Three of Japan's most highly regarded performance cars - the Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution X, Subaru WRX STI and Nissan GT-R - have all undergone fairly extensive revisions this year.
In fact, the GT-R is a completely different breed from the Godzilla of old, having severed its connection with the Skyline name in favour of trying its luck as a bona-fide (and upmarket) supercar. The other two are still true to their souped-up shopping cart origins, but have matured somewhat in an effort to capture the interest (and dollars) of a wider demographic. Japanese performance cars have really come of age lately, and it's interesting to see nearly every review of the Evo, STI and GT-R give a very positive appraisal of their overall abilities as sports cars...
The STI has been reviewed by Inside Line and Winding road, with both publications being impressed with the Subaru's on-track and on-road prowess. The Evo X has been reviewed back-to-back against the Evo IX in Motor Trend (with surprising results), while the January '08 issue of Sport Compact Car has an in-depth technical analysis of the new Evolution.
The GT-R has been covered by a multitude of publications already, however there's still the odd review trickling out - particularly in Europe. Car, Auto Express the Telegraph and Motor Trend have had a decent thrash in the R35 (all in the name of quality journalism, of course) and each of them appear to have emerged from the cockpit smiling. A common criticism of the R35 GT-R was that it's on-road manners were conspicuously absent, with a sharp, tailbone-bruising ride and a propensity to tramline souring the driving experience. However, once unleashed onto a proper racetrack, the GT-R's true abilities came to the fore and gave credence to Nissan's claim of it being a genuine supercar.
They're all a good read, so take the time to go through each of them. The Motor Trend Evo X/Evo IX comparo is a particularly good yarn, so if you're going to read only one, make it that one (warning: loads of science content within). Oh, if you're a bit of a GT-R newb (it's okay, there's no shame in admitting it), I'd suggest reading the Telegraph's article first - a brief rundown of GT-R history is included, so at least you'll have an idea of what all the fuss is about. Enjoy!
[Source: AutoExpress, Car, Inside Line, Motor Trend, Sport Compact CarWinding Road] zum Original
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