It's as wild as a Samurai on speed. When the security guard hands you the keys with a look of caring concern and tells you to mind your licence, you just know you're about to be introduced to the untamed animal that will rip that crumbled pink piece of paper from your back pocket and chew it to shreds.
No matter how many sports cars you've driven, no matter how many times you've bombed down the autobahn without blinking an eye, as you stand shoulder-to-spoiler with the enormous rear fin that looks like it fell off a commercial jet, a certain quiver comes to the knees. Could this car lead you to your maker?
It's the "Arnie Schwarzenegger" of the back roads: muscular, tough and with a menacing attitude. It's also got silver screen credentials of an action movie, featuring in Fast and Furious II, 'whopping ass' against big grunt America V8s. In fact it bears another similarity to Arnie in that its also a vote winner Stateside: it was voted Automobile magazine's 2004 car of the year.
In town it growls at traffic and has all the inviting looks of a sword-wielding samurai. Subtlety doesn't enter the equation: it's as brash and bold as a footballer's wife and just as temperamental. But you just know that for all the in-your-face attitude, behind closed doors it can be quite tame.
For all its frightening connotations, it's an incredibly smooth ride. You may chortle, but an Evo VIII can as comfortably bring the family to do the weekly shopping at Superquinn as it can hurtle headlong down a stage of the Cavan Stone Throwers Rally. That's something that could not be said of its unforgiving predecessors and perhaps what makes the latest version so impressive.
Of course the sensible shoes brigade will tut-tut whenever they see you coming. But you'll not give a jot, cocooned in your Recaro racing seats and gripping hard on the Momo steering wheel.
The buttons and controls are very basic Mitsubishi fare, and on one dial on the dash the Lancer name features, a cursory reminder that this car has a distinctly more base-level cousin. Back seat legroom is big enough for adults and there's a full-size boot. What more could you want. That's the utilitarian dross out of the way. Now to the fun.
In the golden era of rallying, all it took was a set of spotlights and some fancy stickers to turn the average repmobile into a racy model. Now it's all about gadgets.
There's a level of racing gadgetry in this latest Evo that will let you hold sway at any rally convention.
Just take look down at the central console. There you find a small rocker button that initially seems to have something to do with the windscreen washers.
However, a quick perusal of the handbook unearths its purpose: it's the water spray for the intercooler. Without going into an explanation of how turbos work, suffice to say they pump cool air into the engine.
So, the logic goes, if you cool the intercooler, you'll get more arctic air for the engine. The result: more power. It's like a childhood dream, a button to make you go even faster.
Then there's the Active Centre Differential. No, you don't need to know about that either, for there's another dash mounted button that can be pressed while driving and as it's depressed a signal light in the centre of the rev counter moves to one of three settings: tarmac; gravel; snowy. Depending on the conditions it adjusts the power to the wheels, all part of the four-wheel-drive system.
These two buttons and all the fancy gadgets clearly demonstrate this car was designed by elite engineers with an advanced knowledge of racing, but the unbridled enthusiasm of an 11-year-old boy.
But for all the gadgets, the real fun of the Evo is behind the wheel. Its acceleration is breathtaking, its steering rifle sharp. In fact it's so pinpoint accurate you could probably pick the very blade of grass you want to brush against as you round the bend.
Powered by the legendary 2-litre turbocharged four-cylinder motor that has taken it to countless rally wins around the world, the latest Evo manages 0-62 mph in a conservative 6.1 seconds. But the most fun comes when the whirl of the turbo kicks in. It's an intoxicating sound.
Of course, all those horses under the bonnet need to let off steam, and to witness the race-horse credentials of this car, pull up at traffic lights after a quick run through the country. Like a sweaty stallion steaming after a long race, hot air rises through the bonnet vents, hazing the view in front.
So to price, and this is where we really had to check twice to make sure we heard right: €49,995. That's within the price bracket of a mid-range BMW 3-series and cheaper than half-a-dozen Audi A4s. It's only €800 more than the 2.5-litre diesel Skoda Superb.
Although more expensive than the 2-litre Subaru Impreza AWD WRX, in terms of performance it's more in line with the STi model range, which is over €7,000 more expensive than the Evo. For a keen young motorist who desires these type of motors, that the equivalent of a year's insurance.
And for those who tire of the VIII, there's now even better out there. Mitsubishi World Rally Team have created tuned up production versions under the Evo MR lettering, targeted directly at the Subura Impreza STis.
The MR range comprises the FQ-300 - with power boosted to 300 bhp and a 0-62 mph time given as 5.3 seconds - and the top-of-the-range FQ-340.
Mitsubishi Ireland says it has no plan to introduce the higher-powered variants to the Irish market. But then again, if the customers call . . .