Fans of Japanese performance sedans have a holy war going on about which of the Mitsubishi Lancer Evo and the Subaru Impreza WRX is superior. Jonah, a talented builder from the USA, must have had a great time trolling both camps when he produced a mashup of both cars.
We hold no illusions regarding the purists’ reaction to it, but it has to be said that the result looks professionally executed. In essence, it is an Impreza with an Evo IX front clip grafted on: you can just barely see the joints on the front fenders. The rest – the window line, the proportions and the outlines – looks like something in between the two marques, prompting even the pros to stare for a moment trying to process what they have just seen.
Power comes from a two-liter Subaru flat-four outfitted with a new turbo package, intake and exhaust components, and other mods. The figures aren’t there, though.
In the 8-minute video, Jonah admits the work was more challenging than one might think, especially the seamless grafting part. However, it is nearly complete with only the radiator grille and the intercooler left to work on. BBS wheels fill out the arches nicely, the whole body is finished in red, and there are no badges front or rear. It doesn’t matter to Jonah whether his creation is a Mitsubaru or a Subevo – what matters is that it is a good, if utterly blasphemous, build.