This site is dedicated to the original 4WD Lancer GSR. It does not contain much information about the Evolution-series Lancers as there are already many sites devoted to them on the web. The GSR is however closely related to the Evo 1/2/3, sharing the same monocoque and many major components. Almost all of the information here was gathered from the web or from the GSR_Evo mailing list at Yahoo (nee:egroups nee:onelist) and while I cannot claim 100% accuracy, the fact that the car was never officially sold here means I have difficulty in confirming some details. If you know of any of the information here to be wrong, please mail me and I'll update the site asap.
Confusingly, most Evolution Lancers were designated GSR too. Two specs of Evo were offered, the lightweight RS being designed for easy conversion for rallying and the far more common GSR having creature comforts like electric windows fitted. Any reference to 'GSR' on this site will normally be referring to the ur-GSR, the 1800. To add to the mix there is also an RS version of the 1800 (hello Al!), calling it an GSR RS would be silly so 1800RS it is.
I'd like to thank all the people who have helped me compile what you see on this site including Lex, Daniel Cowley, Lon, Hisham Ahrone and Dave Harper. Thanks also to the others who have emailed me with details of their cars, GSRs and otherwise, you know who you are :)
The GSR was produced in this bodyshape (designated 'CC' by Mitsubishi - very confusing as the model code is CD5A!) from 1992 till late 1995 when the current shape of Lancer was introduced. It was not replaced by the Evolution models, but was sold alongside them as a sort of 'junior' performance version. The only markets where the GSR was officially available were Japan, Australia and New Zealand, although from what I gather, it may have been withdrawn from sale in Aus/NZ before 1995. The new shape Lancer was also produced as a GSR, with a mild power hike to 205ps (from 195ps) and similar body styling (mild rear wing, inoffensive alloys etc.). I've only seen one or 2 of these in the UK which makes them even rarer than the CC models like mine!
The main difference between the GSR and the Evo 1/2/3 is the 1834cc engine, designated 4G93 in Mits-speak. This has obvious disadvantages as far as maximum possible hp and torque are concerned, but this has to be balanced with the weight advantage that the GSR has over the larger-engined models. Depending on the model of Evo, the GSR is quoted as being between 50-70kg lighter than the early GSR-spec 2 litre cars. I guess this comes down mostly to the heavier engine. The 4G93 is very receptive to tuning, and from some of the figures quoted at Boost.com, has no trouble in matching the performance of the Evos with relatively little modification.
Another major difference is the bodykit fitted. The GSR has it's intercooler and large twin-fan radiator mounted behind quite a subtle grill in the lower front bumper moulding. This combined with the mild rear wing and discrete 14" alloys gives the car a very un-threatening appearance. One of the reasons that I bought a GSR was precisely because of the lack of wild spoilers and intakes, the car doesn't shout 'race me!', or indeed 'nick me!'. Lowering a GSR can help change the look of the car, lending it a menacing mien. A popular addition, especially in Aus/NZ it seems, is an Evo 3 kit.
By far the easiest and most common change to the looks can be achieved by fitting a decent set of wheels. The 14" rims fitted as standard do the requisite job of going round and holding the tyre on, but aren't exactly the most 'butch' of wheels. A nice set of 16" or 17" five spokes seems to be the most pleasing combination to my eye. The standard GSR tyre is a 195 and I reckon with tyres wider than a 205, I reckon that there would be too much grip, especially at the back end, and although this is fun in a kind of roundabouts-at-50mph kind of way, I would miss my power-oversteer moments too much :)
Well, what can I say, you put your foot down and it goes! With a quoted 0-60 time of just over 7 seconds, there aren't too many cars that can beat a GSR in a straight line, especially from a standing or slow-speed start (thankyou 4WD!). A minor increase in boost such as mine has, means the extra hp ensures that hot hatches and Vectra V6s never get a look in. Boost comes on strong from just over 3000rpm and remains until about 6500rpm when it begins to tail off as the restrictions of the standard intake/exhaust and turbo come into play. The amount of torque available at relatively low engine speeds means that unless you are in banzai-makinen mood, the upper reaches of the rev counter needn't be used to ensure speedy progress.
