There was a time in the not too distant past that four-door sports cars and performance cars were mutually exclusive clubs, that was until the Mitsubishi Evo came around. Nowadays, we're disappointed when a four-door car isn't as fast as the old Evos used to be.

The eighth-generation Evo is the best of the whole bunch in many people's minds. People who grew up either watching them on TV or using them in video games get weak at the knees in the same way older people gawk at 60' muscle cars. The Evo is faster than muscle cars in most respects, that's a riot in itself.

But what's the story behind this turbocharged four-wheel-drive rally car for the road? Well, apart from being legitimate as quick as supercars in its day, the Evo VIII was also the first Evo to be enjoyed by our loud, stetson hat-wearing friends across the pond, the Americans.

Get ready to treat every single red light as the start of a rally stage, we're taking a look into the first Mitsubishi Evo to be enjoyed by the Americans. It also showed them a thing or two about how to really build fast four doors.

The Perfect Performance Daily Driver, Unless You're American

Lancer Evo VI TME on display
via Contempo Concept

Leave it to the Americans to be a little bit late to the party, just as they were in World War Two. Light-hearted teasing aside though, the Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution was already a household name in Japan and Europe for years before the Evo VIII arrived on North American soil.

Via: www.mad4wheels.com

Like any good performance car, the Lancer Evo stuck to a formula and perfected it over the course of decades. All have four doors, all have turbo two-liter engines, all were born in the crucible of rally racing, and all can give cars twice or three times as expensive a run for their money. Seven generations of the Evo came and went before Mitsubishi decided Americans were smart enough to appreciate small turbocharged four-seater cars after all.

Related: Looking Back At The Mitsubishi Lancer Evo VI Tommi Mäkinen Edition

You Don't Have To Buy A Supercar To Go Fast Anymore

via dreamaticl

Lancers were always performance bargains, but it was the eighth generation that took things to an entirely new level. Two liters of displacement might feel pathetically small if all you're into is muscle cars. But what takes massive displacement and eight cylinders to do in an old muscle car, the Evo could do with just one turbocharger. The benefits of all-wheel drive meant the Evo was also significantly faster than muscle cars, poking its nose into supercar territory in the process.

Via: BBC

In what was probably the magnum opus for the Evo VIII, Jeremy Clarkson of Top Gear raced an only slightly tuned Evo VIII against a then brand new Lamborghini Murcielago coupe. On paper, it looked like the most one-sided race in history. The Lambo had three times the cylinders and cost as many as three or four Evo's.  Only one of the cars involved spun out in a corner during this shootout, and it wasn't the Evo.

Motor Biscuit

So how did Mitsubishi pull off the seemingly impossible? Well, it's all about technology. Lancer Evolutions have always far more than a big, dumb turbocharger on top of a tiny little engine, it needed to be more clever than that to be taken seriously. Under the hood of every Evo is a computer-operated engine and traction control system with megabytes of processing power to help Evos steer, brake and rev better than any purely mechanical system. With as much as 400 horsepower under the hood, that meant the big rear-wheel-drive Lambo never stood a chance.

Related: This 1100-HP Sleeper Evo's New Owner Wasted No Time Drag Racing It Against Supercars

A Few Drawbacks

via Autogespot

The Evo VIII a legitimate contender for the title of fastest four-door sedan ever made. That didn't mean it didn't come with a couple of really odd flaws. It's pretty normal for a high compression sports car to require using high test gasoline, but Mitsubishi's insistence that you fil the Evo VII with Shell 93 octane specifically had a lot of people scratching their heads. It might have had something to do with the fact that the turbo four-banger under the hood got around four miles per gallon under full throttle.

Via: www.the-lowdown.com

In the era before advanced twin-turbocharging, turbo lag was just another unfortunate reality that petrolheads just accepted as the way things are. But even by mid-2000's turbo standards, the Evo VIII's turbo lag was appalling. And as much as we all may love the gargantuan rear wing, you'll probably have to get used normal people assuming you're a hooligan with mayhem on their mind everywhere you park it. It's also as tantalizing to police as a bright red Ferrari.

Sources: BBC.

Next: Watch This 1150HP Mitsubishi Lancer Evo Smoke The Competition Drag Racing