2006 Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution IX - King EVO The IX

Somewhere in the distance--probably about five miles away--I can hear what sounds like a wounded dinosaur roaring in anger. If I was any closer that noise would almost be cancelled out by the sound of people's jaws hitting the pavement in disbelief as this streak of green raced past them and disappeared into the distance in a cloud of toxic smoke, leaving their ears as shocked as their eyes. Yup, Norris Designs' latest creation has just entered the neighborhood.

This is an Evo like no other. The figures tell their own tale--841 hp, 635 lb-ft of torque, a 9.7 second 1/4 mile (making it the quickest Evo in Europe) a top speed of over 200 mph, 2 fewer doors than a standard Evo, 10 inches shorter, and 3 inches lower. And 100 times as mean.

Obvious first question: Why?
"Why not?" replies Simon Norris, the 28-year-old mastermind behind Norris Designs. "We were looking to build a new demo car to follow our Evo VII and we had to build something which was even better from our previous cars to distinguish ourselves from other tuners and move the game on. In this market there are some good tuners out there, but you are only as good as your last car and everybody is trying to outdo the next guy-but it's all very friendly."

Really? How friendly? "We do all talk to each other," responds Simon. "If somebody has a problem, say with a gearbox, and I've had the same problem, I'd be happy to offer advice. But not with engines-we are all very secretive and we know things about Evo engines which others don't and the way we build ours is different from anybody else in the country." OK, so the engine is a sensitive area-just what will he reveal about it? ND is constantly experimenting with engine specs to progress from their earlier 587 and 771hp powerplants which established them as a major player in the Evo tuning business.

"We had an idea of what we wanted to do with the engine, but we played about with some cams and turbos to get the right combination,"explained Simon. "We tend to try things one step at a time and then test them on our dyno so we know the results before moving on. Our dyno is an invaluable tool in quantifying what we are doing. I've probably spent 30 days solid mapping Evo engines on the dyno-and I've got hundreds of graphs to prove it!" And the final result?

By Simon Cooke

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