If the Evo X is already a stunning piece of machinery, what happens when you tweak one for motorsport? We pulled on a helmet, strapped up the harness and found out…

How, exactly, do you build a better mousetrap? Mitsubishi’s Evolution X has been on sale for a while now, and countless aftermarket tuners are getting their hands greasy trying to extract as much performance as possible from it.

It has been proven that big power is achievable from the all-new 4B11 engine that powers the Evo, and the car’s on-track potential is second-to-none (a 1-2-3 finish at the most recent Bathurst 12-hour is ample proof there).

But all that extra performance usually comes at the cost of street-ability. Stripped-out interiors and manic engines are perfect for the racetrack, but a pain to live with on public roads.

To many, the idea of modifying a standard-issue sports car upsets the balance between performance and road-going compliance.

Team Mitsubishi Ralliart, on the other hand, beg to differ.

TMR (no relation to us, we swear) recently launched its brand spanking new line-up of tune-up parts for the Evo X, which will be sold under the Club Spec label.

There is the odd hard-core piece of equipment in their catalogue (six point rollcage anyone?), but for the most part these are all street-legal, street-friendly bits of kit.

“So it’s soft then?” you say. Well, no. When the standard Evo is already hard as nails, virtually any mod will transport it one step closer to ‘diamond hard’ status.

When those modifications are designed by TMR – the same mob that built the aforementioned Bathurst 12hr-winning Evos – you know the end result is gunna be good.

Let’s start with the engine.

Previous generations of Evo were all powered by Mitsubishi’s venerable 4G63 mill, an engine that shared the same 2.0-litre turbocharged inline four layout as the all-new 4B11, except with an iron block (the 4B is alloy) and the turbocharger mounted between the engine and the radiator.

Thanks to the Herculean strength of that iron block, large amounts of boost could be fed into the 4G to generate incredible amounts of power. When the alloy-blocked 4B11 superseded the 4G63, modifiers wondered whether the new engine would be just as ‘tune-able’ as the old one.

As TMR has proven, it sure as hell is.

Forged Mahle pistons are standard, as are forged gudgeon pins and conrods. The alloy block is certainly not an issue and in standard trim it’s incredibly understressed.

How understressed? Well, for their Club Spec package, TMR managed to unlock a full 270kW (53kW more than stock) with nothing more than an ECU tweak and a low-restriction rear muffler.

Is it quick? The numbers suggest it is, but to properly answer that question we took TMR’s Evo X Club Spec to the DECA driver training facility in Shepparton and let ‘er rip around their short handling course.

“With the twin-clutch SST gearbox in Super Sport mode and the Super All-Wheel Control set to tarmac, this thing is - to put it bluntly - mother-flippingly quick.”

Now, this course isn’t exactly a racetrack. In fact, with severely choppy pavement, two blind crests, a two-lane width and a distinct lack of runoff in some areas, we’d say the handling course is a country back-road that just happens to run in a loop.

In other words, you don’t want to go too quickly on this particular stretch of blacktop. However, TMR’s Evo Club Spec is so amazingly (and deceptively) fast that going slow simply wasn’t possible.

With the twin-clutch SST gearbox in Super Sport mode and the Super All-Wheel Control set to tarmac, this thing is - to put it bluntly - mother-flippingly quick. The extra 53kW is evident in the way this Evo gathers speed and before you know it you’re travelling at triple digits.