Standard Evo VIII or FQ300

[Doug Shep]

Hi All,

I am researching prior to buying and have been looking at the standard Evo VIII and FQ300 model.

What are the real world differences as they seem closely specced?

Cheers

[youngsyr]

Doug Shep said:

Hi All,

I am researching prior to buying and have been looking at the standard Evo VIII and FQ300 model.

What are the real world differences as they seem closely specced?

Cheers

Be very careful with Evo VIIIs, they're probably the most varied model of the entire range.

The key to understanding Evos is knowing that all the ones sold in the UK were built in Japan and imported (except for one version, which I'll come to).

Those sold to a person in Japan first and then imported here are grey imports and are often referred to by their trim level: GSR for road spec. or RS for motorsport spec.

Mitsubishi UK (aka the Colt Car Company) officially imported several hundred Evo VIII GSRs from Japan for sale in UK Mitsubishi dealerships. The very first few sold were sold as VIII GSRs or FQ-280s and were essentially GSRs converted for use in the UK (foglights, mph speedo etc).

After the first few sales, Mitsubishi UK started slightly tweaking the Evo VIII GSRs that they'd imported and badged them as Evo VIII FQ-300s. A little while after that they added the FQ-330 to the range which is still just a tweaked Japanese VIII GSR in all respects.

The final verions of the Evo VIII that Mitsubishi UK sold was the Evo VIII 260. This was a purpose built car for the European and US markets and had various milder parts on it to the Japanese and FQ versions of the Evo VIII to pass stricter emissions requirements, as well as a 5 speed gearbox and a/c as opposed to 6 speed and climate control on the VIII GSR/FQ. As a result of these changes, it was reported to have 260 bhp as standard as opposed to the 286 bhp of the Evo VIII GSR and the 300 bhp of the Evo VIII FQ-300.

Now the tricky part is that CCC or the DVLA ccked up and registered many Evo VIII 260s as Evo VIII GSRs. This mistake has been compounded with many owners calling and selling their Evo VIII 260s as Evo VIII GSRs, but there is quite a big difference between the Evo VIII 260 and the Japanese version of the Evo VIII GSR and the UK Evo VIII FQ-300.

Evo VIII 260s tend to sell for a lot (typically 10-20%) less than their GSR equivalents.

One sure fire way to tell them apart is the gearbox (5 speed on 260, 6 speed on GSR) or if you just have the advert, look at the age of the car: a 260 will be built from 2004 onwards, an VIII GSR or FQ would have been built in 2003 or before (but beware, some Japanese VIII GSRs may have a later plate showing the date they were imported to the UK, not the date that they were built).

Edited by youngsyr on Thursday 28th October 12:55

[Doug Shep]

Many thanks for taking the time for the above reply, really useful info I was unaware of.

I am not considering a grey import anyway and based on the above would prefer either a 6 speed early 280 (as imported by Mitsubushi) or a FQ300 in unmodified form (if thats possible).

[youngsyr]

Doug Shep said:

Many thanks for taking the time for the above reply, really useful info I was unaware of.

I am not considering a grey import anyway and based on the above would prefer either a 6 speed early 280 (as imported by Mitsubushi) or a FQ300 in unmodified form (if thats possible).

Why wouldn't you consider a grey import? The Mitsubishi imported cars are generally around 10% more expensive than a grey import, but are almost identical.

I wouldn't worry too much about minor modifications (exhaust, induction, remap) either, there are reasons why so many Evos are modified:

1) Minor modifications lead to big increases in performance.
2) Minor modifications are cheap to do.
3) Evos are reliable even if lightly modified.

It's also worth bearing in mind that the VIII FQ-300 is a modified VIII GSR, it's just that Mitsubishi UK (or to be precise the Colt Car Company on behalf of Mitsubishi UK) did the modifying!

[youngsyr]

I should probably also mention that my posts above consider the Evo VIII MR models to be a different model to the Evo VIII.

Essentially the Evo VIII MR is an Evo 8.5 in that it's a revision of the Evo VIII. The same still applies re the models though, except for there being no 260 version, there were simply the GSR and RS versions available in Japan with Mitsubishi UK (CCC) importing several hundred VIII MR GSRs and converting them into the FQ-300, FQ-320 and FQ-340 versions.

The Evo VIII MR FQ-400 is pretty much a Evo VIII MR GSR that has had a lot of engine work and other modifications carried in the UK.

[Robb F]

youngsyr said:

Lots of very useful things

Thanks for that

[hallion]

Go for a stage 1 modded Evo 8 260 (around 360 BHP) - IMHO the 260 5 speed box is a joy to use compared to the 6 speed in the GSR's, FQ's etc.

[Doug Shep]

Good Grief this is getting more complicated by the minute!

I was worried about grey imports primarily regarding the service history from Japan. I have a local import centre locally just outside Dover in not so sunny Kent, but not being able to apreciaite the various specifications the prices of Evos in stock seemed more than UK cars.

In reallity I think circa 300bhp would be fine to start with as this is my first 4WD car having owned a R5 Turbo and a TVR Chimp respectively as my weekend cars (the Evo probably blows these into the weeds in terms of handling and performance).

[youngsyr]

Doug Shep said:

Good Grief this is getting more complicated by the minute!

I was worried about grey imports primarily regarding the service history from Japan. I have a local import centre locally just outside Dover in not so sunny Kent, but not being able to apreciaite the various specifications the prices of Evos in stock seemed more than UK cars.

In reallity I think circa 300bhp would be fine to start with as this is my first 4WD car having owned a R5 Turbo and a TVR Chimp respectively as my weekend cars (the Evo probably blows these into the weeds in terms of handling and performance).

Importing Evos (or any Japanese car) hasn't really been worthwhile for a few years now due to the exchange rate, but a lot of Evos were imported nearly new a few years back, so may well have a full UK service history from very early on in their life. If they also have the all the auction and import documentation, I wouldn't worry too much about the service history.

My brother bought an unmodified grey import Evo VII GSR 18 months ago that didn't have much of a service history but was very low mileage. He hasn't had a single problem with it in the 18 months he's had it, as far as I'm aware and that's not uncommon for standard or lightly modified Evos.