Evo's great estate blasts off

Evo's great estate blasts off






could this be the ultimate in practicality and performance? Spotted on test in Japan, it's Mitsubishi's soon-to-be-launched Evolution IX Estate - and Auto Express's spy photographers got the first-ever pictures.

Making a surprise debut on a wet Tsukuba race track near Tokyo, ahead of its unveiling next month, the newcomer completed three fast laps before disappearing from view. Sources said the car was undergoing its final phases of testing and running back-to-back with the saloon to establish a series of quick lap times for comparison.

At the end of the day, Mitsubishi's research and development test team declared the results were far closer than expected.

Originally, they'd anticipated the estate's extra 100kg bulk would add at least two seconds' time difference around the two-kilometre track.

But the gap was less than one second. According to a spokesman, the carrier's rear end actually improved its weight distribution, which gave better traction than the saloon.

Just 2,500 Evo IX Estates are to be made, and the car will only be available here as a grey import priced from around £20,000. It shares the same chassis, six-speed manual gearbox and 2.0-litre turbocharged engine as the saloon. Expect a 0-60mph sprint time of around five-and-a-half

http://www.autoexpress.co.uk/news/58890/evos_great_estate_blasts_off.html

looks liek a fuckin volvo with those taillights, ew

Uglee

yeah, thats what i was thinkin when i saw it...

taillights are pretty gay.........wannabe wrx wagon

Im very disappointed.

they f*cked up big time on this rear

H-o-m-o.

I've mentioned this before it turns out that Mitsubishi now is going down hill..... very ver dissapointing

i was thinking the same thing they just want to knock off the wrx wagon.

I've heard that they've been going down for years now, One of my friends was telling me that Mitsu is the only Japanese company that doesn't turn a profit every year. It makes sense. Apparantly, they've gone through 3 CEOs in the last 3 years...

I think the new Eclipse was a last ditch effort to try and climb out of the hole, so to speak.

Check out the wipers on the estate, seems odd for some reason. The front end looks nice, but the rear screams volvo indeed.

The wipers look odd to you because it is a RHD (right hand drive) they are backwards.

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