Zero: While mitsu is a hard ass about the warranty, they don't do that (one of the members in the car club works on Mitsu's all the time, has also worked for a few Mitsu dealers in the service department).
lo bux: I'd consider this... there are a decent amount of owners in the auburn car club that own WRX's, STI's, and EVO 8's. Yet every single WRX or STI owner that takes a ride in the EVO 8 wishes they had bought it instead. Just a little food for thought...
Oh and those that hadn't modded the EVO 8 immediately do so after their first encounter with Mitsubishi about the warranty. Simply so they don't have to go through that bullcrap ever again. Hell, VR-4's had a federal recall on their transfer casing(and in the fine print federal recalls are covered by warranty, no matter how many miles you have etc) and Mitsu is STILL giving them a hard time about replacing or servicing them.
I can PM you a friends e-mail address that has done a decent amount of work on his EVO. So far he's dynoflashed w/ a "Fireball 2", Vishnu Xede w/ his own custom-tuned maps, B&B 3" turboback w/ test pipe... and when he took it to the drag strip he did a
[email protected] on pump (that was also with him taking it easy off the line... no launch whatsoever and he didn't really get on it until 2nd gear).