Of course this is all academic when you come to a corner. Although my experience of cars is relatively limited, the Lancer must be the best handling car I have ever driven. This was vindicated recently on the BBC TV show 'Top Gear' when Tiff Needell tested an Evo 1 against a WRX and a Honda NSX in a bargain Japanese import shootout. Having pronounced the NSX as 'boring'(!) and the WRX as a paragon of understeer, his vote went to the Lancer as the most fun to drive.
With torque being split 50-50 front-rear, the initial tendency for the Lancer to understeer is easily quelled with a judicious right foot. This brings the car into lovely neutral stance that'll see you round most corners without incident, despite the fact that you will really be travelling. In lower speed corners, especially in the wet, a more determined prod on the throttle will see the back end drift out and a smile appear on your face. Only a deliberate attempt to get seriously sideways has ever got my palms overly sweaty, but even then, backing off gently meant the car regained it's posture and I continued, only on a slightly wider radius than before :) A big thankyou must go out to my local B&Q, whose excellent obstacle-free car park enabled me to try my hand at some doughnuts before replacing all four tyres a while ago :)
After over 2 years and many miles I still love the car, though an Evo VII would be nice :) During that time I have noticed the following:
With all the attention the Evo VI and latterly the VII have been getting recently, the Lancer has had it's profile raised, I don't have to explain to a lot of people what kind of car I drive now. This is a good and a bad thing.
After my rolling road experience (plot here) I now know that my car is producing 200bhp and 220lbs/ft, this seems to show that the car is in reasonable nick and is a good basis for getting more power! Induction mods are at the top of my list, a cold air airbox replacement will be done sometime. After that, well the standard turbo only has so much life left in it so I reckon that instead of getting an exchage stock TD04, a hybrid will have to be fitted instead :) the extra cost is more than justified!
I am now the proud owner of a silver Mitsubishi Lancer GSR Evolution!
I sold my GSR, I am now a man without respectable transport!
Got new custom exhaust fitted, pics here
Star Performance in Glenrothes was the site of my first ever rolling road experience and what a blast it is too! Simply being near a tuned car at 6000rpm is enough to get your heart racing, when it's you car on the rollers it feels like you're about to do a bungie jump or something :)
For £30 I got 2 runs and as was the case for almost everybody on the day, my first run was the best: 200bhp @ 5940rpm, 220lbs/ft @ 3840rpm. Not too bad considering the standard figures are 192bhp and 185lbs/ft. The second run was down due to rising intake temperatures and showed 197bhp and 206lbs/ft. Unfortunately the printouts were done from the second run (as they were taking one car off and strapping another in) so I don't have proof of my best run!. Click here for a plotted graph.
I reckon the nice fat torque increase is due to the boost and exhaust mods, but the power figure was suffering from the oem induction setup and the old plugs (just worked out they've done nearly 8000 miles! Ooops!)
6 months! - I really should get down here more often! I got a new battery, the old one was shot to bits. The specs for a standard GSR battery are 270CCA (cold cranking amps) 50RC (50A residual current) and mine have been BCI group 54 (small terminals - important!). If you know anything about car batteries you'll know that this like a Micra battery, is ridiculously small for an 1800 with loads of ancillaries like climate control. If I can, I'm going to try and find a larger capacity battery that fits right in.
Reversed my dump (BOV) valve yesterday too, not much of a difference except for inital spoolup. Boost now comes in really quickly and off-boost the car feels so much more responsive. If this is an indication of what a real dump valve can do, I'm going to gets me one! I guess the valve was leaking a bit, reversing it has reduced the effect of that. At full chat it might hold on to boost slightly longer, but the limitations of the plastic valve, TD04 turbo and induction setup (standard) show in the end as boost tails off after 6500rpm.
Got wheels and tyres fitted, guy eventually put on Z-rated 205/45s to make sure I didn't have any probs :) Pics up soon hopefully. Also put Tyre-size program in download section, very handy indeed!
After discovering some majorly uneven wear on my o/s/f tyre, I've had to bite the bullet and spring for new tyres. Considering the damage to the n/s/f wheel and the fact that the other tyres were incorrectly rated and needed replaced soon anyway (at least that's what I told Sharon :) the best option seemed to be get new wheels and tyres together as a package. I settled on getting 15" as a compromise between cost and sexy looks.
