When the EVO 6 arrived here in early 2001, it was 9 months old, and had been taken as part exchange against a 22B. The cars first owner had imported the car new, and had also spent £2000+ on modifications. Selling the car at only 9 months old and with 8000 miles on the clock, depreciation had hit the car hard - well very hard. Already fitted to the car when it arrived here was a full Apexi exhaust, K&N induction kit which also swapped over the battery / filter position so the induction kit was now at the front of the car instead of near the centre of the hot engine bay. But the main modifications centred around the fitment of Apexi programmable controllers. Namely a Super ITC which looks after the timing, a Super AFC which controls the air/fuelling and an Super AVC-R which controls the boost; a simplified description for each as there is a lot more to them than that - but you get the idea. The car was also fitted with lowering springs, but we never got to the bottom of what make they were.

I had read so much about the EVO's, especially in tests when they were up against Impreza's, that I probably expected too much from it, and after the first drive I was a bit disappointed with it. It didn't feel any quicker than the Impreza, the ride quality was very harsh and the handling wasn't the great plus point I had read about - in fact it really had a mind of it's own. However we soon discovered the problems were all related to the modifications rather than an EVO problem.  

But 2 things stood out the most about the car; first of all, an Impreza stands out from the crowd and will get you noticed in most places, but that's nothing compared to driving an EVO 6 through a town centre, everyone and I mean everyone looks at it. I started to get paranoid about even letting it out of my sight. The second thing I noticed right away was the brakes, awesome, no standard Impreza set up came close to matching these. 

But back to the problems with the modifications. I had noticed that under heavy braking, the car felt that it was about to swap ends with itself, and when coming out of corners the back would start to step out with a little drift, then the AYC wouldn't just halt the slide but also pitch the car back the other way at an alarming rate. Now I knew the car was lowered, and I suspected it had been lowered by about 35-40mm all around. Both Ralliart and HKS list springs that lower the car by 32mm at the front, but only lower them 15mm at the rear. So the conclusion was the back was way too low, and the great balance these cars have, had been lost.

I had also noticed on my first drives in the car that performance wasn't as good as I had expected, but more alarming was that on acceleration the boost was peaking at only 1 bar then suddenly dropping back to 0.9 then back up to 1 bar in a surging effect. The settings on the Apexi controllers was way out. I got in touch with a couple of suppliers who supply these kits in the UK, but both were a little secretive with final settings - only saying the car had to be set up on their rolling roads. Fair enough, I can agree with that fact, but I was worried that the settings could be so far out, that it would be dangerous to drive 300 miles South to those suppliers. But they did give me something to work with. At this point through the Mitsubishi Lancer Register I got in touch with 2 EVO 6 owners and 1 EVO 5 owner who had the same Apexi controllers fitted. Incidentally all 3 had the same settings, so no great secret there. The car was reset to the same then the boost turned down a fraction - it would do until it could be checked out on a rolling road. The car was now a revelation to drive, back to what it should be. The Apexi controllers are a great piece of kit, but too easy for someone to go in and alter, I would like to have seen some type of coded lock on them.

The standard brake pads were coming to the end of their life, and with the cars first track day coming up, I replaced them with Mintex 1155's. Excellent pads for an EVO, if a bit on the dusty side and a pain to clean on the EVO's multispoke OZ alloys. Performance at the track day was superb, especially those brakes, but fuel consumption was terrifying, we used a full tank in less than 1 hour. OOPS. 

A couple of months later, on a gentle drive a whining noise started to come from the gearbox, increasing and decreasing depending on road speed. Oil level was okay and it hadn't long been replaced at a service, so it was something a lot more serious. We did some investigating and it seemed to be a known problem, with cars sometimes as low as 3000 miles old suffering the same problem,. So the gearbox was removed and sent to Dom Buckley Motorsport in Kelso who replaced the bearings with up rated group N rally ones. It was also at this time we noticed that the clutch was wearing fast, and the car had only done 12,000 miles!!!! The clutch was soon replaced with an AP Racing clutch, problem solved, but nearly a £1000 lighter for both repairs.

Near the end of 2001, I used the EVO 6 and my wife used the Impreza, but I had to get rid of one of them. I was always being asked what one I preferred. If I was to build my perfect car from those 2; it would have the looks, acceleration and brakes of the EVO 6; but handling, comfort, build quality and reliability of an Impreza. Also the sound - nothing compares to an Impreza with a good exhaust. I did enjoy driving the EVO 6, and once the problems above had been sorted, it was a great car to drive. The acceleration, handling and brakes were as good as I had read about, but reliability and build quality could have been better.

So the EVO 6 was eventually sold - it took a while, followed shortly after by the Impreza. The combination I had been looking for was just round the corner.