Evo VI Tommi Makinen First ride, Long

[alan pritchard]

Adam, feel free to send any of your comments via me, and ill forward them to
the list.
Hi a little of topic, but i thought you guys would like to know.  A good
friend of mine has just got himself An Evo VI Tommi makinen edition, so i
offered to supply a small write up.....
He picked the car up today so was a bit new to the way it behaved, so this
is a bit early to really assess its performance, For those who dont know,
the Tommi mak' is a special edition of the Evo VI, It has suspension tweaked
for Road use, A titanium shaft turbo (supposedly spools up quicker) and a
larger intercooler, The steering is also sharper, 2.2 turns lock to lock.
These are the main differences i Know of. First impressions.................
Well the first thing i knew about was when one of my managers commented
about a really nice looking silver car, at the front of my work.  I knew i
was being picked up, so i went see, The car looks very mean, Chunky wheel
arches, low front bumper/valance, with a big square hole for the
intercooler/radiator, the finish on the exterior of the car seemed very good
in the early dusk light, Although i had been told the paint was a bit thin,
and had been known to wear away at the inner sills. The arches were
obviously designed to accomodate wider rubber as there was about a 3/4"
overhang from the wheels, the rear wing was also very well finished.  Now
for a bad point..... On the boot lid was a sticker saying evo vi tommi
makinen, it should have been a badge, although it would only get stolen.
Inside is fairly basic, the first thing you notice is the nice big bucket
seats, complete with holes for a 4/5 point harness and shoulder supports.
The dashboard is very simple and uncluttered, and suprisingly, sturdy.  The
instrument cluster is also very basic, with all the usual stuff you see in a
modern car, no boost gauge though.
In the centre of the dash is what mitsubishi seem to have spent all their
time on i nthe car, the climate control!!! it has a 3" lcd display showing
what vents are in use, inside and outside temperature etc, very pretty.
Below the climate control is a double din stereo hole (no stereo or
speakers, although there are mounts in the doors and shelf), this will be
usful for a stereo and other goodies (gauges etc.).  The rest of the inside
was just like any family saloon.
Under the bonnet is very cluttered, although the car still looks simple to
work on, everything is exposed, and there is no unecessary covers getting in
the way.
Performance............
I was expecting it to be slightly slower than the lotus esprit v8 se i went
in a few months ago, what the esprit had in horsepower, the evo made up for
in traction!!!  Until the turbo spools up there is very little go from the
engine (compared to his previous car, golf vr6) but when that turbo spools,
you laugh, VERY LOUDLY!!!! Fun FUn FUN!!!! as part of our drive, we wnt down
a local road, it runs between two 30 zones, in the middle it is 60 mph,
about 1/3rd mile long i guess, and empty the first run we ran upto 100mph,
easily, and came back similarly. the second run we got 115 mph at approx
half distance.  Now let me put this in perspective, My 84 cgt is uk spec and
puts out a supposed 130bhp, It blitzes most everyday cars.  On this road i
generally can hit 95 mph, then have to hit the brakes sharpish!!!  I reckon
we could easily have hit 130 mph, and still had time to brake comfortably.
And the brakes, my god, if you got a puncture, take the wheel off, the discs
would work very well as a wheel!!!!  With brembo 4 pot calipers, stamping on
the brakes at speed (100+) pitches the car heavily forwards (and the
passengers) and the abs doesnt even kick in, not even a squeek from the
tyres!  In the dry this car will not spin or skid, not for us anyway. The
handling is superb, holding a winding road perfectly at almost twice the
speed limit.
A very fun car.
About the only other bad comment i have at this point is the lighting,
although better than his golf's, i think a car like this should have had
much better headlights, dont get me wrong, they're good, but just not good
enough for this car    ;)
Anyway, ill keep you informed as my friend gets used to his new toy.

Now, i need a urq with about 300 bhp, and £5000 of suspension and
brakes................................................