Mitsubishi Evo X vs. Volkswagen R32 Road Test Review

A no-holds-barred TMR ‘drive-off’. Which is king of the heap? And if you’re in the market for a four-paw hammer, which should you put in the garage – Mitsubishi’s raw-boned EVO X, or Volkswagen’s scintillating Golf R32?

At 160km/h, Mitsubishi’s Lancer Evolution X begins to make sense. At 180, flicking down, then powering through a tightening sweeper, it begins to look more than simply sensible. Push on past 200km/h, ignore the pitching, the roar of the tyres and jarring of the suspension; and revel in the penetrating howl of the engine and the responsiveness at the wheel – because here, its genius emerges.

At these speeds, even on these roads – secondary by-ways with broken shoulders and a pitted, undulating coarse metal black-top – the sure-footedness and arrow-true tracking of the EVO X is little short of brilliant. What, you are forced to ask, would it take to seriously un-stick this thing?

In these conditions, the ‘harder’ IX would have launched you through the roof. But the EVO X is a step forward, and sideways, from the EVO IX it replaces: new body, new chassis, porkier, bigger brain and a more compliant, less ‘track-focused’, suspension. It is a road-racer’s dream, and, under the cane, the consummate sporting drive.

The EVO X ‘wires you in’ – it’s a feeling carried over from the IX – in a way that few cars can: there is a taut ‘connectedness’ though the wheel and the all-wheel drive that even at low speeds is ever-present, always tapping at your shoulder. At speed, it forces you to be busy, to feel every nuance of the road, to ‘be’ the car.

But at 60, 80, or even at 100km/h, the EVO X makes far less sense. It is like putting a barracuda in a goldfish bowl – you know it is made for other things; it has a grander destiny.

And that’s the conundrum: it always reminds you that it wants to be released. Its power is like a stick of gelignite. Stamp on it, and you’re launched straight into licence-shredding territory in the blink of an eye (“Git yourself down on the ground there boy… spread ‘em…”).

With the EVO X, even though vastly more civilized than its earlier more-riotous iterations, you just can’t escape the nagging thought, “Could I live with it? Would those track-bred compromises begin to wear thin? Could I live with forever hobbling all those straining horses?”

Ok. So, what then of the Golf R32?

Like the EVO X, it’s all-wheel-drive, it begs for the whip, and it’s impossible to belt around a winding pass without finding yourself grinning like a complete idiot. Perfect, on the face of it, for a drag-out, knock-down, no-holds-barred TMR ‘drive-off’. Which is king of the heap? And if you’re in the market for a four-paw hammer, which should you put in the garage?

On paper, the similarities between the two are immediately apparent. They’re priced in the same ballpark with just a $3000 price difference between the $59,490 base four-door, five-speed EVO X and the $56,490 four-door six-speed R32. Both have prodigious grip thanks to state of the art four-wheel drive systems and electronic traction management.

Under the EVO is Mitsubishi’s rally-proven Super All Wheel Control (S-AWC) with active centre diff and yaw control. The R32 utilizes Volkswagen’s brilliant 4-Motion slip-sensing drive system with oil-bath (wet plate) clutch and advanced traction control.

Also, like the EVO X - which in this test came with Mitsubishi’s new six-speed Twin Clutch Sport Shift Transmission (TC-SST) - our R32 review car came with Volkswagen’s benchmark DSG. The TC-SST is standard on the (much) more expensive Evolution MR and a $5000 option on the ‘base’ EVO X. The DSG is a $2300 option on the R32.