Clearly our first Driveway Heroes piece struck a chord. It certainly did with Mian Muhammad Fayyaz who was among the first of the crankandpiston massive to respond with a snap of his beloved Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution X. Suitably impressed and armed with a Canon 5D MkII, we ventured out to meet both man and machine for a chat and a cheeky Red Bull.

“I drive it everyday to work”, confirms Fayyaz. “In fact I’m driving it day and night! I just love it!”

Few could blame Fayyaz’s enthusiasm. The tenth installment of Mitsubishi’s iconic Evolution line-up first appeared on the scene in 2005 –albeit as ‘Concept X’ – and had a tough task ahead succeeding its Evo predecessors in the hearts of automotive aficionados when it finally hit the scene two years later. A limited budget meant Fayyaz would have to wait until 2009 before buying his very own though.

“I was always interested in the Evo. My family’s here – my older brothers – and they all have big SUVs, but I never fancied that. Back in summer 2009 I was looking at buying a [Subaru] Impreza. I kept thinking ‘I really want a car with a manual gearbox’, and kept thinking about things I wanted to do before I turned 30! I also wanted something with a turbo. Then I stumbled across this. I didn’t even negotiate on the price. I took a test drive and just thought, ‘I’m buying this car!’”

Three years down the line and his enthusiasm is still intact, a big reason for this being the performance. Among the finer points of the Evo X (unmodified, by the by) we have a turbocharged 2.0l four-cylinder engine under the bonnet, Brembo brakes, Super-All Wheel Control with three drive modes, and (hello!) a five-speed manual. This particular model is a 300hp FQ300, a name which – given the performance to hand – seems quite appropriate.