Ken and I went to the world famous Ace Cafe in London this morning to check out a local EVO meet. If you’ve ever heard the term “Cafe Racer” which refers to motorcycles from the 60’s, then maybe you know that the owners of these motorcyles used to meet at the Ace Cafe and then race up and down the street before the song on the jukebox would end. That’s pretty nuts since some of the songs back in the day were less than 2 minutes long. So that’s how they earned the name “Cafe Racer”.
Anyhow, over here in the UK, they have EVOs 1-9 which we don’t have in the US. The EVO 1-3’s engines are extremely similar to our 1st generation DSM Eclipses. I dig the EVO 6’s. Actually this morning’s meet was an EVO and FTO meet. The FTO is a front wheel drive car with a 2.0L V-6 Mivec engine that was sold in the rest of the world except for North America. I’m not too into the FTO personally, but to each, his own. The FTO crowd is a bit more Fast & the Furious if you know what I’m saying (stickers, lambo doors, maybe neon, etc.). There were probably around 30-40 cars. What I noticed about this sample of UK EVO owners is that wheels, brake, and suspension are primary while horsepower is secondary, but most of the cars were close to stock. It could be that this sample of owners is just less hardcore. It’s not like we were at a track event. Only one EVO 9 had a bigger turbo and aftermarket intercooler. All the other cars had stock intercoolers and appeared to have stock turbos. There was quite a bit of sticker tuning going on as well with the Marlboro/Makinen scheme. It seems like they really worship Tommi Makinen who was a successful Mitsubishi WRC driver when Mitsubishi stood a chance of winning a WRC event. Maybe that will change with the EVO X? Na, I don’t think so. The EVO X is too big and heavy.
The UK EVO owner crowd is definitely a bit older than the USA. This is a good thing because they can afford higher end parts. There’s WAY less made in China shit which the USA kids just love to buy. Young EVO owners: stop being cheap bastards and buy quality shit. You’ll be rewarded in the long run.
Here’s a Makinen EVO 6 (or maybe 6.5?) and a cool looking bluish EVO 6.
We went inside for a cup of coffee. They have all kinds of car and bike meets here. They even have parties on certain nights (full bar action). This place is a piece of automotive/motorcycle history. It was cool just to be there and check it out. Make sure you check it out if you’re ever in London.