Evo The Best

Snow lies piled at the edges of the road and, occasionally, a big pool of slush flows right across. But the car hardly seems to notice. There are chirrups and whooshes. Gravel loosened by a winter of heavy frosts is being ripped up by the tyres and flung at the underbody, while great head-snapping waves of turbo boost fling the car across the ground at an astonishing rate. This is the classic Mitsubishi Evo experience that I knew today would bring. But I didn’t expect to find it in this car. This is where it all started, the original Evo, and with it now being 21 years of age I’d just assumed it would feel relatively soft, warm-hatch quick and rather dull. I couldn’t have been more wrong. The speed, agility and control it exhibits are quite extraordinary.

I’m salivating at the prospect of trying the best of the breed back-to-back, but we’re on dangerous ground here. Naming the ‘Best Evo Ever’ is like opening a shipping container of worms. Do you get all 12 generations together (the Mäkinen is really a 6.5 and the 8 also made a half-step with the MR)? Do the stripped-out RS models or the more sophisticated GSR versions represent the best of the breed? Or perhaps the halfway-house RSII cars? Then there’s the nutty Zero Fighter edition…