Quick Facts Mitsubishi Ralliart Lancer

Words Peter Louisson Photos Tom Gasnier
Mitsubishi has had no equivalent to
Subaru’s WRX for too many years.
Now it returns with a GSR for the
new millennium. And it’s scarily good
Wild child
December 2008 NZ Autocar 57
Quick Facts Mitsubishi Ralliart Lancer Price $49,990 0-100km/h 5.79s Max Power 180kW L/100km 10.0
For the best pa rt of a decade, there has been
a yawning gap between the least and most
expensive Mitsubishi Lancers. At one end of the
spectrum was a compact sub-$30K hatch, and
at the other end a hard-running, technologically
advanced, thinly disguised rallycar, in the form of
the $65K Lancer Evolution.
Back in 1998, you could buy a 150kW GSR
Lancer with a turbocharged 1.8 litre engine. This
became a hot favourite second-hand car with
the joy-racers, who’d replace the exhaust with a
downpipe, lower the body, and drive it around
in shades, and with the baseball cap askew.
Meantime, Subaru has, for years, been offering a
hot compact hatch and sedan in its WRX, which
has suited the needs of those wanting decent
performance and smash-and-grab handling,
without going to the all-out expense of the Evorivalling
STi. Mitsubishi has thankfully come to
its senses with the launch of the Ralliart Lancer,
essentially an Evo-lite, just like the WRX is to the
STi. There’s less performance, sure, but only twothirds
of the price. The threat of the Ralliart has
forced Subaru to respond in feet-first fashion,
announcing it is raising power and torque of the
WRX to around the levels of its rival.
And a real threat the Mitsi is too, offering not
only a five-star ANCAP rating – which it thoroughly
deserves on its active safety spec alone – but also
a version of its terrific double-clutch transmission
dubbed ‘TC-SST’ (short for twin-clutch sport-shift
transmission). This first hit town when the Evo X
landed here less than a year ago. Even without the
Supersport mode that the Evo has, this doubleclutch
gearbox is still a revelation in the Ralliart,
and will be a bit of a concern to Subaru importers
locally, who have no auto on offer. They may take
solace in the fact that the Ralliart isn’t available
with a manual transmission! But really, as we’ve
noted in the past, the double-clutch gearboxes