Happy 20th birthday, Mitsubishi Evo. Well, happy really specific 20th anniversary, Mitsubishi Evo. On 11 July 2000, the first rally-rep Lancer saloon to be officially imported into the UK landed on ourshores.

Until that point wed had plenty of grey imports of the first five generations of Lancer Evolution, but it wasnt until the Evo VI arrived at the start of the new millenium that Mitsubishi sold one of the all-time greats in its own showrooms. British cars got better rust protection, a speedometer in MPH, a UK-specific owners manual and proper dealer support over cheaper, unofficially procuredcars.

If that sounds like an extremely tenuous reason to run a load of pics of an Evo VI Tommi Makinen Edition, you might be right. But do you care? Ogle the pics and try and tell us youcare

The first officially imported car was indeed a rednwhite Tommi, too. The car stuck around for four more generations, its power source never changing from a 2.0-litre turbo, but its output swelling from the 276bhp of the Evo VI to beyond 400bhp in later EvoXs.

In 15 years, Mitsubishi UK sold 5,728 Lancer Evolutions. When you consider Ford sells that many Fiestas in Britain most months, itd be easy to conclude the Evos beyond niche. But would we have circa-400bhp AWD hot hatches like the Focus RS, Audi RS3 and Mercedes A45 without its existence on UK price lists, and its ensuing transformation of what form accessible performance was served up in? Wed debate not. So three cheers for the Evo, however many caveats this particular birthday celebration comeswith

Images: MarkRiccioni

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It's the Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution's birthday* - Top Gear