Thats because you live out in the sticks with nice roads all to yourself and not a car or person in sight lol- syd metro area as we all know is a different ball game altogether-thats where the evo is better, and yes my car would be laggier than your 33- remember no E85 m8..but not by too much, its definitely a fair bit torquey punting around in low rpms than the evo.. I redlined that evo 1st to third and gave it a bit in 4th, there wasnt too much hard cornering cos of the area n traffic, but the point n shoot was tested well enough, I was disappointed cos it felt a fair bit more composed n mild than I expected-I like brutal acceleration, but yeh cant expect this from an almost stock evo even with awd and short gearing. And more refined? Nah! The 34 is much better, and this can be subjective- the evo felt just like a nice new lancer/ corolla interior wise, the momo wheel n recaros are nice though. But the exhaust note is terrible-sure everyone would agree- then again its a different car compared to a skyline and I would still get one as my next car when the times right. Or even a rz Supra