I owned a mildly modded Evo IX and a Comptech SC S2000 at the same time. The Evo has better steering feel than S2000 and is much easier to drive up to its cornering limits. I was much quicker on the track in the Evo.

Having said that, I would pick the S2000 over the Evo for driving fun:
Convertible
S2000 shifter
High rpm pull and VTEC engine note

I hated how the Evo compelled any boy racer within eyeshot to chase you down and then demonstrate their mad skillz.

 

Let's face it, the Evo 8/9 is an icon of "boy racer". What is the primary reason for the high maintenance costs, the AWD?

It's amazing these engines last that long with a steady diet of 22 psi.

 

[QUOTE=2007 Zx-10,Nov 23 2008, 05:20 PM] Let's face it, the Evo 8/9 is an icon of "boy racer".

 

Evo is not rice at all. I don't think I've ever seen a riced out EVO. Now a Lancer, well you all know that story.

As for the Evo being a more fun car to drive then an S, I just don't see it. I've driven both pretty hard before I made my decision. As you can see I chose the S.

 

An Evo maintenance is...
expensive brembo sized brake pads, and 12.6" front rotors and 11" vented rear rotors

THREE differential fluids to change

Mobil1 oil only, or any other synthetic

91 gas, that it drinks like a drunk in a brewery.

235/45/17 or wider tires at all four corners that have to be replaced all at one time, or risk ruining your center diff.

The Evo has the "boy racer" look because of society.

If you look back at the early 90s, people were putting big spoilers on their cars, buying hoods with vents, and installing all these "race inspired" parts to make their cars look racy.

-The hood on the Evo is aluminum, with an aluminum grill that's vented to help extract heat from the turbo

-The front bumper has huge openings to feed the oil cooler (right side vent) the intercooler, (middle) and intake (left side)

-The rear spoiler on an Evo is made of carbon to stiffen it so it doesn't wobble at high speeds like the STI's wing. It's also placed high up to take advantage of the air coming off the roof

-The vortex generator (spikes on the roof) was engineered by Mitsubishi in a wind tunnel to help direct the air onto the spoiler and keep it off the rear windshield. ...and coincidentally, you find many Hondas, and other cars doing the same visual mods to their cars ..... just to look racy....

I don't think I have to explain the Recaro seats, Brembo brakes, Advan tires and Enkei wheels do I?

 

Evo has better steering feel.

For the rest the differences are pretty obvious.

 

Is the Evo faster from a roll? I...*ahem*...had a friendly contest with one outside Tyler a few weeks ago and pulled about a half car length on him from 40 mph to 110 mph. It was close enough that even a mediocre shift by either of us would have changed the outcome.

I generally don't run cars so I have no idea if the outcome was typical or not. Neither of us blew a shift so it was a pretty fair run, all things considered.

I talked to the owner after the run and he was bone stock. I have a K&N FIPK and that's it.

 

Not typical at all. That Evo should've at your S2000, stock for stock.

 

Question is...have you owned an Evo? Driving a car pretty hard for a limited time hardly qualifies you to judge a car. I've had the pleasure of owning both the AP1 and AP2...along with the Evo X. I have access to both cars (ap1 and X). Hands down the the X is more fun to drive. But that's just my opinion.

 

Actually, the dsm built cars were the ones to have, and mits took over sometime during 94 when they were still building 1gs. Basically what you wanted was a dsm built 6bolt motor, but there were dsm built 7 bolt motors in the later 1Gs which was later taken over by mitsubishi, but yes I agree that what you want is the earlier models (I thought it was up to 92) since they were the 6 bolt motors. When they went to the 7bolt motors, all of the years had the problem. They say that mitsu corrected the problem by the late 98 models, but there were reports that folks with 99s had the problem too, but fewer, but that could be due to the lower sales volume as well.
And I agree with the trans being sturdy and that a lot of the bad rap comes from kids driving their cars like morons, and that most of the problems associated with the evo comes from that.