We need a flagship car that gets some press and TV attention.

Americans still hardly know what these cars are. Evident from the threads full of the public's ignorance when asking people about their cars and thinking it's an STI.

The STI is clearly marketed better. Sure the Evo sells without marketing but it really needs some.

A nice video of a show-room delivered car destroying fast cars and holding corners would do wonders for showing people.

The general public who doesn't mod cars will never take a modded car seriously. They write off a non-factory car with mods no matter how fast. We need something from the show room to compare against.

A way to prove performance by showing what the platform can do with just more horsepower. The Evo with less power still matches times of cars with way more power by using handling and traction. We need to show people what happens when that platform is no longer down on power with a high HP Halo car.

 

What exactly goes into the car to give it the power? Can't you just follow the same route and have a equally as reliable/powerful car without the bodywork?

 

The biggest benefit is the stronger engine internals it receives while still keeping a short factory warranty.

You can easily mod your own car to 400hp, but when you say it does 0-60 in under 4 seconds and keeps up with a Lamborghini around a track no one will believe you since your car is a one-off and there's no way to measure it officially.

Without an FQ400 and top gear no one would ever believe a 289hp Evo could compete with supercars when boosted to 400hp. Now people making 400hp can point naysayers to the top gear video and build street credibility among non-believers.

For us the car is credible because we've experienced it. Other people want to see stats on paper. With no high hp factory car, we have no way to prove our claims about how well the car scales with it's awesome suspension and AWD.