LANCER?

[Eric Seppanen]

On Tue, Jan 08, 2002 at 10:30:35AM -0600, Jon Pennington wrote:
> On Tue, 2002-01-08 at 09:05, JFormantes@aol.com wrote:

> > Will these EVO VII  lancers (266HP) smoked high end nissans or hondas alike?

> Unless the Focus RS is imported and the WRX STi is allowed on our
> shores, there will be little competition for the Evo7.  Don't forget
> that a vehicle is only as effective as you make it, and every job has
> it's own tool.  Though Evos and STis are very quick on the drag strip,
> that's not what they were built for.  Road racing AWD turbo, 3000 lb
> cars is a lot of fun, too, but that's not what they were built for.
> Watch some WRC on Speedvision some time. :)

That's a good point I've been waiting for someone to make.

You imply that the WRX STi isn't coming here: I thought it was common
knowledge that the STi _is_ coming, sometime in the next 12-18 months.
This comes from a good source, and no, I can't tell you who it is.

In any case, the one thing that's really exiting about owning a WRX is
the massive aftermarket support.  Remember, this car has been a tuner's
favorite in Australia, Japan, and Europe for a long time now.  The car
has a huge factory racing effort behind it driving some awesome
engineering development, and lots of that effort trickles down to
average folks over here across the pond.  By comparison, it seems as
though Nissan treats U.S.-based racers and tuners as unwanted
stepchildren.

No, it's not a simple 2500-lb little quick car.  It's fat and loaded,
with lots of standard crap like in-dash-CD-changers, side airbags, and
ABS.  Remember, if you're looking for an AWD car you're going to end up
with something over 3000 lbs (unless you find a Mazda 323GTX).  If you
compare the WRX against other AWD cars, it comes out way ahead in
performance and price.

Eric
I drive a WRX and rally an SE-R.  That just seems wrong.