The last of the Mitsubishi Evos – and Kiwis queue for 30 only

June 5, 2015 by Alastair Sloane

The 23-year love affair New Zealanders have had with the ‘Mitsi Evo’ ends this November with the Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution Final Edition, the last of a series of go-faster sedans that began in 1992 with the Evo 1 and lived through 10 generations.

Only 30 examples will be available in NZ out of 1000 being built for the Japanese domestic market. Mitsubishi Motors NZ marketing chief Daniel Cook said each one was likely to be a collector’s piece.

“Unique upgrades make the Final Edition the most exciting Lancer Evo ever, with the 2.0-litre turbocharged MIVEC engine’s revised mapping lifting power and torque to a massive 230kW and 421Nm,” Cook said.

The most powerful production Lancer Evo ever

A five-speed manual gearbox will channel the extra power to all four wheels via the Evo’s S-AWC all-wheel-drive system.

The upgrades include Revised suspension, with high-performance Eibach springs and Bilstein shock absorbers, and the latest Brembo braking technology. Front seats are bucket Recaros with red stitching that is also on the steering wheel and the shift knob.

The Final Edition rides on18-inch BBS forged alloy wheels and features a glossy black roof and commemorative badges inside and out. Paint finishes are Tarmac Black, Titanium, New Silky White and Rose Red.

Cook said the last of the Evo’s does much more than ring down the curtain on a magical chapter of motoring history. “It embodies the essence of all the driving excitement that the word ‘Evo’ calls to mind, with even greater performance and finesse,” he said. The price for the Final Edition will be known nearer its arrival in NZ.

If you are in a position to shell out upwards of NZ$600,000 for the 60^thanniversary Porsche 911 S/T or optional Porsche 911 S/T Heritage, you’ll no doubt want the signature titanium watch that goes with it. That’s how Porsche figures it anyway. Or, if you want the watch you’ll need to get the car. Both the car and the watch are limited to 1963 units, the year the original 911 model broke cover. The watch – Chronograph 1 911 S/T and Chronograph 1 911 S/T Heritage – and the car carry matching edition numbers. The watch is priced at $US13,500, or around $NZ22,200. The car, says Porsche NZ, starts at $NZ608,000. A “strictly limited number” will go into production for NZ early next year.

Eight European Union countries are pushing to weaken new EU emissions limits for cars, saying they are overly ambitious and unrealistic for carmakers to hit. The eight countries – France, Italy, the Czech Republic, Bulgaria, Hungary, Poland, Romania and Slovakia – said in a joint paper that parts of the proposed Euro 7 regulation, including curbs on exhaust pipe emissions, should be scrapped entirely. They said the limits would force carmakers to invest in improving exhaust emissions performance, money which would be better spent on developing zero-emission vehicles. Taken together, the countries would have enough votes to block the proposal.

A go-anywhere EV concept for the US military uses an onboard 12kW diesel generator to top up the batteries on the move. The all-wheel-drive has 800-volt technology and a 200kWh battery pack to power three electric motors, two in the rear and one up front. Claimed output is 745kW/15,590Nm, or 1000hp and 11,500 ft-lb of torque. The four-seater was developed by the defence division of General Motors and is based on the platform of the Hummer SUV. It rides on Fox performance shock absorbers and 37-inch tyres and comes with “exceptional” approach and departure angles for off-road mobility. Maximum range using the generator to keep things ticking over is said to be around 500km.

The outside temperature in Midland, Texas, was 40.5C when staff at the local office of the US National Weather Service set out to show the cabin of a closed car can literally get baking hot in summer. They mixed up a batch of chocolate chip cookies and laid them on the car’s dashboard – the surface of which showed a temperature of 87.7C. A little over four hours later the cookies were ready to eat. “Even though ours weren’t golden brown, we can confirm that they are done and delicious,” the staff wrote on Facebook.