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Is this a real Evo? The VIN seems strange.

9K views 24 replies 13 participants last post by  gunzo 
#1 · (Edited)
Hi,

I live in Thailand and I am about to buy a Japanese imported Evo 8 MR. According to the owner the year is 2003.

I'm doing a check up in some stuff and a few things I noticed:

- there are a lot of things in Japanese, especially near the screen
- the speedometer only goes to 180km/h, the owner told me the car was originally limited (Japanese rule at the time) and he has installed a bypass
- the dashboard center part doesn't look like the images I googled for EVO 8 MR. It has a screen that it's not in any EVO.
- when searching the VIN number I'm getting some strange results

The VIN for this car is MMTSRCS3D2F000718 - it does not look like an EVO VIN, but could it be some Thai import thing in order to comply with the local format?
There is another number which I believe could be related to the engine and it says 4G63GB9379




The gauges look exactly like these:



 
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#11 ·
I believe I'm closer to finding the truth here:

In order to bypass the exorbitant Thai taxes on high power vehicles, I believe the VIN plate was replaced by one from a regular Lancer, this is why the code doesn't relate to any EVO.

The owner told me he is sure it's an EVO 8 MR, told me that only the MR has the yellow billstein shocks (see photo below).

He couldn't explain why it has an EVO 7 interior and engine. Could this really be an EVO8 MR with a replaced dashboard and engine?

He couldn't find the original VIN anywhere on the car

 
#16 ·
I believe I'm closer to finding the truth here:

In order to bypass the exorbitant Thai taxes on high power vehicles, I believe the VIN plate was replaced by one from a regular Lancer, this is why the code doesn't relate to any EVO.

The owner told me he is sure it's an EVO 8 MR, told me that only the MR has the yellow billstein shocks (see photo below).

He couldn't explain why it has an EVO 7 interior and engine. Could this really be an EVO8 MR with a replaced dashboard and engine?

He couldn't find the original VIN anywhere on the car
Far more likely to be a 7 with later Bilsteins fitted, as they are a straight fit

Stu
 
#19 ·
Someone told me that in this part of World, you can't import EVos

so you need to take a "basic shell" (lancer 1,3L for exemple) with papers, modify it with the Evo parts , and regularize the papers

it's the only way to ride an Evo legally in Thailand i think

but it need a huge amount of work (basic shell need to be highly modified for transmission tunnel, rear diff mounting bracket,....)

see here
https://www.lancerregister.com/showthread.php?t=540193&page=2

for a GLX Lancer transformed in Evo 5, and the guy give some explanations in page 2

Best regards
Bastien
 
#20 · (Edited)
The owner told me that it became impossible to import after a certain year. Before that it was possible with some difficult paperwork.

He says that his EVO is genuine and believes that Lancer 1300 plate was only put there to bypass the high import tax.

Assuming the worst (a Lancer 1300 modded to become an EVO 7), do you guys recommend this car or not? It has around 86000km, he said clutch and dampers were recently replaced. It has some rusty areas around the engine and the tax/insurance prices are ok for me.

My main concern is buying it and having to spend lots of time and money replacing engine/transmission/suspension parts. There are some minor items that already need repair: passenger window doesn't open, windshield driver side washer doesn't let water through etc.

I won't drive it too much (let's say 3000km per year) and if I could maintain this car spending less than 3000usd/year then it would be attractive. What do you guys think?
 
#21 ·
Can you get the car up in the air on a lift? To inspect the underneath.
It should be fairly easy to see if it's a 1.3 shell thats been heavily modified or not.

It's most likely they've just switched the VIN plates over, because you could do that in half an hour.
Going to the effort of modifying a 1.3 into an Evo would take weeks of hard work.
 
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