Mitsubishi gets a bit of a hurry-up

By Alastair Sloane

A handful of cars on the road today can, without much effort from the right foot, keep the driver's brain constantly engaged. Two such cars are the rally-bred Subaru STI Impreza and Mitsubishi Evo V. A few minutes behind the wheel of each and impulses in the old grey matter warn that, oops, careful sunshine, things could go wrong in a hurry here.

Both cars are so benign one minute and so blindingly quick, so responsive the next that speed must be measured carefully. Not only must you physically monitor your speed but mentally adjust for it as well. Just like on an autobahn in Germany when, cruising at 230km/h in a Porsche, the exit signs and off-ramps arrive very quickly indeed.

That's another story. The Impreza and Evo, both turbocharged, state-of-the-art, all-wheel-drives, are at their best ducking and driving through corners, sprinting hard on the hammer along straights. On a closed road, they are as good as it gets.

They are not bad on a public road, too, especially when you need to clear traffic to find your own patch of highway with room front and rear Ñ what driving experts call the "safety bubble." A quick blip on the throttle gets you far from the madding crowd.

A quick blip on the throttle of the latest Mitsubishi Evo VI (its full handle is the Lancer GSR Evolution VI) will get you even further away from the mainstream motorist.

Now in New Zealand, it's the vehicle that Britain's Autocar magazine said was "beyond comparison, the fastest car across country this magazine has driven, bar none."

At $64,900, it is about $5000 cheaper than its predecessor, the Evo V, and almost $30,000 cheaper than the $91,000 it costs in Britain.

Why is this? Mike Alexander, the marketing manager of Mitsubishi New Zealand says: "The difference in price is that New Zealand is now a border-less market and Britain is still on quotas, still protected. So New Zealanders are getting the benefit of the cheapest cars in the world."

The industry in New Zealand is starting to get itself sorted out after last year's assembly plant closures, he says.

"What we used to do, in order to keep the volume flowing through the plant, was try to cross-subsidise models and prices. So on some models, like the Evolutions, we would garnish a higher margin and on other others not so much.

"But now, Mitsubishi is saying that every car has to stand on its own and that it will be priced to be competitive.

"Mitsubishi's sales for the first three months of this year are up 67 per cent, the biggest increase of anybody. We are going to continue to take an aggressive stance in the market and Evolution VI pricing is part of that."

The latest Evo is the most powerful yet, developing 205kW at 6500 rpm and 375Nm of pulling power at 3000 rpm from its two-litre, four-cylinder turbocharged engine. This means a top speed of about 240 km/h and a zero to 100 km/h time of just over 4 sec. This is serious speed.

The Evo VI, likes its predecessors, uses engine, suspension, handling, braking and build technology developed for Mitsubishi's World Rally Championship cars, which have dominated events for the past three years.

The major changes over the Evo V are detailed in the panel at right. The specially built and lightweight RS Evo VI rally car offers a few more improvements, including a world-first titanium alloy turbine in the turbocharger and a double-plate clutch to offset torque loss through the gears.

Mitsubishi launched the first Lancer GSR Evolution in 1992 solely to compete in WRC events. The car was reasonably successful and was followed by the Evo II in 93, Evo III in 95, Evo IV in 96 and Evo V in 98.

The Evo V, in the hands of Finland's Tommy Makinen, won seven of the 13 WRC events last year, bringing with it manufacturing honours for Mitsubishi for the first time. Makinen also became the first driver to win the championship three years in a row.

The Evo VI will be the last of the line. Mitsubishi is to build an all-new WRC car next year.

Major changes in Mitsubishi Evo VI include:

* Offsetting the licence plate on the front bumper and adding an oil-cooler ventilator and air ducting to improve engine cooling and the vehicle's dynamics. Cooling has also been improved by adding channels to the pistons.

* Twin adjustable rear spoilers that conform to 1999 WRC regulations and allow the Evo VI to generate the same downforce as the Evo V.

* A classier interior, with black and blue upholstery for the Recaro seats and leather-wrapped steering wheel and gearshift.

* Clearer instrumentation through blue dial faces.

* A new range of colours and new 17-inch alloy wheels which run 225/45ZR17 tyres.

* Improved cornering stability by lowering the roll centre of the front suspension; using aluminium alloy arms and lengthening the rebound stroke of the rear suspension; and optimising strut damping and stabiliser characteristics.

* A larger diameter air-intake hose and turbocharger air-intake port to improve power output and response.

* The Brembo brakes use more rigid callipers in the four-pot system in the front and two-pot unit in the rear.