[dustinr]

Okay here's some of my thoughts on the Evo VIII MR Vs. STi:

Granted I'm still breaking in the Evo so I haven't opened it up yet, but I can tell that it's almost exactly even in the power department with the STi. Although, they deliver power differently. The STi is smoother off the line and that's probably due to it's displacement advantage. And the STi clutch is much more forgiving. The Torque on the STi is more brute force than the Evo which causes a lot of head wipping, and it kind of lets you know that you are building speed rapidly. The Evo is much smoother in it's power deliver up to a point then it builds speed very very rapidly but yet it's kind of deceiving beacause it doesn't have the neck snapping torque of the STi. The Sti is more forgiving in gear selection whereas the Evo needs to be in the right gear all the time to take advantage of it's power. The brakes feel identical to me. The handling is night and day, the Evo is a bigger version of a shifter kart. The STi is a very capable handling car but you need to know how to steer it with the throttle. The Evo is point and shoot, zero body roll compard to the STi and the ride quality of the MR is outstanding, I'd say maybe a little better than the STi and it feels completely glued to the tarmac in the corners. They have done a very nice job of giving the MR a nice ride and brilliant handling. What else... The clutch on the Evo is too soft for my likes and it's very finicky, but the 6 speed changes gears very smoothly, maybe a little better than the STi. The dash on the Evo SUCKS! It's very dimly lit and very hard to read unless you have the steering wheel in a bus driver position other wise it's right in the middle and you have to move your head to see how fast you are going. The seats..ROCK! Although the STI would be more comfortable on trips the Evo seats are brilliant and hold you in place very nicely. Not a major concern to me but the STi in dash CD changer is nice but the Evo's little crappy stereo sounds better. The Evo doesn't seem to rattle as much as the STi either (yet) and at speed the rear wing on the Evo is as stiff as a board whereas on the STI it looks like it is trying to fly away. The STI seems more technologically advanced where the Evo feels more manual,in the evo it's like your driving the car not the computer. The Sti you can tell the computer is is trying to keep you on the road. the reason I say that is beacause in the STi if you take a corner a little to fast the car will start to understeer very bady, now if you let off the throttle a quick blip it will tuck back in and start to follow the correct line but if you decide to ham foot it through the entire corner (requires a little faith) the car will understeer to the point where you think you're about to go off of the road then all of a sudden its like the computer flips a switch and it will just tuck in and blast out of the corner. I do believe the STi can hang with the Evo in the corners but it takes some faith in the car and it's abillities; the STi just feels more on edge when driving it hard whereas the Evo feels totally planted and under control. Glad I own both...