Lancer Evolution: Bubble booster

If you can keep your space while all around you others are losing theirs, then you must be driving the new Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution VII, writes ALASTAIR SLOANE.

High-Profile Australian motoring champion Peter Brock has talked about it on television. New Zealand race drivers often refer to it. So do the very best driving instructors.

It's a "safety bubble," that part of a public road you can have all to yourself.

A safety bubble, or comfort zone, is not hard to find. But it can quickly burst, especially if drivers around you want it too.

You have found your safety bubble when the car in front is about the same sensible distance away - one car length for every 10 km/h is a guide - as the car behind and you are all maintaining a constant legal speed.

If the car behind closes up, let it pass. Similarly, if the car in front slows, pass it and find another safety bubble.

It's all about not letting other drivers interfere selfishly with the space you want for yourself - you want room to brake, or take evasive action in an emergency.

Of course, there will always be drivers who think a safety bubble is doing 65 km/h on a two-lane, 100 km/h main road, with nothing in front but a stream of oncoming traffic and 35 frustrated drivers lined up behind.

A driver on an unrestricted autobahn in Germany in a modern car can find a safety bubble at 150 km/h in the middle lane, or 200 km/h in the fast lane, providing the distance between following cars is commensurate with speed.

But always the margin for error is reduced as speed increases - and the law everywhere says there is no such thing as a safety bubble beyond the speed limit.

A safety bubble is easy to find in the latest Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution VII, a four-wheel-drive, rally-bred sedan of breathtaking speed and accuracy.

But the bubble isn't easy to hang on to, if only because the car attracts so much interest from road users who want a closer look. This isn't a problem at 50 km/h in the city, but at 100 km/h on the open road the car brings out the worst in other drivers.

Mitsubishi New Zealand has already sold the 45 Evo VII models it has been allocated this year, each one costing $75,900.

It might be able to get more, depending on demand. "Just 10,000 are for supply around the world and New Zealand's allocation is limited," said John Leighton, the carmaker's managing director.

"Many of our dealers have been holding orders for the new cars for some time and some of these customers will get their vehicles in the next few days. Another shipment is due next month."

Most of the 45 already sold carry the higher GSR specification, but a limited number of RS models are destined to be converted into competition cars.

The GSRs are sold through normal dealer outlets, while the RS is handled by Ralliart New Zealand, Mitsubishi's competition dealership.

The Evo VII is so much better than its world-rally-winning predecessors. It is 100mm longer and 30mm higher than the car it replaces, the explosive but raw Evo VI.

The wheelbase is also longer by more than 100mm. The new car is heavier, too, by about 40kg. But despite its extra weight, it is quicker all round.

It is more of a road car than the Evo VI. It rides, handles, brakes and turns into and out of corners more accurately, thanks in part to its electronic active centre differential. This unit senses lateral forces and speed and aids stability. It has three settings: tarmac, gravel and snow.

A yaw control also transfers torque between the rear wheels to match driving conditions. The yaw system was used in the Evo VI but it acted independently of that car's viscous centre differential.

In the Evo VII, the new active centre differential is electronically linked to the yaw control, operating so the differential provides better traction out of corners and the yaw unit improves steering response and grip through corners. The car's straight line stability is also vastly improved.

Changes to the suspension anchorages and body frame joins, reinforcements in more than 20 other points and the use of strut tower bars have helped increase the car's overall rigidity and strength by more than 50 per cent. This improved stiffness is apparent within minutes of driving the car.

The two-litre, four-cylinder engine uses a titanium turbocharger, the bee's knees of boosters. Maximum power remains at 206kW, but torque, or pulling power, has been increased 3 per cent to 383Nm at 3500 rpm. Improvements to the engine's breathing system have also improved throttle response.

The interior is a highlight, much more refined and sophisticated than the Evo VI. Instruments are clearer, the Recaro seats are better - although more lumbar support would help - and the Momo steering wheel is one of the best around. The Evo VII is the 21st century's first bargain supercar. It's only likely rival will be the upcoming Subaru WRX Impreza STi. The Subaru will have to be sensational to beat it.