Talks Softly But Carries A Big Stick - Iskandar's Evo 8

Well Evos are really not that suitable to be sleeper cars as you can hear them a mile away and that's worsened by the hordes of over stylized Evolutions and worse, 'riced up' base Lancers.

However, when I spotted this dusty, black, relatively stock exterior (no big gt wing, wild body kits) discreet example of an Evolution 8, something tells me that there is more than meets the eye.

Other than the full battery of gauges sitting on the dash, the first give away is the ground effect Varis carbon fibre front lip. Looking at the size and quality of the carbon fibre weave, this sh*t can't be cheap.


Opening up the bonnet, things get interesting. Let's see, Custom ram air (4 inch diameter at the front tapering to 2.5 at the compressor opening for better response) intake system? Check. 4G63 chock full of Tomei internals? Check. Triple row aluminum radiator? Check. All hoses replaced with silicon and braided steel items. Check. What you can't see is a TD06 with a custom turbine housing, again for improved response.

All these translate to a dyno chart that looks like a large displacement NA race motor. HUGE power area under the curve, 440 bhp at 6000+ rpm (The owner, Iskandar showed me his chart but I forgot to take a photo).

Iskandar told me that he had a HKS GT3037 before and while he push over 500 bhp using the HKS, the car was laggy as hell. He track the car at Sepang regularly, posting timings in the very respectable 2'30"-ish range.

Further proof of the car's serious track intentions - external fuel pump and surge tank mounted in the boot within a clear fibreglass housing. Top notch work by ST Power once again.

In the cabin, more displays and gauges and toys than you can shake a stick at. Non-Singaporean/Malaysian readers probably are scratching their heads on the identity of the gadget on top/to the right of the two Blitz display meters (top right corner of the photo). 'Some say it adds 50 horsepower and brings on full boost earlier by a full 500 rpm....' *Jeremy Clarkson's tone-of-voice

In parting - A closer look at the centre console. HKS F-Con V Pro ems, EVC boost controller and Defi Link Control II, again the 'totally discreet on the outside but just take a look at the boot, engine bay and cabin!' theme. Wow, just... WOW.