It's difficult, very difficult, to contain yourself when speaking about Mitsubishi's awesome Lancer Evolution VIII FQ-300. Someone asks you what it's like to drive, and every fibre of your being wants to let rip, gushing superlatives and hyperbole as you dance around the room making swooping and diving movements accompanied by guttural roars and high screams. Or maybe that's just me.Anyway, it's so much cooler to take your time and point out, ever so carefully and precisely, without any frills or embellishments, that this is simply the most awesome streetcar you can buy for under 30 grand. In fact, it's quicker off the mark than many so-called performance cars costing two, three, even five times as much.Put simply, if you are standing at Point A and you desperately need to get to Point B as fast as is humanly possible, the car you need burbling away in the drive with the door open is without any doubt the Evo VIII FQ-300.Tweaked and tuned by those masters of the black arts at Ralliart, what you have here is the closest thing you can buy to an off-the-peg rally car. It's the most ferocious, most uncompromising of road cars with a blend of engine, suspension, transmission, braking and steering that simply rips up the laws of physics and chucks them scornfully in your face. It will scorch through 62 mph less than five seconds after take-off and race on up to a limited top speed of just under 160 mph.Squeezed in under the bullet-like ventilated bonnet is a two-litre, four-cylinder petrol engine with fire breathed into it through a specifically designed turbocharger, aided and abetted by an intercooler and water-spray system. That "300" in the name refers to the brake horsepower (actually 301bhp) waiting to be smeared down into the tarmac through the complex and "intelligent" four-wheel drive system, though it could equally refer to the 300lb/ft of torque that's also on tap.Trundling along in town, the beast is not happy. It growls away like a caged leopard waiting for the first sign that the door may have been left unlocked. The rock-solid suspension brings to your bottom, via the firm, hip-gripping Recaro seats, an accurate and faithful reproduction of every pimple and wart on the road surface. The massive Brembo disc brakes are bordering on the harsh in stop-start traffic, and while the six-speed manual gearbox clicks securely into every gate you can tell it wants to be treated harshly in some more challenging point-to-point thrash.Slow driving has one major advantage and one major disadvantage. The advantage is you have time to see the heads turn as the not-at-all subtle car cruises along, all bulging flanks, gaping air intakes and high tail wing. The disadvantage is you also have time to look at your interior surroundings which are bland in every detail - every detail, that is, except the Kenwood radio/CD player which is cursed with the ugliest and most unnecessarily complex display unit I think I've seen since the early 1980s.But this is all pointless prevarication. The entire essence of this car is speed and agility, and the technology that really counts is the stuff that gets you down the road quicker than anyone else. The only decision the driver has to make is what setting to put the active centre differential at. It comes with three settings, accessed by scrolling through them with a push button on the dash. They're called Tarmac, Gravel and Snow, although, as a small explanatory sticker on the door points out, these are just guides and, for instance, the gravel setting is used when the roads are wet.Built into the system is Active Yaw Control which, we are told, helps keep the car under close control during heavy cornering by feeding extra torque to the outside rear wheel. Obvious when you think about it really, eh?But what's it like to drive? Well, only one word adequately describes it, and that word is "brutal". Point the car down a long and empty straight, stamp down on the accelerator, and after a fraction of a second that turbocharger kicks in and the world gets blurred. You are simply stuffed back into the seat as the beast takes off in pursuit of the horizon.There's a bit of torque steer as the weight shifts backwards off the front wheels, but it’s nothing alarming, and as you snap up through the box that big-hearted engine just keeps giving more and more and more while singing, full-throat, through the exhaust pipe.Throw it into the corners and the suspension just coaxes you round without any sign of roll or concern. It's so tight that if you hammer it out along a twisting and swooping back-road it'll just skip over the crests, stuff itself down into the hollows and snap itself left, right and left as if it was being shot down an invisible pipeline. As your internal organs take a pounding, the Evo will simply hang onto the road with what feels like supernatural tenacity.In short, the only weakness in the car is the organic element in the driving seat. The problem is that any fool with a right foot can stuff a pedal down into the carpet until his eyelids are pulled open by g-forces, and the only thing standing between that fool and this most violent of cars is a modest wad of cash. The Mitsubishi does speed so well that it tricks the senses. Put it on an airfield and thrash it, and you'll find that when you think it's doing 60, in reality it'll be nudging twice that.In a time when so much emphasis is being put on the dangers of speeding, this car is quite simply indefensible. It just isn't doing what it does best while moving within the UK speed limits. It is uncompromisingly built to go quickly - very quickly - and without even trying to wring anything approaching reasonable fuel economy from the engine.Knowing this savage motorcar is out there fills me with conflicting feelings. As a driving enthusiast it's exciting and satisfying, but living out here in the real world I have to say I know very few people I’d trust enough to own one and not be silly. The bottom line is simple - this car belongs on a track and if you want to put one on the road, and keep your licence, you’re going to need superhuman restraint and constant vigilance. Engine 1997cc, 4 cylinders Power 301bhp Transmission 6-speed manual Fuel/CO2 21.6mpg / 334g/km Acceleration 0-62mph: 4.9 seconds Top speed 157mph Price £28,999 Details correct at publication date
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