I hunted around Glasgow for places that might be able to supply and fit them on Saturday and ended up at a place on Great Western Road who said that yes, they could get wheels in on Tuesday (they all claimed that) but then seemed to remember that he had a cancelled order for 16"s sitting around that would fit! Woohoo! They were Adik't High (I hadn't heard of them either) and are a rather tasty 7-spoke design with an inset rim, which I like. The tyres are some Jap brand, but they are H-rated and look the biz, I'll sort them out when I've got more money. Basically, the guy said I could have them for £500, so we went for lunch to discuss it.
After considering that 15"s would cost at least £450 and 16"s were looking like hitting £650, I managed to convince my better half that it was a bit of a bargain and we went back. I twisted the guy's arm and got him to chuck in a set of locking nuts for the same price and he agreed. He said that he would do a trial fitting and if they needed machining to fit he would loan me a set of wheels till he got it done. After fitting it looked like the rears would fouls on the arch, a short drive confirmed this. With the wheels having a 38mm offset he calculated that 45mm would be more like it, something that others have agreed with. He fitted a set of OZ Saturn Plus and I stormed off down the road with the promise that he'll get my wheels machined on Monday :)
With the new tyres (my first decent ones on the car) I am amazed that tyres can make such a difference to the ride of the car. basically, I have been crashing and banging my way around for at least 6 months now, but I never realised because the change was so gradual. Once I go back tomorrow to get the 16"s fitted, I'll try and get some pictures in at work on Tuesday, you never know I could finally have some new pics!
Join our GSR and Evo mailing list at http://www.onelist.com/community/gsr_evo
Well, if you haven't already, check out the results of my pre-christmas experiment to fuse alloy and kerbstone. Needless to say, it didn't work and I'm now looking for a new set of bowlies :(
I've also had feedback from some GSR owners questioning the performance figures quoted on this page. The figure of 15.4 seconds for the 1/4 mile was pulled from a site that looked like it had been complied from an original brochure. Hisham Ahrone has told me about his friend's completely stock GSR which consistently pulled low 14s. Maybe the 15.4 was for 0-400m, not too much different??
I'm currently racking up the miles driving Sharon into work every morning, and this means that I'm overdue a service and it shows :( When I eventually get another job, this will have to be one of my first priorities. Mind ye, if I don't start earning soon, I'll have to sell the car and this site will be no more! LTR track day at Cadwell park looked like as good as it promised, there are some pics over at the LTR website.
Got my Lancer Turbo Register membership back. Membership gives you an excellent quarterly newsletter and if you can afford to run a turbocharged car, £20 a year isn't much too much to ask, you even get a sticker for your car! Although this club was started for the original Lancer Turbo, nowadays membership includes almost every type of turbo'ed Mitsubishi, including an astonishing number of Evo VIs.
As with most of these type of things though, living in God's Country has it's disadvantages. There is a track day at Cadwell Park on the 22nd of October, but with my recent lack of earnings (thankyou Mach-Ten!) and the travelling distance involved, attending isn't really an option. Too bad, the pics and videos (on the LTR website) make it look well worth attending, and unlimited marshalled tracktime is only £40.
If you are a member of the LTR and live in the Central Belt, get in touch!
Also, after experimenting with the difference between normal (so-called Premium) 95-RON unleaded and 98-RON Super Unleaded, I have discovered that there is a marked difference between the two. Both pick-up and maximum power are noticeably improved using the Super Unleaded. I had been advised to run consecutive tanks of each fuel to 'retrain' the ecu, but the gap in performance was apparent not long after I left the forecourt. This should come as no surprise as Japanese performance cars are designed to run on the locally-available 100-RON unleaded, but I didn't expect the performance gap to be as big. The main reason for finding this out was that since realising that my Lancer ran ~20% more boost than normal, I didn't want any detonation and 'rearranged internals' spoiling my party :)
After trying the different petrols, I decided to see if there would be any more gains to be made using 100-RON fuel as intended. Of course this isn't available in the UK, so I got hold of some octane booster and added 500ml to a nearly full tank of super unleaded. This was to have the effect of increasing the RON to about 100. All I can say is WOW! You've heard of the slogan 'put a tiger in your tank', well this stuff must put a bloody tyranosaurus in there. There was as much a difference as between the normal and super unleaded. I will definitely be keeping some of this stuff around. There is a temptation to use it all the time, but at £6.20 a litre (enough to bring 2 tanks of super up to ~100-RON) it's not exactly cheap.
If you have a Lancer and would like to share any info, or if you think I can help in any way, mail me.