The End of Evolution

Charles Darwin once said “It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent that survives. It is the one that is the most adaptable to change.” We can be fairly sure he was referencing the fallibilities of nature, not bansai Japanese super saloons when he made the observation, but the car world is not immune from the simple truths of organic life.
The legendary Mitsubishi Evo is the strongest car its its field, bursting with Darwin's criteria of (turbocharged) strength and (computing) intelligence. Nevertheless, its parent company refuses to adapt it to comply with the current attitude on performance cars, so it's going, and not just this model either. According to Gayu Eusegi, Mitsubishi’s global product director, the current Evo X will go out of production with no planned successor. The Evo is dead.

The usual reasoning suspects are present: rising fuels costs (£1.40+/litre here in Evo-loving England), new green regulations, and a general move towards lighter, lower displacement, more efficient cars, at the expense of the old order, however important to the brand they are were. Mitsubishi in particular is committing to a fully electric outlook, with hybrid systems in the majority of its range by the middle of this decade and then a further push to full EV drivetrains as soon as the tech allows.
The Evo has beem deemed inappropriate for this treatment, and with Mitsubishi no longer competing in WRC, there's no need for homologation production, nor the demand there was in the late Nineties and early Noughties for a road-going rally special that won the Evo a place in the hearts of thousands of petrolheads worldwide.

With this massively sad latest departure from the showrooms of tomorrow, I'm put in mind of this clip from 1996 Top Gear, as the hilariously-permed Clarkson notes the demise of some of his favourite performance cars in something that amounts to a decent-car cull.

Between  the prosperity of the late Nineties and the latest recession, petrolheads, like investors, bankers, estate agents et al, have revelled in the good times. We've enjoyed a long and exciting period of year-on-year car development, especially in the realms of the fast car; even in the face of a growing environmental backlash, output and performance figures have increased dramatically.

We've seen cars top the 250mph barrier, and duck below 3 seconds to 60mph. We've marvelled at road cars shaving more than two minutes of previous Nurburgring lap times, whereupon the current record holder for 'everyday' cars rests with the Corvette ZR1 at 7:22.4, while some are predicting the new Lamborghini Aventador and McLaren MP4-12C could even sneak under 7 minutes when figured. Car lovers had, up until recently, never had it so good, and on the face of the latest reveals in Geneva, the grass is still green. Three new V12 flagships from Lambo, Ferrari and Pagani, a 'new' Aston, a track-bred Jag, the 1115bhp Koenigsegg Agera R, Alfa's new Evora-esque 4C mid-engined coupe, a faster Gumpert...the list is mouth-wateringly long and impressive.

No more M5 V10 - R.I.P.

It seems though that's it's only a matter of time before these too are being mourned for succumbing to the current facts of motoring life. New European emmission legislation and the effects of the global recession have seen a car massacre not unlike the one in the Top Gear clip. Victims include the high-revving, naturally aspirated Honda Civic Type-R, as well as all Honda's performance lineup, the S2000 and the stillborn V10 NSX replacement. The Focus ST and RS are gone courtesy of their sonorous five cylinder turbo motor, as are all naturally aspirated BMW M cars once the V8 E92 M3's number is up.

It may not have escaped your attention that these are also relatively accessible fast cars, whereas the new ones draped in showgirls right now at the Geneva Show are, with the exception of the £35k Alfa, all six-figure supercars likely only to be afforded by the employees of oil companies, banks and governments that help start the rot in the first place.

Alfa's 1.7l, 850kg, 200bhp 4C. The future's bright...

Efficient electric and hybrid cars are absolutely neccessary. There is a finite amount of consumable resources on this planet with which to build and fuel motor cars, and it has a nasty habit of being buried deep under countries which are as volatile and dangerous as a burning rig drill. It's become a cliché to say that like the horse, the internal combustion engined car will soon cease to be used as viable transport and instead become a thing of leisure and hobbying, while everyday duties are assigned to the fuel cell generation that tomorrow has promised is on the way. Tesla have even shown that zero-emission motoring can be already be entertaining, if not exactly practical.

For people lucky enough to currently own a playful car, it would appear the days of playtime are numbered. And for those who, like me, aspire to a driver's car just as soon as we can, we must hope they are still around in the form we know and love, and can afford, when that time eventually comes.

...let's hope