Two of the most recognizable production vehicles bred from their manufacturers’ endeavors on the rally racing circuit are the Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution and the Subaru Impreza WRX STI. Here we’ve obtained the latest and greatest versions of both, but instead of pitting them head to head in the customary R&T track setting, we thought it best to explore the breadth of their sophisticated all-wheel-drive systems, performance-tuned chassis and high-strung turbocharged 4-cylinder engines in an environment that will showcase their talents as much as it could expose their weaknesses.
Venturing to the other side of the continent, we landed at the Team O’Neil Rally School and Car Control Center in Dalton, New Hampshire. Our first three days here were spent as students, getting up to speed on the nuances of perform-ance driving in a rally environment, while taking in all the breathtaking beauty and bone-chilling rain New England had to offer. The following week arrived with us having full latitude within this world-class off-road training facility for our testing. And along with it, the assistance of its founder and accomplished rally champion, Tim O’Neil. With his help, we’d wring the most out these production sedans on the narrow rally roads while minimizing the chance of spinning off a cliff or wrapping sheet metal around a burly oak.
The 2011 Impreza WRX STI, with its stunning new wide-body 4-door configuration, is what Subaru calls its fastest production STI ever. To reinforce this point they shipped one to Germany’s famed Nordschleife, plopped rally legend Tommi Mäkinen behind the wheel and set a sedan record lap of 7 minutes 55 seconds (beating out the Cadillac CTS-V’s previously recorded time in 2008 by 4 sec.). This holds true through our gamut of tests carried out at the El Toro Marine Corps Air Station in Irvine, California, where this STI outperformed its 5-door predecessor in every area, save for 80–0 mph braking where it fell shy by an insignificant 2 ft. The boost in performance here can be attributed to modifications made to the STI’s chassis. The ride height has been lowered by 0.2 in., the front and rear spring rates are stiffened by 16 and 53 percent, respectively, and both front (21-mm) and rear (20-mm) anti-roll bars have grown by 1 mm. Toe and camber integrity is improved through solid pillow-ball bushings supplanting the lower front control arms’ rubber units, with stiffer subframe bushings added in the rear.
The changes result in significantly more balanced road manners. There’s less understeer to fight, which is of paramount importance with an all-wheel-drive car, and much more roll stiffness makes for quicker transitions and less body English in a corner.
The 2010 Mitsubishi Evolution SE, or Special Edition, is a model that was created for fans of top-spec MR performance parts like the dual-clutch (TC-SST) transmission, 2-piece Brembo front rotors and uprated suspension, but not so much the superfluous trim and comfort items that add weight and cost over the base GSR model. Although there is virtually no hardware on this car that doesn’t already exist on another, the package that Mitsubishi has bundled to fall in the middle of the Evo pricing spectrum ($35,790) has outperformed the very capable, but much more expensive, MR Touring ($40,990) in every single test we’ve done.
Along with its torque-vectoring rear differential (Active Yaw Control), Active Center Differential and an intelligent electronic overlord (Super All-Wheel Control) that blends the balance of a rear-drive car with all-wheel drive’s sure-footed traction, this 10th-generation Evo has proven to be an insurmountable opponent on pavement for the STI...at least up to this point. So how does everything stack up in a rally environment?
The skidpad was the first of five tests where the STI became the early favorite. Its all-wheel-drive system comes with a multitude of modes and settings that affect center-differential lockup and thus fore/aft torque distribution. For its Driver Controlled Center Differential (DCCD) we opted to leave it in “Auto +” instead of selecting a fixed ratio. This mode favors more differential lockup (more power sent to the front tires) and retains computer-varied torque biasing. This appeared to work well. Maintaining a mild oversteer condition—the quick way around the skidpad in this case—was an effortless task, largely due to the predictability we could feel through the chassis. O’Neil comments: “I have a lot of confidence driving the STI here. If the car is going to understeer I get a sense of it, and the car tells me I’ve got to let off the gas or give it brake. I get a little bit more feedback from the road compared to the Evo as well. I felt that it liked a combination of both left-foot brake and throttle, whereas with the Evo you could get away with just throttle and steering—but a lot more steering.”