Even factory stock except for the tires, Marty was able to stay with Moog pretty well, despite the WRX’s advantages that mainly came from Moog’s modifications. Stock vs. stock, the Evo would walk away.
Either car makes a great daily driver that you can still take to the track, either in stock form like Marty’s Evo or with mild modifications like Moog’s WRX. I’m itching to take my own WRX to the track myself to finally let it stretch its legs a bit and show me what it’s got. My wife has even talked about taking her Ford Flex EcoBoost to the track at some point. That may seem ridiculous, but it’s not as ridiculous as my first track car – a bone stock 1995 Saturn SC2. Thanks to rainy conditions and my front wheel drive, my Tupperware turd surprised a lot of BMWs that day as I carried more speed through the turns than they could. It just goes to show that you can have a good time at the track in any daily driver.
